When your little ones start whining about having to help with the cleaning chores, the home cleaning experts at MOLLY MAID suggest you keep everything fun - with more cleaning games! It's a good lesson about the importance of cleanliness around the house, and it's fun!

Why not give these games a try?

• Shoot for the Hoops: Set up a laundry basket and ask your children to sort the socks. When they have found a pair, have them fold one into the other (to create a ball) and practice their free throws! Tally to see who gets the most in the basket.
• Dust for Coins: Hide some coins around the house and ask your children to do some dusting. When they come across a coin they can keep it once that area has been dusted.
• Fashion Show: Ask your children to walk down the catwalk and model clothes that they haven't worn in a while. After each turn, vote on which clothes stay in the wardrobe and which clothes get donated.
• Race Against Time: Name a specific task such as collecting all of the dirty clothes off the floor, and set a time limit. If kids complete the task in time, reward them with an extra 10 minutes of playtime before bed. 

Teaching children to pitch in with household chores is a significant life lesson as it demonstrates the importance of teamwork and responsibility, and it allows them to develop a sense of pride around completed tasks.

However, we all know that chores aren't the most exciting or fun thing to do. What you have to do is make cleaning a game - and why not start this long weekend? The kids will be having fun, and you'll benefit from a cleaner house!  

The cleaning experts at MOLLY MAID offer these creative ways to make cleaning fun for your children:

• Put on some fun music and invent silly games. For example, have your children clean up their toys only using their feet; or have your children clean up one section of the toy room before the song ends - and then dance with them for the rest of the song!
• Skate for dust bunnies.  Finally, here's a great use for those socks that have lost their mate!  Put on some old socks and 'skate' around the floors, picking up dust bunnies along the way. You can also have your child put a matchless sock on their hand and dust along flat surfaces and baseboards - the baseboard is the racetrack and the sock is their car. 
• Paint the dust away.  Have your children use a clean, soft paintbrush to remove dust from window frames, doors tracks, knick-knacks, computer keyboards, etc.  The thickness of the paintbrush will be determined by the size of the job, but soft bristle brushes are always recommended to ensure the surface they're cleaning isn't scratched or damaged.

Visit us again next week for even more fun ways to get your children helping around the home!

Mother's Day is May 12^th, and the experts at MOLLY MAID suggest you surprise Mom by giving her a bouquet of flowers and by doing a bit of cleaning (of her most dreaded chores, the toilet). The best part is there's a quick and easy 'double duty' cleaning trick that you can use for both! All you need is a package of effervescent antacid tablets, such as Alka-Seltzer.

Shimmering Flower Vase

Once you have given your Mom flowers and a big hug, it's important to make sure you have a clean vase to put the flowers into. The Alka-Seltzer tablet will lift leftover bouquet residue from the bottom of a vase. Here's how:

1. Fill the vase with warm water
2. Add 1-2 tablets and let sit for a few minutes
3. Swish the water and rinse
4. Fill with fresh water and the bouquet of flowers, then put them somewhere you know Mom will enjoy them - maybe the kitchen table or the coffee table in the living room.

Sparkling Toilet

Cleaning the toilet is easy with Alka-Seltzer too:  

1. Pop 1-2 tablets into the toilet bowl and let the fizz attack stubborn stains for 10-15 minutes
2. Give a swish around with the toilet brush
3. Then flush - it's as simple as that!

If your son or daughter comes home from a soccer practice covered in mud, don't panic! The house cleaning experts at MOLLY MAID know how to tackle those stains while avoiding the problem of clogging the filters in your washing machine.

Follow these simple steps to remove stains:

1. Let the mud stains dry completely.
2. Gently - and carefully - scrape away any excess dirt.
3. Rub the stains with a little bit of liquid dish soap with your fingers in order to loosen ground-in dirt.
4. Add a few drops of water to the stain and detergent.
5. If the items are REALLY muddy, follow steps one and two again. Then, place items in a bucket of cold water, add detergent - and pre-soak the items. Use a cloth to loosen mud from the fabric.
6. Wash the item according to the washing guidelines.
7. When the wash is completed, check to see if any stains remain. If there are, repeat the previous steps.

Note: Definitely do NOT put clothing in the dryer if stains are persistent and still remain. Heat will set the stain, making it even harder to remove. 

Love April Fool's Day pranks but hate the clean-up?  Not to worry, say the cleaning experts at MOLLY MAID who share a few tricks of their own here to help you tackle two particularly icky stains.

• Vaseline  - Spreading Vaseline on a door knob can get a few good laughs, but then someone goes and wipes their hands on their shirt. It's best to pre-treat the stain before you wash it. Here's how:
  • Remove as much of the Vaseline as possible without spreading the stain.
  • Gently dab a small amount of liquid dish soap onto the stained area, and let it sit for five minutes.
  • Rinse thoroughly to flush out the soap and any remaining Vaseline.
  • Apply your usual stain removal spray, then toss the shirt into the washer with a regular load of laundry.
• Urine  - Some people still pull the 'hand in a warm cup of water' prank... yikes! While most people think urine is a stain that can't be removed, MOLLY MAID actually has a tried-and-true cleaning method that you can use to remove both the odour and stain from a mattress (if you have young kids) or carpets (if you've got pets).  
  • Mix one part white vinegar and two parts liquid dish soap.
  • Generously apply mixture to the stain with a clean, dry microfibre cloth and let sit for 30 minutes.
  • Take a clean, wet microfibre cloth and pull up as much of the soap mixture as you can.
  • Sprinkle the wet area with baking soda and leave for several hours (or overnight if possible), then vacuum the remainder of the baking soda.