This Summer Take a Mom-Cation Moment #momcation

July 14, 2014 by Susan

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Susan here with a fun idea to help you take a moment for yourself this summer. I’m participating in the Merry Maids “Summer Mom-Cation” program. This post series is sponsored, but as always, my opinions are my own.

I love summer! I love the warm weather, the relaxed schedule and I especially love NOT making school lunches.

But, I don’t love the extra messes that come along with kids being home all day.

So when Merry Maids asked me to join this campaign to inspire moms to take “Mom-Cation Moments” this summer, I thought it would be fun.

Get Kids Helping with Summer Messes while You Take a Mom-Cation Moment

The idea of a “Mom-Cation” moment is when you get a little help tackling a summer mess and your kids take some of the clean-up duty off your shoulders.

How much your kids help clean does depend on how old they are, but Debra Johnson, Merry Maids home cleaning expert, has identified the top five kid-made messes and provided simple solutions for moms and kids to conquer the sandiest and stickiest messes – all while getting kids involved in the process.

So I’m taking a few “Mom-Cation” moments and snapping photos of my girls cleaning up their messes using a few of her tips.

Check out the first tip below and then stay tuned for more tips in future posts!

“The Summer Mom-Cation” Tip #1

This tip is from Merry Maids’ home cleaning expert, Debra Johnson:

The Ice Pop Drips

Ice pops are always a fan favorite once the weather warms up – but when the frozen treats start melting all over the carpet or furniture, they are not always a favorite to clean up. Johnson explains the best home remedy for removing an ice pop stain from upholstery or carpeting is to dampen the stained area with dish washing liquid solution. From there, place a white terry cloth towel over the solution and run over the towel with a hot iron – this will help transfer much of the stain to the towel.

Make It a “Mom-Cation” Moment: An easy way for kids to help keep their hands clean and the floors dry is to make a DIY ice pop holder. Johnson suggests parents help their kids cut a hole in the bottom of a cupcake wrapper and place the wrapper around the base of the ice pop stick – use multi-colored or printed wrappers to make it fun and personal. This will catch all of the drips and drops and keep kids’ hands (and moms’ floors) from getting sticky.

Putting Tip #1 Into Action

Ice pops are one of my girls’ favorite parts of summertime. I try to get them to stay in the kitchen, on the patio or outside while they’re eating these sticky treats, but drips and spills still happen.

So I was thrilled to hear Debra’s suggestion of using cupcake wrappers to catch spills. My girls loved the idea too…

If you keep the ice pops limited to rooms without carpet, and a drip or spill does happen, it’s easy to get kids to clean up the messes themselves and you can enjoy a “Mom-Cation Moment”.

However, if you do end up with an ice pop spill on the carpet, you can try Debra’s suggestion…

Dampen the stained area with dish washing liquid solution
Place a white terry cloth towel over the solution
Run over the towel with a hot iron.

The hot iron helps transfer much of the stain to the towel.

But hopefully you won’t need to worry about stained carpets, since your kids will be using their “DIY Ice Pop Drip Catchers” and you’ll be relaxing for a “Mom-Cation Moment”.

All Five “Summer Mom-Cation” Cleaning Tips

Find “Summer Mom-Cation” Tips #1, #2, #3 in our posts…

Tip #1

Tip #1 for “Ice Pop Drips”.

Tip #2

Tip #2 for cleaning up glitter.

Tip #3

Tip #3 for spilled sticky lemonade.

And Tips #4 and #5 on the Merry Maids Facebook Page at

Tip #4

Tip #4 for tackling “sand” messes.

Tip #5

Tip #5 for preventing slippery, water messes.

Visit the Merry Maids Facebook Page and share your own tried and true cleaning tips as well as share your best “Mom-Cation” moments using hashtag #MomCation. Keep an eye on the Merry Maids Facebook page for fun contests throughout the summer.

Find Merry Maids on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MerryMaids, Twitter: @merrymaids, Website: www.merrymaids.com

This post is sponsored by Merry Maids.
Written by Susan Carraretto, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom
Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
Pin with me at http://pinterest.com/5minutesformom/

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About Susan

Susan Carraretto and her identical twin, Janice Croze, created 5 Minutes for Mom in 2006. Susan loves all social media, but her top addiction these days is Pinterest.