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Motivate your children to help with the cleaning by creating a fun, chemical-free cleaning caddy for kids. Included: my recipes for simple natural cleaning products, and a free printable room cleaning checklist.

Kids Cleaning Caddy

Wanna know my secret to getting my kids to clean?  

It’s not a monthly allowance.  It’s not the reward of having a friend over. It’s not even candy bribery.  

Okay, okay.

I’ve tried all those things and more . . . desperate times and all.

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Kids Cleaning Caddy

A mama has to have a big bag of tricks to make chores and cleaning fun, especially if they are to elicit some help for Spring cleaning! 

Kids Cleaning Caddy

This year I’ve set the stage to make cleaning bright, fun, and cheerful with this DIY kid cleaning caddy. They can easily grab it and go clean to their heart’s content!  (which may or may not last for more than 5 minutes).

Kids Cleaning Caddy

Creating your own kids cleaning caddy doesn’t take much more than a few simple essentials. 

Kids Cleaning Caddy supplies

You can visit my cleaning shop page to copy my caddy exactly if you wish. This same caddy comes in many colors, so you could play with the color scheme for your kids.

It’s really important to me to have my kids using products that are both safe for the home and for their bodies.  The cleaning solutions I’ve included are natural, toxic-free products and can be made with a few simple ingredients you might already have.

Kids Cleaning Caddy

I know my kids will end up spraying way cleaner than they need, but I can hardly blame them when the cleaner smells so lemony fresh.   I feel okay about that knowing that it won’t harm them.

Kids Cleaning

FREE PRINTABLE ROOM CLEANING CHECKLIST

Before we dive into all the supplies for the caddy, you can grab this FREE ROOM CLEANING CHECKLIST by filling out the form below.

Kids Cleaning Caddy free printable room cleaning checklist

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WHAT TO INCLUDE IN A KIDS CLEANING CADDY

MICROFIBER RAGS

I try to keep their caddy stocked with some clean microfiber rags, which do the best job at grabbing dust rather than letting it fly into the air and back onto clean surfaces.

yellow microfiber rags

DISPOSABLE GLOVES

I have a couple of kids that don’t like to touch dirty things and will clean better if they have some gloves.  I just pick up disposable small latex gloves and keep some in their caddy.

disposable gloves inside caddy

MINI DUSTPAN SET

Dustpans seem to disappear around here, so I keep a small one right inside of here for them to gather up the piles of dirt after they have swept their floors.

mini dustpan set for kids

ALL PURPOSE CLEANER

I include a plastic spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner.

All purpose cleaner for kids to use

There are several ways to make a natural all-purpose cleaner.  I always keep some concentrated pure Castile liquid soap on hand, and simply squirt a small amount into the bottle and fill the rest up with water.  This Dr. Bronner’s citrus soap smells so good and makes their rooms smell so fresh and clean. If you don’t have this, you could also mix together some 1 part white vinegar, 2 parts water, and 20 drops of citrus essential oils.

LINEN/ROOM SPRAY

The other spray I like to keep in their caddy is this little misting bottle of linen spray. 

linen and room spray for kids

I just fill up the bottle with filtered water (so it doesn’t leave hard water spots) and add 10 drops of lemon essential oil and 10 drops of orange essential oil.  It smells like paradise and is great to spray onto bedding, clothes, and inside drawers to freshen things up. Really, I find it a mental thing that delights the senses and is a sweet-smelling reward for cleaning up a room.  Your kids will love spraying their cleanroom with this, I promise.

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CLEANING CHECKLIST

I include this cute laminated room cleaning checklist in our caddy with a dry erase marker.  My kids just work their way down to end up with a clean, smelling good room. So much of the struggle of getting kids to clean is not having expectations laid out clearly and this really helps us keep the peace on Saturday mornings. 

Free printable cleaning checklist for kids

Here is a link to my favorite small home laminator and my label maker I use often!

KIDS PINAFORE APRONS

I also splurged a bit and got this darling yellow pinafore apron and a bigger neutral one for the older girls – which is sure to make cleaning a little more charming for your cutie.  Not necessary, for sure – but very fun!

Kids Cleaning Caddy

A CLEANING CADDY FOR YOU!

Okay, that is all I have in the kids cleaning caddy!  It’s simple, yet productive – which is my approach to my cleaning caddy as well. CLICK HERE to check out what I stock in my cleaning caddy that does a fine job at motivating me to get cleaning.

What to Include in your Cleaning Caddy

MORE SPRING CLEANING IDEAS

I’m thrilled to have a few bloggers and real-life friends joining me for this collaboration.  We are all sharing content to help you with your Spring cleaning.

Laura, from My Oily House, is sharing her springtime cleaning process and simple to-do list.

brown glass bottle spray

My sweet friend, Julie Blanner is walking you through her entire Spring Cleaning Checklist.

overview of cleaning supplies hang on the wall

Chloe from Boxwood Avenue is sharing her favorite green cleaning products and showing you how she organizes her cleaning cabinets.

kitchen cleaning supplies and organization

You can check out our collaborative Spring Cleaning playlist to watch all the videos.

This is sure to be a wealth of inspiration and education and I hope you’ll enjoy watching all our videos and reading our posts.

Kids Cleaning Caddy

I hope this post has left you inspired to give your home a good scrub down and to get your kids involved!

Thank you so much for reading!

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4 Comments

  1. Kids looove a checklist! This is the perfect thing!! Great tips and timely for what’s going on right now!!

  2. Hi Cami,
    Love this little caddy idea. I’d love to see a version for older boys. Also an editable chore list would be great.
    Thanks for all the fun ideas!

    1. Jen! Thank you so much for your thoughts! It helps so much to know what you need. Those cute caddy’s come in many colors, as well as all the spray bottles I got. I would most likely do the same for older boys – except the checklist. I’m going to have to figure out how to create editable ones! Thank you for the burst of creativity!