Now that you’ve had some time to catch up on your Netflix binging and you’ve walked every nature path and sidewalk route in your neighborhood, what’s next for passing the time while social distancing? If you are thinking of tackling some items on your spring home maintenance checklist, go for it! This is a great time to clean, organize, and inspect items around your home that you may procrastinate on when you have less time on your hands. But if you are specifically looking for a way to get the kids who are home from school and extracurricular activities involved, there are a lot of small chores for kids to do to give you a helping hand.
Here are our suggestions for what projects to tackle now as a family!
- Tighten Screws – Check the cabinet and drawer knobs all around your house, and tighten screws where needed. This is a great way to teach little hands how to properly hold and turn a screwdriver, and it helps you avoid the annoying knob falling off later.
- Check and Change Smoke Detector Batteries – Walk around the house checking all of your smoke detectors and change batteries as needed. The kids may only be able to assist with handing you the batteries while you are on a ladder, but this is also a good time to review fire safety plans.
- Replace Toy Batteries – After you finish with the smoke detector maintenance, visit the playroom and each child’s toy closet or toy box. Check all toys and replace batteries as needed. Most of us have several toys we’ve been avoiding doing this for, and once the batteries are replaced, your kids will have “new” toys to occupy their time during quarantine.
- Clean Gutters/Trim Trees – How can kids help with these projects? You certainly don’t want to send them up the ladders. Instead, leave them on the ground to rake up any leaves and branches you toss down as you clean.
- Clean Baseboards – Admit it – we sometimes overlook this back-breaking task because its not so easy to get down on the floor and into the corners. Kids make excellent helpers for this, and can often do an even better job at it than an adult simply because they can easily get to the hard to reach areas.
Working together, you can knock out some of these items quickly and easily, and everyone will appreciate having something else to do during the long days staying home. Now don’t forget the ice cream reward for a job well done!