Messes and cleanliness

[Littledragon]

Hello all.

So, my husband is starting to freak out over the amount of mess that a daycare creates. Our main play area is in the basement, but I do have a small area in our living room, as a convenience for preparing meals and such. The problems I am having is the lack of time during the day to pick up things that don`t involve the daycare. But my BIGGEST issue is the kitchen! It`s ALWAYS disgusting. I do the dishes about 5-6 times a day, and I clean the high chairs after every meals, but THE FLOOR. It`s always gross. Food sticks to it, and there always seems to be sticky places and black foot prints (sometimes we wear indoor shoes in the kitchen). No matter how careful I am, the kitchen always needs to be scraped and mopped at the end of the day and by the time all the dishes are done, the playrooms are clean, the babies are changed and clean, and gone home, dinner is made and my son is in bed, the last thing I want to do is clean the **cking kitchen.

Do you guys have any tips and tricks on how to keep the kitchen clean. I seem to be able to keep up with the dishes, it's everything else I struggle with. Help!!

[Inspired by Reggio]

Ininitially I invested in an H20 mop - its quick and easy and it is chemical free worked awesome after PM snack I would whip it around the floor while my crew was doing bathroom and dressing for outside.

This year I got the Enjo floor system for sweeping and mopping - still chemical free just no steam anymore cause the steam so much caused issue with floor damage - Enjo clothes cleanse awesome but without the damage of the steam to grotius and glue

[Starshine]

I pick up any 'chunks' of food off the floor after each snack/meal, and I sweep the kitchen floor after their last snack of the day. I mop once a week.

Two things I would suggest. If you don't already have them, get the high chairs/boosters with the trays--it keeps food much more contained than having a booster without a tray that just pulls up to the table. Second, when the kids are done eating, take their food away! LOL I find that my kids will eat what they want within the first 10-15 minutes, and then they start playing with it. And that's where most of the mess happens.

[Judy Trickett]

This is why my dckids do everything in the basement. My playroom is down there. They play there, they eat there, they sleep there. The only time they are on my main floor is to pass through to go outside to play or at pick up time (ONLY when the weather is too nasty to be outside) they sit on my hardwood floor and use ONE box of blocks or read books while they are waiting to leave.

The main floor of my home doesn't even look like I have a daycare.

[playfelt]

I rethougth some of my meals and that helped a lot. I found things like rice was getting everywhere and a real hassle to pick up so now it is buttered noodles instead even if it means noodles two days in a row - rice and noodles are the same food group but noodles are so much easier to pick up.

All of my kids - even the 3-4 year olds wear bibs with the pocket in the front to catch crumbs and that saves a bit of floor mess.

All of my kids - even the 3 -4 year olds use a sippy cup while with me. Adults drink from sippy bottles all the time so why not kids - there is no reason it has to be an open glass at daycare as there were too many spills. A rubbermaid sippy bottle for the older ones works very well and looks more grown up than the baby ones and saves on messes.

Mess is pretty much confined to the table area so the rest of the kitchen comes out not too badly. Luckily my kitchen is designed that the walk way through it stays relatively clean.

[Crayola kiddies]

The only time the dcks are in my living area is for naps .... I too have everything in my basement including pick ups and drop offs and I clean up once everyone has gone down for nap and once the last child has gone for the day my day is done.

[Bookworm]

I have the same problem as you Little Dragon. My poor kitchen floor will never be the same! It doesn't help that I have a pretty young group and they are all the messiest eaters I have ever come across, honestly, it's pretty gross! I am working with them all on better table manners, but it is a VERY slow process with this bunch. I have two kids that think throwing food on the floor is funny (one of them my son), and they get their food taken away immediately if they throw.
I do what playfelt does and try to limit my foods to those that aren't soo messy, but somehow that doesn't seem to matter with my group. I had one kid get yogurt on my ceiling! How he did that, I am still trying to figure out.
Anyways, I sweep up after every meal and I have to mop my kitchen every other day it seems. I think its worse in the summer as they run around in their barefeet, as my kitchen wasn't this bad in the winter.

[Dreamalittledream]

I agree! My playroom is self-contained; everything I need in the basement. The boosters with trays, bibs with pockets (mine are from Ikea), serving food in little portions at a time and my close at hand DustBuster have saved me!! I honestly get little to no mess at mealtimes.

[monkeymama]

I could have written this myself! I do a quick sweep of crumbs after every meal and wash my floor everyday after DCK leave. I just try and stay on top of it but it never stays that way lol.

[Inspired by Reggio]

BTW my man use to 'complain' about the odd thing left out or getting a piece of rice stuck to his sock in the kitchen and than about 4 months into daycare he covered for me while I slipped out to the Dr at quiet time ~ all he had to do was watch them sleep, let em watch some TV as they woke for a treat instead of 'quiet time' so there was no mess of that for him and change 1 diaper cause the rest are trained and than when they were all up feed them snack and take them outside ~ I picked an 'easy snack' of homemade cookies and bananas had everything prepped for snack so he had to place it out for them and clean up afterward.... when I got home the empty snack cups and plates were still on the kids table along with their wash clothes ~ he had not even rinsed them or wiped down the table and chairs plus there was oatmeal cookie crumbs and pieces of 'banana hair' that the bananas get sometimes all over the kitchen floor and spilled cup of milk under the table .... the bathroom was a disaster with soap and water all over cause he must not have been 'listening' properly while the kids were up there and they got to playing instead of peeing and washing quickly like they know they are suppose to ~ needless to say after THAT day he had a lot more appreciate for how organized I am and how much goes into him being able to come home to a 'tidy house' at the end of the day not to mention how easy it was to miss a piece of sticky rice on the floor on the odd occasion

Sadly I think I must make it look to easy because the longer I have been home the less he seems to think he needs to 'help' with the house