Spring cleaning and helping others

With the weather being so beautiful, I've been thinking about spring cleaning.  I used to do spring cleaning with the children I cared for.  When we were done, we'd choose a charity to donate everything to and discuss how we were very lucky because we had everything we needed while other people (especially focusing on children) did not.  It go to the point with some of the kids that they wanted to "spring clean" 5 or 6 times a year!  Doing a major pre-Christmas sweep was another thing we did.  That way there was room for all their new Christmas swag and hopefully it made some other childrens' Christmas a bit brighter.

When doing the spring cleaning, I discovered that a few tactics worked better than others.  The children had a play area upstairs and a playroom in the basement.  I'd have them help me with the toys they played with often (ie: the play area upstairs), but the playroom downstairs I would do myself.  I'd start paying close attention to what they played with often downstairs and if I wasn't sure whether I should get rid of it or not, I'd ask the children.  At first they wanted to keep everything, but, given some time, they made good decisions.  With board games, we'd sometimes play them one more time before putting them in the bag to go to charity.  I'd make-up games for us to play while cleaning.  For example: I'd put the bags or boxes on the other side of the room and the children would have races to place their items in the bags.  We'd also play "I Spy" with them for items I thought should go. (They didn't always agree with me!)  Playing games made it go faster and made it a lot less "work" for all of us.  The process typically took a few days and when we were done I'd take the kids with me to drop off the items.  I think that seeing where their toys and games were going helped them to understand how much they had. 

The saying goes that "charity begins at home".  Spring cleaning is a great way to teach children about those who are less fortunate and get your house cleaned out at the same time!  Happy cleaning!