Photo: Cielo de la Paz/Flickr

Growing up, spring cleaning is something I remember my mom doing each year. Mind you, my mom always kept a clean house and that I can remember, nothing was ever out of place. But, when spring came around, she broke out the extra cleaning duties that weren’t in her normal cleaning routine. This is when she removed the cushions from the couch to wash the covers, put mattresses out in the sun, cleaned the window screens, and went into every corner of the house to be sure not a speck of dust stayed behind.

I don’t know how many of you partake in true spring cleaning rituals each year, but it’s not something I really do. We clean regularly, but don’t have specific “spring cleaning” duties we do around this time of the year. I realize many of you are preparing to get through your spring cleaning list soon, and may be wondering how to get everything done with the kids around. Whether on the weekend or during the week, if your kids are around while you’re trying to clean, you know sometimes they do more harm than good. It seems like they always find a way to keep you from making progress and get the cleaning done, doesn’t it?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re going down your spring cleaning checklist or just doing regular cleaning at any other time of the year, it helps to know how your kids can help with the cleaning. Here are some ideas I’ve previously shared.

Tips for Spring Cleaning with Young Children

• Chores for Preschoolers: Kid-Friendly List of Chores Your Child Can Do
• How Preschoolers Can Help With Laundry
• Clean Up Game for Young Children

Amazingly, kids can have a lot of fun with cleaning if you make it a game. I know my girl is eager to help us clean and loves being challenged to complete her tasks in a specific time period, in a certain way, or just having fun with her chores. Sometimes, you don’t even have to create a game out of it; kids just want to be involved. I find that simply including my girl in a task pleases her. This means that we can just have a conversation as we do our chores and she’s glad to help because it means we’re spending time together.

What are some ways you make spring cleaning fun in your house?

Disclosure: This story is sponsored by Hallmark through their Life is a Special Occasion campaign. As always, all stories and opinions are my own. To receive special offers and discounts from Hallmark, sign up for their e-newsletter!

This is a sponsored post.

This is the last in a series of posts regarding the new Dyson DC35 Digital Slim vacuum. In my previous posts, I shared information about the features of the Dyson Digital Slim, and a behind the scenes look into the Dyson labs to see how Dyson creates some of their vacuums. This time, we were challenged to use the Dyson DC35 in as many different ways as we could think of.

Since you can use the Dyson Digital Slim as either a handheld vacuum or as an upright, you can easily use it to “sweep” the kitchen, pick up quick messes, and vacuum an entire room (or a couple). It’s also good for vacuuming against edges, such as under the kitchen cabinets and against baseboards. Another use is for reaching up high, such as for blinds, since it has a long wand that attaches to the handheld portion. But, something that came in real handy for us was the ability to use it to clean up messes in the car. Because it’s cordless and relatively small, it works good for cleaning up the crumbs, dirt, and miscellaneous things the floor of the car collects from going in and out.

We’re currently keeping the battery for the Dyson DC35 charged at all times so that we can have it readily available to use around the house or in the car. With baby boy having learned how to roll successfully both ways, he’s now a boy on the move around our family room floor. The Dyson is perfect for keeping the floor clean and quickly tidying it up before putting him down to have fun.

What areas in your house do you think the Dyson Digital Slim would help you with the most?

Disclosure:  As a member of the Walmart Moms program, I was compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

This is a sponsored post.

My family and I have been trying out the new Dyson DC35 Digital Slim vacuum for a few weeks. I can honestly say that there are some things we love about it and at least one thing we think could be improved upon. I’ll get into the details in a bit.

First, I’d like to share with you the video above from a Dyson design engineer, which takes you behind the scenes at the Dyson labs to learn more about all that goes into a Dyson machine, including the Dyson DC35 vacuum. I like that they put a lot of thought into the development of their vacuums and was amazed to learn that they grow their own dust mites in order to test their products! Watch and learn more.

When the Dyson Digital Slim was provided to us for review, we were told that it is the most powerful cordless vacuum, and that the detachable wand it comes with makes it easy to transition to a handheld vacuum. That part is definitely true. You can very easily use it as a handheld vacuum or use it as an upright when you attach the wand; switching from one to the other is effortless.

One of the things we think makes this vacuum a bit hard to work with is the fact that you have to press a trigger-like button in order to use it. That is, there is no standard on-off switch that you can use to power the vacuum for the length of time that you need it. Because it relies on you to press the trigger, after using the Digital Slim for more than 10 minutes, your hand is tired and hurting. Even my husband, who’s stronger than I am, had the same issue and his wrist began to hurt.

Other than that, we definitely do like the ease of use it provides, the flexibility of going from handheld to upright, and the swivel motion, which allows you to get into odd corners and under furniture more easily. It is great for a quick clean and especially useful for the kitchen area that often gets dirty. It sure beats having to sweep every night and gets the kitchen floor clean a lot faster than a broom!

Here are some more details of the Dyson Digital Slim, as provided to us:

• Powered by the Dyson digital motor, the vacuum has anti-static carbon fiber brushes to remove fine dust particles from hard floors.
• Dyson’s patented Root Cyclone™ technology – condensed to fit into the machine – spins dust and dirt out of the air using centrifugal force, so there’s no loss of suction.
• A dual power mode allows up to 15 minutes of constant suction. For stubborn dirt, a button can trigger 6 minutes of higher suction.
• A 26 inch, lightweight aluminum wand attaches directly to the machine to convert it from a handheld to a slim vacuum cleaner.

Do you think you would find the ability to switch from a handheld vacuum to an upright useful?

Disclosure:  As a member of the Walmart Moms program, I was compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

This is a sponsored post.

We all struggle with cleaning, especially with finding time to balance our housework, family, work and other life responsibilities. So, of course, anything that helps make any of these things easier is much appreciated, isn’t it? It seems as busy parents, we are always seeking tools to help us accomplish our daily tasks. It’s a good thing many brands like Dyson develop such tools.

In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more with you about the new Dyson DC35 Digital Slim vacuum that was provided to us for review. For now, you can watch the video above from a Dyson design engineer, which shows some of the features of the Dyson DC35 vacuum. Then, tell us, how do you think this vacuum could make cleaning a little easier for you?

Disclosure:  As a member of the Walmart Moms program, I was compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

This post is part of a paid campaign.

Do you remember how old you were when your mother began teaching you how to clean? Or did she? I can’t really remember exactly how old I was when I began to learn. I do, however, have memories of being 8 or 9 years old and coming home after school to a list of chores that included tasks such as sweeping, vacuuming, and cleaning the bathroom.

It used to irk me to no end that I was expected to help with such chores, while my 16 year old brother was not. By that age we were no longer living in Puerto Rico, and being influenced by my new peers and their way of thinking, I would sometimes question why I had to clean and he did not. “Porque tú tienes que aprender como limpiar y cocinar para que cuando tengas tu propia casa y marido sepas mantenerla.” (Because you need to learn how to clean and cook so that when you have your own home and husband, you’ll know how to maintain it.) That was the answer I would receive from my mother and yes, I am very much aware how antiquated it was. Even then, it seemed odd to me.

Yet, for all the complaining I did and the old-fashioned thinking my mom had at the time, I now find myself saying things like, “I’m glad my mom taught me how to properly clean and cook.” The husband appreciates it too and will often boast to his friends and family when they compare notes on “the wives.”

So, it seems, that learning cleaning rituals and tips from your mother, is a big part of many Latinas’ childhood, as is true for me. So much so, that a recent study conducted by Garcia Research, found that “93% of Latinas helped their mothers clean as a child with sweeping, mopping and washing dishes.” That’s a lot of little girls complaining about chores, much like I did.

But, even more interesting were some other findings of this study that resonated with me. It’s almost as if they came to my house and observed my own cleaning habits.

• More than half of Latinas prefer certain elements of old-fashioned cleaning, such as washing dishes by hand instead of dishwasher (83 percent), mopping the floors with a regular mop or by hand (73 percent). Most preferred this old fashioned approach because it’s what they are used to and plus it was “a better clean.”

Yes! I almost always wash dishes by hand. It’s only been in the past few months that we’ve begun to use the dishwasher more. My mother doesn’t even use hers at all and uses it instead for storage. I’m not sure what the other 27% of people are doing for their floors if they’re not mopping with a regular mop. I always tell my husband, “This is how my mom taught me. It’s the only way I know how to do it and it works!” So, yeah. It seems the majority of Latinas are in agreement with me regarding cleaning rituals we learned from our mamis.

• Music is an integral part of the cleaning routine with Spanish pop being the favorite playlist among 53 percent.
  

Ok, this one is a little different for me. While music is a big part of my cleaning routine – I always blast the radio to get me going while I clean – I don’t listen to Spanish pop. Well, I guess it actually depends on what this study considers to be Spanish pop. I tend to listen to more upbeat music, including merengue, salsa, and English dance music, in order to keep my energy going. But, still. The fact that research confirms that most of us clean while listening to music amazes me.

It’s pretty amazing to see that so many Latinas have so much in common – even down to something as simple as cleaning. The study also found that “43% of Latinas report their significant others as helping with household cleaning – a surprising find, considering the long-standing myth that cleaning is a role predominantly performed by women.” How great is that? The myths are being debunked, even for Latino households. At first I thought that this finding was reflective of the newer generation of Latinas, such as myself. However, the participants in the study were Spanish-dominant (59%), Hispanic females between 25 to 54 years old living in the U.S.

Because the holiday season is upon us and many of us are preparing our homes for family gatherings and guests, it’s a high season for cleaning. Why not have some fun with it and join Clorox in a Holiday celebration? Clorox is currently hosting the Holiday Health Twitter Sweepstakes, where they’ll be giving away a weekly prize of a $50 American Express gift card for 5 weeks, plus a grand prize of a $100 American Express gift card at the end of the sweepstakes. To enter, just tweet how you’re helping to keep your family healthier during the holiday season, using the hashtag #cloroxfiestas. You can tweet in either English or Spanish. Official sweepstakes rules can be found both in English and Spanish. Good luck if you enter!

What cleaning ritual did you learn from your mom, aunt, grandmother, etc.? Will you teach the same traditions/rituals to your children?

Disclosure: This post was written in conjunction with a paid campaign on behalf of The Clorox Company, but all experiences, thoughts, and opinions are original.

It seems like everyday I hear a woman talking about struggling to balance her life. You know that I am a believer of trying to find balance, at least whatever balance means to you. But, it’s a reality that something always gives.

Some days your work may suffer, other days perhaps your me-time suffers, and I’m sure a lot of days, it’s the house that suffers. That’s why we try to come up with a cleaning schedule and attempt to clean while working from home. It’s all in an effort to juggle our many roles and get a handle on our super mom expectations.

And, believe me, I know all about those expectations. I expect that I should be able to take care of my daughter, my house, and my husband. Taking care of myself was not something I was taught early on – it wasn’t until I was older that this became of importance. As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up hearing things like, “You have to learn how to cook and clean, because when you get older and get married, you’ll need to take care of your house, husband, and children.”

Now, I try very hard not to say things like that to my daughter. I don’t want her to learn how to cook and clean so that she can take care of others. I want her to learn so she can take care of herself. Instead I tell her: “We have to clean the house because we don’t want to live in a dirty house, do we? We want to take care of our things and be proud of where we live.” Pride. Orgullo.

In a way, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Outside of cleaning because we need our space to be clean for sanitary reasons, we also clean because we want to be proud of our space. Doesn’t it make you feel so much better when you look around your house and see it’s clean and in order? The days there’s a lot of clutter around, it’s almost like my brain feels cluttered right along with it. The minute it’s clean again, I feel a sense of calm.

I think pride plays a big role in how we take care of our house. At least, I find this is true for myself and many other women I know. Somos orgullosas de nuestros hogares. We are proud of our homes.

Do you find that pride plays a role in your home? Share with me any cleaning-related stories – either from your own childhood or from your adult life.

***Want to teach your kids to help clean? Check out this list of chores for preschoolers.

This post is an entry into the Mi Hogar Mi Orgullo contest.

As a full-time working mom, it’s very hard for me to keep up with the household duties. I’ve posted before about the expectations – false no doubt – that I’ve set for myself.

Elizabeth over at Career & Kids touched on the subject recently, when a friend of hers realized there’s not enough time in the week. As she mentions, when you’re working all week, you want to use the weekend to spend time with the family. That is when I’d like to take a trip to the zoo, the park, or sometimes it’s just a matter of the “must” trips – like grocery shopping that needs to be done.

What can working moms do to manage the housework?

I’m not sure I have the answer just yet, but I AM trying something new.

I’ve set up a weekly chore schedule and broken down the housework to a little each day – there’s even a day off!

Here’s my schedule:

• Sunday: clean bathrooms
• Monday: wash laundry
• Tuesday: fold laundry
• Wednesday: sweep & mop
• Thursday: vacuum
• Friday: OFF day
• Saturday: change bed sheets

Plus, every day is de-clutter day, since this can be done simultaneously with the other chores. That means, putting away toys, clearing the day’s mail, and other small tasks. The chores scheduled on the weekend can be done quickly in the morning before heading out for the day.

To keep track of my schedule, I’ve printed out Hannah Keeley’s Total Mom Chore Chart, but any calendar will do.

I’m hoping this will help keep me on track and make things a bit more manageable. I’ve just made my list this week, so I’m only starting to put it into practice.

How do you manage your housework?

Photo by Jane Ring

Early last month, I posed the question, “Can Preschoolers Help Clean?” and provided a list of chores for preschoolers to do around the house. Many of you agreed that yes, preschoolers can indeed help clean around the house and even provided a few additional suggestions based on what your kids help with.

One of the original suggestions I had listed was to have your young child help with folding clothes. As I thought about it more, I realized that my daughter actually helps with pretty much all aspects of doing the laundry. If we involve her, she can be of help from beginning to end when it’s laundry day. In case you hadn’t thought about it, let me share the ways your young children can be of more help with this task.

Photo by FL4Y from Flickr

How your Toddler or Preschooler can Help with the Laundry

• Sort clothes – Your child can easily take the clothes out of the hamper and help you properly create the necessary piles. On our laundry day, what we do is start a few piles on our floor, tell her what each pile is for (most are recognizable by color), and have her sort her own clothes.
• Load washer – We put her step stool in front of the washing machine, bring a pile over, and have her help throw the clothes into the washer. It’s so simple, but she loves doing it.
• Load dryer – Similarly, when it’s time to change out the loads, she stands next to the dryer and pushes in the clothes as one of us takes them out of the washing machine. Sometimes, she takes the dryer sheet and throws it in too before we start up the dryer.
  • Once the clothes are dry, she also helps us take them out of the dryer and throw them on the couch.
• Fold clothes – Though the clothes may not end up folded perfectly, your preschooler can help fold his/her clothes or even some towels. Their clothes are small, so they’re perfect for little hands to fold. They may be able to hep fold other clothes, depending on the size, but generally, their own clothes work best.
• Hang up clothes – Grab a stack of hangers, and lay out a few shirts on the couch. Your preschooler can easily slide a hanger into each shirt, and make a new pile of ready to hang clothes. This also works best with their own clothes and the smaller hangers.

Now that you know how your preschooler can help out with the laundry, let’s think about why this is actually a good thing for not only them, but you as well.

Photo by Anna Maria Horner from Flickr

Why Helping with the Laundry is Good for your Preschooler

I’m sure there are many more reasons why helping with the laundry is beneficial to young children, but here is a short list of the benefits I’ve seen:

• Color recognition
• Recognizing patterns
• Categorization
• Coordination
• Feeling helpful
• Teamwork
• Teaches responsibility and pride in taking care of what we own

Photo by Ruth from Flickr

How Letting your Preschooler Help with the Laundry Helps You

Getting some help with the housework is always a good thing, right? But, particularly if you work from home or are striving to create more work-life balance in your days, then involving your young children in daily chores will help. You may think that if you just do the chores yourself, you’ll be able to get them done faster. However, how often do you find yourself interrupted when doing one task because your son or daughter wants some type of attention? Do you really get it done very fast?

Keeping them involved will allow you to have conversations with your kids while getting things done. It lessens the feeling of stress because you’re spending time with them while doing housework. They will feel like a “big helper” and you may find that it helps the overall mood in the house.

Do your kids currently help with the laundry? Do you feel it’s a learning experience for them?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Purex. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hello, hello. It is that time of the week again. Viernes! Friday! And, it’s definitely TGIF for me. I’m looking forward to having some fun family time this weekend, though I was grateful to return to a “normal” routine this past week as I had no travel.

For today’s Viernes Social, I am sharing a new video. And let me tell you…this vlogging thing is interesting. But, I’m trying. Hopefully I’ll start to feel more comfortable with it soon enough.

Anyway, this video is about the Purex 3-in-1 Laundry Sheet. As you may know, I’ve been a Purex Insider for a few months now and have been trying out the sheets on my laundry. Take a look at the video below to hear all about my experience in using the laundry sheets. And ladies, you’ll appreciate the story about my husband and the grocery shopping.

If you want to try out the sheet for yourself, you can get a free sample by visiting the Purex blog. Oh, and check out this other video from Purex; it made me laugh.

Have you used the Purex laundry sheets? Do you feel they save you time and/or money? If you haven’t tried them, maybe you can share with us your pet peeve about doing laundry.

Today I found myself home with my baby girl but also needing to clean. She didn’t go to preschool today, but I knew that I couldn’t let her being home get in the way of cleaning. This is a busy and short week for me due to the upcoming trip to Blissdom, so it is important that I stay on track.

So, I asked her to help me clean. This way we’d be doing it together and she’d feel involved. Plus, it helps her learn there are things to take care of around the house and that it’s good for all to pitch in as a family.

Obviously, young children have limitations when it comes to cleaning and helping around the house. What chores are preschool friendly, then?

1. Fold clothes: You can ask your preschooler to fold his/her clothes or even some towels. Since their clothes are so tiny anyway, they’re perfect for little hands to fold. My girl is also able to fold small towels, like kitchen towels. And, it doesn’t matter how they’re folded. I mean, really, if her shirts aren’t perfectly folded and lined up, life will go on.
2. Sweep: She may not be able to sweep the entire kitchen, but if she can sweep up a smaller area while I do something else, it helps. This works especially well if you use a swiffer, since all they have to do is push the stick up and down.
3. Clean bathroom sink: The first time I saw my daughter cleaning the sink in her classroom, I was amazed. “What are you doing?” I asked her. “Cleaning the sink! It helps my teacher.” I had no idea she knew how to do that! Now, she can run a sponge or rag around her bathroom sink while I clean the toilet.
4. Wash dishes: This started at my mom’s house. My daughter decided to ask her abuela if she could help her wash the dishes. So, my mom brought a stool by the sink, gave her a sponge and a bowl of soapy water, and said have at it. Since then, she’s done it a couple of times at our house too. Of course, we don’t give her the extra greasy or messy dishes, but she can safely wash a few cups and small plates.
5. Clean tables: My daughter’s been doing this since she was about two years old (maybe even earlier). It’s the easiest thing for her to do; she just has to swipe a paper towel over the table after I’ve sprayed it with some child-safe cleaner.

I’m sure there are many more household tasks and chores you can find that your preschooler can help with. If they’re anything like my daughter, they’ll love being able to help out. Just this morning she said that helping me clean was her “favorite thing to do in the house.” Now, mind you, her “favorite thing” to do changes from hour to hour, but still, for her to say it means she really does enjoy helping.

What chores have you found your kids can help with around the house?