Purposeful Parent Tip:  Involve your children in your spring cleaning
projects.

This week in my house has been dubbed: The 2012 Spring Cleaning Project. Every year, I go from room to room, making a list of the tasks that need to be done to clean, purge, donate, or re-arrange. I’ve had three tag sales in the last several years and each time I vow never to have another.

You may be thinking after three large tag sales that I have a hoarding problem. Actually I’m the exact opposite. I have a clutter problem. I have a pretty high tolerance for dust bunnies, but if they are wrapped around useless items, my eyelids start to twitch and my kids see those two little words begin to form on my lips…’tag sale’.

Last year, I involved my two children as we cleared their rooms of old toys, books, clothes, and other paraphernalia. I instructed them to get rid of anything they didn’t absolutely love.  We bagged up clothes and sent them off to Goodwill. We boxed up old toys and games and priced them to sell. I told them that any monies we got from the sale of their items were theirs to spend as they wanted. Wow – talk about a major
purging!

My son, who has always been motivated by money, emptied his room like a mad man. My daughter, more contemplative in her choices, took a bit longer. At the end of the day, both had an impressive stash and were overjoyed at how much better their rooms looked and felt. Each vowed to keep them this way. (We’ll see!)

On the day of the tag sale, we put everything out on tables, chairs, anything we could find to position the items so they would sell quickly. People came from near and far to snatch up WWE figurines, board games, DVDs, and old sports equipment. The kids cleaned up. Between the two of them, they netted almost $150. I was jealous! My treasures were only worth about $50! At the end of the sale, we sifted through the remaining items to see if they’d changed their minds and wanted to keep anything.

As you can imagine, my son was quick to say goodbye to the leftovers.  A few small items of my daughter’s made their way back into the house. The rest was picked up by Big Brothers/Big Sisters and off to a good home where it would be needed more.

My kids learned valuable lessons over the course of this project. They learned that they really didn’t need as much as they thought. They honed their math skills with the changing of monies. But the most important lesson is that they saw that their hard work to clean out their rooms resulted in a sizeable payout.

Kids can be involved in your spring cleaning projects at any age. Even toddlers can help wipe off tables or organize toys in bins. They will love the sense of accomplishment and of course, that they are helping mommy! Plan ahead so you can develop age-appropriate tasks for your children. As they get older, give them more responsibility.

Before you know it, they’ll be in charge of the spring cleaning and you can sit back and relax!