Spring is upon us, and the urge to refresh and rejuvenate our homes is starting to take hold! It got us thinking, how can we turn the good old Spring Clean on its head to create more meaningful spaces for our children? We took 4 current, popular ideologies and incorporated them with some of our favourite brands to create the ultimate how to guide for conscious clean the Spring!
Low-Tox Living
On a practical level, removing everything from the room and giving all of your surfaces a thorough wipe down is a perfect place to start. Mattresses and pillows can be aired outside, and quilts and blankets washed. If you are like me, I love to include a little saging to move on any negative or stale energy in the space. The sunshine will do a great job of this for soft furnishings.
As the effects of toxic over load become more and more of a concern in society, choosing a natural cleaner is essential for a safe clean in your kids room. Julia Watkins, in her book Simply Living Well, shares this poignant research; “In a 2012 study of more than two thousand cleaning products, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that only 7% of cleaning products adequately disclosed their contents”. Further, 53% percent of cleaning products assessed contained ingredients that harm the lungs, 22% contained ingredients that cause asthma, and many others were formulated or contaminated with carcinogens or hormone disrupters”. How terrifying.
We love Bondi Wash bench spray and laundry wash for our kids rooms. The smell is divine and we can rest easy knowing it is a safe choice for children and babies.
Bondi Wash – Bench Spray
One of the Bondi Wash best sellers, the Bench Spray has a beautiful, natural fragrance which makes cleaning a pleasure. A gentle but powerful formulation that is lab tested to confirm it kills 99.99% of germs.
It is safe to use around food preparation areas and babies, children and pets. It can be used to naturally clean anywhere in the home including toys that end up in babies’ mouths. Ideal for people suffering from eczema and sensitive skin who react to harsh chemicals in common household cleaners.
Sustainability
When it comes to children’s room, it is so important to remember these words – “Don’t let what you want get in the way of what you have.”
We are surrounded by an abundance of toys for children, and often have far more that we need. Often to the point that the overwhelm for our kids results in them not playing with anything at all! #amiright
It is also so important that we acknowledge kids ability to play with added levels of complexity. A spring room reset is a perfect opportunity to rotate toys and offer new learning experiences with the toys you already have. Try mixing your blocks with your animals to create new opportunities for play, or create colour based sensory baskets, for example.
Once you’ve been through your toys and created considered curations for play, encourage independence with manageable storage that the kids can take ownership of. Second Scout picture based timber toy tags are a beautiful organisational option. We also love the fun Oon Jester storage bins. Soft to touch, positively colourful and large enough to hold-it-all, they look great and work beautifully for easy packing up.
Second Scout Timber Toy Tags
Second Scout creates picture-based organisation solutions, that even the littlest family member can interpret, well before they’ve learned to read. Seeking a more stylish solution to the generic home label maker, Brisbane mum of two designed a range of timber toy tags that not only nurtured independence in little people, but satisfied the interior-conscious desires of big people too!
Oon – Jester large storage basket
For our little humans, Jester storage bins are fun to the eyes, soft to touch, positively colourful and large enough to hold-it-all.
Made from NZ wool (turned to fabric in hours of ‘felting’) with water, soap and lots of natural sunshine (just how we like it). Besides, wool being resilient fibre and great all season/year round, the handmade process of each Oon item and your purchase helps make a positive difference in every artisan life with economic support, safe working environment and women empowerment.
Inclusion
Without doubt, a question we are asked so often is how to deal with books. We all love books and it’s hard to think you could ever have too many, but when we look closer perhaps there are some that may not be serving our children in the best way for our future.
We suggest you pull out all of your books and start to explore them through an inclusive lens. Do they represent a variety of cultures? Demonstrate non traditional roles? Challenge children to think critically or empower them to dream big dreams? It is amazing how easy it can become to cull your books when you take a closer look at the messaging, both in the words and the imagery.
Once sorted, a beautiful book display, like the Bunnytickles Revolving Bookcase, will entice you and your children to enjoy them.
Bunnytickles Revolving Bookcase
Bunnytickles is based in Melbourne and focuses on high quality, environmentally and sustainable children’s products.
The solid wood bookcase rotates 360 degrees on a Lazy Susan and has three open shelves. Detachable bear-shape divider pivoted in the centre of the top two shelves offer many display options to engage your children while keeping things tidy and organised. Big and small books can be arranged spine out or covers facing out, upright or lying on the side, so a good read is always right at their fingertips.
Affirmation
Children’s art needn’t be spring clean headache with a simple mindset shift. As Virginia Venn so beautifully puts it, “What if filling your home with your child’s artworks enabled them to relive over and over again beautiful childhood memories with positive affirmations that scream I am .. I am loved, I am creative, I am unique, I am special, I am amazing..?”
With this in mind, select some favourite pieces to frame and display, or explore digital collages such as those created by Little Hangs. Some other ideas may include gifting creations to family members, creating cards and/or wrapping paper or repurposing for the next art project!
If the idea of getting rid of any of your child’s work is too hard, scrap books and folders sorted by year or child will help keep it all in check.
Little Hangs
Little Hangs embrace the fun, the meaningful and the practical. A curated artwork service, transforming your children’s artwork into bespoke, montaged pieces of art for your home, inspired and crafted by the little people in your life. Just as the skills and creativity of our little ones are timeless, the artworks they produce are timeless, depicting various moments and memories in their life journey that transcend any language. Little Hangs pieces are a modern family heirloom designed to suit every room in your house, intended to last a lifetime.
References:-
Watkins, J (2020) Simply Living Well
Glover, A. (2016). Children and bias. In R. R. Scarlet (Ed.) The anti-bias approach in early childhood
Please note: This article contains some sponsored content. Brands included were invited by Minty as they are brands that we genuinely love, trust and recommend.
All images provided by the respective brands.
If you liked this, you might also like our Top Tips for a Sustainable Kids Room.
