Manic Monday

Welcome to Manic Monday! Aside from being a great song, Manic Monday has another meaning for our family…cleaning day! You’ve had a nice, relaxing (hopefully) weekend doing fun and frugal activities with your family. Now, it is time to get back to ‘the real world’ as I call it. My husband is back at work, and my children are back to wanting my undivided attention. All I want to do is put my house back together.

Manic Monday will be a list of activities to help occupy your children in the house while you, gasp, get something done! Sometimes the activities will take place in a certain room (that you are theoretically cleaning) or sometimes it will be fun that they can have anywhere in the house.

Manic Monday in the Kitchen:

• Organize the junk drawer. The sophisticated organization system in my junk drawer consists of snack-sized plastic storage bags. You can find coupons for Ziploc bags in newspaper coupon inserts and combine with a store sale. Put your children in charge of sorting the paperclips and safety pins into a bag. Rubber bands can go into a separate bag. You get the picture. Depending on the disarray of your junk drawer, this activity can help keep them busy for awhile.
• Stacking pantry items. For younger children, this could be great fun. Place boxes, cans, packages of different sizes, shapes and colors on the floor for your baby or toddler to stack up and knock down. I fully understand that you are required to put all items away after the fun, but I’d rather clean the kitchen in peace for the small price of putting the boxes away. If your cherub is too young to stack items themselves, simply place one in front of them, and while you continue cleaning the stove-top, describe the package, contents, how you cook the item, etc.