5 Tips to Keep Your Home Tidy During the Holidays with BLACK+DECKER
Keep reading & scrolling for a GIVEAWAY for a chance to win an awesome BLACK+DECKER product!
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Make a Plan
I am queen of ‘to-do lists’ I feel it really helps me stay focused on what needs to get done, what’s important, and it also lets my husband know what I need help with. Wink wink. I often will print out a calendar and mark holiday festivities to do with the family on them from seeing Christmas lights, making Christmas crafts, and even wrapping those presents to make sure every moment of the holiday season is used. Being a working mom I often will clean my entire house on Saturday morning so I can enjoy a clean home all weekend. I will make a list of things to do-dishes, vacuum with the BLACK+DECKER cordless hand vacuum, do laundry, tidy up bedrooms, etc. that way it can get done quick and efficiently!
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Minimize Clutter by Using Bins
I love being a mother, but I hate the sight of toys and clutter! Especially around the holidays when there are more things out in your home, I really like to minimize clutter by using bins that tie in with my décor. My rule is if it doesn’t fit in the bins then it goes in the closet or gets donated! This is a perfect time of the year to do a secret nap time toy rotation or to donate some of those rarely used toys to charity.
All of the bins in these photos have toys hidden in them!
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Teach the Kids to Help!
Being a parent means you’re constantly cleaning, washing, folding-but hey you also had kids to help with household chores right? Kids are never too young to start helping out with mommy and daddy with small chores for their age group. Little tasks for toddlers like putting away shoes, toys, or even bringing their dirty sippy cup to the sink are all chores my toddler does around the house. My toddler as learned that she must help clean up an area of the house by putting her toys away in the bins before moving on to the next activity. Sometimes this task is done with a smile all by herself, often with help from mom, and sadly sometimes with toddler tears, but it’s a rule we like to have in our home to keep it clean.
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Use the BLACK+DECKER Compact Cordless Lithium Hand Vacuum to Spot Clean Little Messes
Keeping a clean home is important to me, but it should not overhaul the entire day-this is the time to celebrate not clean! Who has time to lug out an entire large vacuum? I love to keep my BLACK+DECKER Compact Cordless Lithium Hand Vacuum in arms reach to quickly clean up small messes like Christmas tree pine needles, sprinkles from holiday cookies, baking disasters such as dust from flour, or milk-YES IT EVEN VACUUMS LIQUIDS!!! Hello! This tool is amazing around little ones! The Compact Cordless Lithium Hand Vacuum is also quiet too so it doesn’t scare my toddler or wake my napping baby.
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Make it a Game!
To keep little ones entertained and helpful turn any chore into a game or competition. Make the job a race and see who is the best little helper to clean up the mess the fastest. Turn on a favorite Christmas song like ours-NSYNC’s “Merry Christmas Happy Holidays” and set a goal to get the whole area cleaned up by the time the song is over! Clean up Elf style by talking to Santa in a funny voice. Give a prize or reward like a small candy cane or be the first family member to open a gift on Christmas morning if they can clean up the fastest. The ‘Clean Up Monster’ was a game my dad played when I was little which was a modified version tag in the dark-whoever he caught had to clean up! Whatever game you choose, making a dull task fun can make it go much faster!
Those are my top 5 tips on keeping your home tidy not just around the holidays, but all year long!
BLACK+DECKER is a great brand, check out these other items on our Christmas wish list:
- The 20V MAX Lithium Cordless Drill Driver will be a WONDERFUL drill for my husband to put together all the kids toys and home projects I have him complete.
- The MarkIT Picture Hanging Tool works wonders making sure all pictures, artwork, and canvas prints are hung perfectly straight. This is a need for the gallery wall trend in home decor right now!
- The Cordless 2 In 1 Stick Vacuum is a fab product as it is the best of both worlds a hand vacuum for couches and everything above ground, and a regular vacuum for floors!
Check out the BLACK+DECKER Holiday Handbook for more holiday and Christmas tips, recipes, and DIYs!
**GIVEAWAY**
The BLACK+DECKER brand will be giving away a 2-in-1 Stick Vacuum to a lucky Redlocks and Shamrocks reader! This Stick Vacuum makes cleaning super easy with the product’s cordless feature! To enter the GIVEAWAY:
- Check out this LINK and read all about the 2-in-1 Stick Vacuum!
- Comment on my blog post below telling me what you LOVE about the cordless stick vacuum OR what you like about the other products from this post: the drill, the hand vacuum , or the picture hanger!
The giveaway is that SIMPLE! Good luck!
I love all of these tips! i’ve never had a hand vacuum, but we just got the BLACK+DECKER stick vacuum, and it’s amazing for those little messes. so easy!! definitely a must with little kids
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Great tips Lisa! I am a clean freak! I totally already told my husband I wanted a new vaccuum for Christmas. The Black and Decker hand held looks like a great option for our stairs. We have the black and decker drill and use it all of the time!
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we are huge fans of black and decker products! I also try and use bins and baskets to minimize clutter. would love to win one of these!
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Hey girl hey! i love the nap time you rotation/donate idea! Friends of mine would save birthday presents and christmas presents so a few months later they would have all new toys to play with again! I love that the Black & Decker Stick Vacuum has a filter sense (i mean i never realllly know when to change them!) also i love that it knows how to change the power suction, we have tile and carpet so that sounds SOOO helpful!
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I know who remembers to change the filter? Its a great added feature!
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I love that it senses when it needs something!how cool is that?!
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I had one of these years ago. This one is so much better because it even picks up liquid. Great to use in small nooks and crannies. I’d love one for my classroom too. Help pick up after a craft activity. The kids would love to help.
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Great tips! I love that it can clean up little messes quickly without having to lug around a hive vacuum or go get the broom and dust pan!
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LOVE this list! Annnnnnd I’m dying to win the vacuum!!!!!
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Great tips, Lisa! I love that it’s cordless and can be a handheld vacuum too! I don’t have kids yet, but it sounds great for my two dogs, especially since you said it’s quiet. My poor pups are scared of vacuums and especially when I foster dogs, they are always scared of strange noises. But a vacuum is a must with how messy dogs can be! I try to tidy up often as well so that it never takes up the whole weekend!
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Great tips! I love that it’s cordless. I loathe vacuuming my stairs but that doesn’t mean that they don’t need it. This black & decker vacuum would make the job so much more fun.
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Great tips!! I three girls and we always have a mess!! I was just talking to my husband about how I missed my moms hand held vacuum , and go unneeded one …. I was hinting big time lol!! It makes those little messes less of a hassle!
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Oh my goodness! What isn’t there to love? Most especially for me, having three littles under five, I could certainly use all the cleaning help I can get!
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In my 7.5 years of parenting, I never really thought to buy a handheld vacuum. I dread lugging out my big vacuum multiple times a day. I just read the reviews and I think I might give this one a whirl!
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The cordless vacuum and the hand vacuum would work great for stairs!!! That’s one of the hardest places for me in my house!
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I’m working on having my 5 & 3 year old help me clean up. Some days it works out better than others 🙂
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I love all these tips especially the bins and having the kids to help. We’re definitely working on that! And this vacuum cleaner is great. I would love to have one to help with the Pine needles of the tree and the crumbs of the children LOL
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Great tips! Especially making cleaning into a game, great way to get the kids to help!
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You can never have enough bins when you have kids in the house! I should seriously just buy stock in sterilite plastic bins– I’ve got millions!
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I love this vacuum! …who ever thought we’d be at a point in our lives where having the right vacuum was so important?!? Lol!
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These are such great tips! I totally need one of these handheld vacuums!
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Great article and tips. I love this vacuum just for the fact it is cordless. I hate dragging cords around (I always run over the cords and rip them up) and the fact that you get two vacuums for the price of one.
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I LOVE the picture hanger. We just moved into a new house and we haven’t hung a thing yet! I went online from your link and ordered it for my hubby’s stocking! Maybe he will get the hint. 🙂
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I totally agree with making cleaning fun! kids love being involved and cleaning shouldn’t be an exception! thanks for sharing 🙂
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Teaching your kids to help by making it into a game is such good advice. I’ve definitely been trying that around the house.
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This looks awesome, my littles love helping me clean and it is so much fun when they do. Great post.
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Would love to win one of these! Some days I can be a bit of a neat freak but I also have two precious, funny little toddlers who like to spread crumbs and such EVERYWHERE! This looks like something they could learn to “help” mommy with!
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I need that vacuum!! 🙂
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Okay, this is the second time I’ve heard how great this vacuum is today! I need one on my Christmas list!
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Love the Batterysense & the filtersense features on the cordless stick vacuum because you never know when your boys are going to make a mess that u r gonna need to clean up & to go get the vacuum & the batteries be dead is a setback that we mamas can’t afford to have 🙂 Love it! 🙂
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Love these ideas! Cleaning up after 5 kids is a bit rough…. had a cheap hand vaccum and it was pretty decent up until it broke!😂 I love the Markit picture hanger thing!!! I have never seen it before, and am always annoyed when it comes to picture hanging when it’s crooked! Great blog, I’m new to subscribing to blogs but finding it great! Wish I had “got with the program” sooner. Thank you!
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Great ideas!! With 2 kids that are 3 and under, our house is always in some sort of disarray between crumbs (hello puffs!) and toys! Cars, toys, trucks, legos, you name it! lol I really like the cordless vacuum because it’s a grab n go appliance. I also like that it shows you the charge and that you can switch from carpet to other flooring which comes in handy cleaning up that food your toddler decided was best on the floor! Thanks for the chance!!
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It is so hard to keep your home in order with little kids, heads off to you!
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