Post by KyMama on Jul 4, 2016 15:32:12 GMT
I was on Pinterest the other day and saw a pin for individual cleaning baskets for specific rooms, and the more I thought about it the better the idea seemed. A lot of the times I'll tell the boys to clean a room and I spend more time telling them what to do and getting the supplies for them than they actually spend cleaning. It really is a lot easier and quicker for me to do it myself, which is silly because there is not reason that they can't help. My husband will offer to clean a room but he has no idea where the cleaning supplies are so I'm hoping these baskets will help me get some help. I ended up making a basket for the kitchen, living room, main bathroom, Jake's bedroom and a combo basket for my bedroom and half bath.
My first stop was the Dollar Tree to get the baskets. While I was there I looked around to see if there were other items I needed that would be cheaper than Wal-Mart. I bought 5 mini broom and dustpans, 4 sets of 3 microfiber cloths in two different colors, the soap dispensing brush, 2 cans of furniture cleaner and 5 bottles for Windex. Windex seems to be the one thing I can never find because I left it in another room and I can't remember which room I used it last. I went to Wal-Mart and bought the big bottle of Windex and filled the spray bottles, this way everyone has it to clean windows and mirrors. The blue microfiber cloth is to be used with the Windex and the brown with the furniture polish. As you can see there are 3 different brands of furniture polish, this is because I already had the Pledge and Endust. I plan on switching them all over to Endust as they run out, but I was trying to not spend too much money at one time in case these baskets don't work out. The soap dispensing brush is going to be filled with vinegar and Dawn to clean the shower/tub. I saw the idea on another Pinterest post and figured I'd give it a try. I also added small garbage bags to the rooms that have small cans and the Swiffer dusters for rooms with blinds. Whenever I buy the refills at Sam's I get another handle so I wasn't out any money on those. The kitchen also got Soft Scrub to clean my pretty white sink. Well, it's pretty after you use the Soft Scrub on it. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought a white kitchen sink. Can you tell I really like the Clorox wipes? lol They are so easy for my 9 year old to use and I know that things are actually getting clean. I buy these at Sam's too and luckily I had enough to put one in each basket since I had just bought a new pack last week.
For the checklists I used the same items I had on my big checklist. There's a section for Daily, Weekly and Monthly chores. I'm sure they'll need to be adjusted over time, but I went ahead and laminated them so we could use dry erase markers on them. I had the key chain rings already so I just used those to hold the checklists to the basket. The good thing about them is that we can flip the cards into the basket when we aren't using them. Hopefully this will keep them from getting caught on something and ripped off.
So here's some pictures so show what's in each basket and what they look like all packed up and ready to be used. And a close up of the checklist. (I just saw that it says Clear of flat surfaces instead of off. Oh well, I'll fix it later. lol)
My first stop was the Dollar Tree to get the baskets. While I was there I looked around to see if there were other items I needed that would be cheaper than Wal-Mart. I bought 5 mini broom and dustpans, 4 sets of 3 microfiber cloths in two different colors, the soap dispensing brush, 2 cans of furniture cleaner and 5 bottles for Windex. Windex seems to be the one thing I can never find because I left it in another room and I can't remember which room I used it last. I went to Wal-Mart and bought the big bottle of Windex and filled the spray bottles, this way everyone has it to clean windows and mirrors. The blue microfiber cloth is to be used with the Windex and the brown with the furniture polish. As you can see there are 3 different brands of furniture polish, this is because I already had the Pledge and Endust. I plan on switching them all over to Endust as they run out, but I was trying to not spend too much money at one time in case these baskets don't work out. The soap dispensing brush is going to be filled with vinegar and Dawn to clean the shower/tub. I saw the idea on another Pinterest post and figured I'd give it a try. I also added small garbage bags to the rooms that have small cans and the Swiffer dusters for rooms with blinds. Whenever I buy the refills at Sam's I get another handle so I wasn't out any money on those. The kitchen also got Soft Scrub to clean my pretty white sink. Well, it's pretty after you use the Soft Scrub on it. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought a white kitchen sink. Can you tell I really like the Clorox wipes? lol They are so easy for my 9 year old to use and I know that things are actually getting clean. I buy these at Sam's too and luckily I had enough to put one in each basket since I had just bought a new pack last week.
For the checklists I used the same items I had on my big checklist. There's a section for Daily, Weekly and Monthly chores. I'm sure they'll need to be adjusted over time, but I went ahead and laminated them so we could use dry erase markers on them. I had the key chain rings already so I just used those to hold the checklists to the basket. The good thing about them is that we can flip the cards into the basket when we aren't using them. Hopefully this will keep them from getting caught on something and ripped off.
So here's some pictures so show what's in each basket and what they look like all packed up and ready to be used. And a close up of the checklist. (I just saw that it says Clear of flat surfaces instead of off. Oh well, I'll fix it later. lol)
