Family Cleaning Raffle

I know we live in a world where "Pardon the Mess, We're Making Memories Here" is the current mantra, but our family doesn't live by those same principles. We do live in our house, we do homeschool in our house, we do make memories in our house; but we clean up after ourselves too. Our house is way too small with a whole bunch of people living in it, letting it stay filthy and unorganized just isn't an option. Further more, I just believe, we as a family, are way more productive and healthier when our house is clean and organized. 

I have shared much of our cleaning and organizing routines in previous posts, but today I'd like to share a fun way we do a 'crash deep cleaning' around the holidays. My preferred way to keep our house cleaned and organized is to schedule 'deep cleaning' tasks weekly, throughout the year. This way we're constantly cleaning or organizing something in small spurts as opposed to a non-stop week or month of intense cleaning. 

But hey, sometimes we all get behind and there's 'not-your-every-day cleaning' that needs to be done. A couple times a year I typically find myself in these straights ~ which is why I created a Family Cleaning Raffle. A family cleaning raffle is a fun way to get everyone involved in a swift deep cleaning and organization of your home. 

Cleaning and organizing has always been a family affair for us, so thankfully a cleaning raffle isn't something my kiddos snub their noses at; but I can understand if some children may not be on board as much. To help spur my children on to finished their cleaning raffle jobs I often include a family reward for everyone once all the jobs have been completed. For this year's holiday cleaning raffle reward we had a family movie night with hot cocoa.

To do our cleaning raffle, I make a list of all the cleaning and organizing jobs that need to be done and I write them on strips of paper. I use two different colors of paper; one color for the older children and another for the younger kiddos. Everyone can work no matter the age, the jobs just need to be age appropriate. Usually the younger ones find the cleaning raffle more 'fun' than the big kids anyways, lol.

I put all the slips of paper with the tasks on them folded up inside a jar and we pass the jar around. Everyone takes a slip and then gets to work. This year we had enough jobs that the jar was passed around twice and each person had two specific jobs to complete. As the children complete their tasks, I go around and check to make sure they were done correctly. 

I also have my own 'big' jobs that I do while the kids are working on theirs. This year I scrubbed the outside of all our kitchen cabinets and oiled them as well as scrubbed our interior doors. This year I was blessed with my husband being at home and he helped in multiple different areas, cleaning and organizing. It's always nice to have an extra adult available.

Thankfully, we've raised our children up from a very young age to help with cleaning and they don't give me grief when it comes time for deep cleaning or any cleaning for that matter. We have a lot of family sayings, but one most frequently used is: "It takes a family to run a family and family's name is NOT Mom and Dad". This reigns true for all areas of our life including cleaning and organizing. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Christmas Toy Purge

In our family we a have a rule (well, we have plenty of rules, really, lol) but the one I'm talking about today is especially in regards to Christmas. The rule is: No new toys until we get rid of some of the old toys. 

We aren't a family who is overrun with toys by any stretch of the imagination, but we aren't anti toys either. Toys serve their purpose in my opinion. As long as we can keep the toys contained and our children are playing with them; then I have no problem keeping them in our home.

We are not in the habit of buying toys for our children except for at Christmas and their birthdays. Even though we are about to have ten children, only about half of them are really into 'playing with toys' anyways ~ which helps keep the toys to a minimum. 

With Christmas only a few short weeks away, this past Saturday was set aside especially for our bi-yearly toy purge (we do one in the Spring time too). I always do my best to include the children in the toy purge, but I have the ultimate say in what stays and goes. I feel it's important that they should have a say in the whole process, understand that we aren't hoarders, and contribute to the 'keeping of our home'. After all we only have so much space for a family of twelve.

Toy Purge Guidelines

~ Anything broken or excessively dirty

~ Anything missing pieces

~ Anything not regularly played with

~ At least one stuffed animal per child 

~Toy collection must not exceed designated locations

When it comes time for our toy purge the first items to hit the trash bin is anything broken. Broken toys do not typically play well and in my opinion are meant for the trash anyways. I try to keep a look-out for broken toys throughout the year and dispose of them immediately, but sometimes toys slip through my eagle mom eye, lol

Next, I get rid of toys which are overly dirty. We try our best to keep inside toys inside, and outside toys outside, but sometimes inside toys get taken outside and then brought back inside. If that happens, then the toy has likely been dirtied up real good by my rough and tough little boys making it not fit to mingle in the 'clean toy bucket'. It's hard enough keeping our house clean without bringing and keeping dirty toys in the house.

Also, items that are missing pieces must be thrown away. This would most easily be associated with games, but could pertain to a myriad of different toys too. If the toy can't properly be played with then there's no sense in keeping it.

Toys which I notice that have been pushed to the side and rarely played with, are placed in the donate pile. Sometimes the children receive gifts that they just don't like and if it isn't getting played with after at least six months, then it has to go.

Okay here's one that I'm often met with resistance on: the donation of one stuffed animal per child. Y'all stuffed animals can QUICKLY take over your house!! Where do they come from?? Oh.my.word. Enough said there, it just has to be. If I'm the bad mom on this one, so be it!

Now for the last guideline, and the ultimate end all be all of the toy purge. I have designated areas for toys in our house. We do not have a toy room, but we do have special places for toys to reside. Once those areas are filled, then it's time to reevaluate the toys we own and get rid of some of them. If the children can't decide which ones are to go and how to keep the toys contained, then I come in and handle it for them. I'm a stickler that everything should have a place inside our house and that includes the toys as well.

Thankfully this year's Christmas toy purge went off without a hitch, and there was no fussing as to what we purged and what we kept. Now, we are three giant trash bags lighter on the toy front, the toy bins have been scrubbed clean, and all the toys are in their appropriate locations. It feels so good to have this cleaning/organizing project completed. Not to mention it looks so much better in our house now that we've taken care of that little (major) task!

I'm sure my children would all agree since the Christmas Toy Purge is finished, that they are officially ready for Christmas and to receive any new toys that might happen to be on their wish lists!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer