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 #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/
Thank you for sharing such great tips!
Wonderful tips! I’m going to put these to use today! Thank you!
I’m always looking for any helpful tips when it comes to cleaning and I can sure use many of these. Thanks so much.
I love using the cupcake papers for popsicles! I need to try that!
I love the tip for popcicles! Great ideas!
GREAT TIPS FOR KEEPING UP WITH THE SUMMER MESSES !
I really love the ice pop drip catchers..What a fantastic idea and would sure save a lot of messes 🙂
I loved these tips. They are great.
Awesome… Thanks so much this is awesome ideas. Will definitely be using some of them immediately.
Thanks of for the awesome tips.
I love the cupcake mold acting as a drip catcher!
Great tips Thank you.
Great tips! I will have to try these out 🙂
Great tips I really like the ice pop drip idea, to use cupcake liners to catch everything!
These are all great tip and ones that I will be trying in the future.
Fortunately for me my older children are a great help at keeping messes made by my younger children cleaned up.
jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com
Great tips for summer or anytime.
Heart the idea of a momcation. This would really help with bonding and responsibility
With two pets, I could use help with keeping my carpets clean. The iron idea is interesting, but it doesn’t seem especially fast. Maybe irons these days heat up a lot faster than I am remembering.
great tips! I love the carpet stain one ,what defiantly will come in handy ! thanks
Thanks – I learned something new here!
I have to bookmark this site there are so many useful tips! I really like the ice pop drip idea, to use cupcake liners to catch everything! I always have cupcake liners at home so this would have saved me so many headaches of cleaning up after ice pop drips!
All of these are great tips! I especially love the baking cup solution for the dripping popsicles.
Thanks
That is neat. I love the idea for popsicles, my kids are so messy with those.
Great tips and ideas. We seem to have a lot of trouble with leaves dragging in here in the summer and fortunately we don’t have carpet!
yeah i always use warm soapy water to clean up carpet stains! ugh i wish i had hardwood floors!
I think the cupcake liners are pretty genius. I am so going to use that idea.
You have some great tips here that I am going to have to try with my grandchildren.
Great Tips That Will Make Daily Life Easier For All Moms.
Great tips. I love the idea for mess-free popsicle eating. Cutting a hole in the bottom of a cupcake wrapper and placing the wrapper around the base of the ice pop stick is genius!
I am so using that carpet stain trick right now! Thank you so much!
Wow, Thank you for sharing.. What great ideas!
These are really great tips! I love the popsicle drip catcher and I will be using the carpet spot cleaning, great for cleaning those little spots! 🙂
Great tips! I will try the iron and towel tip for the mystery spill on the playroom carpet.
These are great ideas! I’m going to try the ice pop drips idea today!
Like lots of those tips esp the carpet
You have some very wonderful ideas…but I am a 63 year old live-alone bachelor…Thanks anyway!
Great cleaning tips – would like to post one that I have used and can swear by its’ success. In the event that your carpet gets stained or your coffee table gets a burn ring from a hot cup of tea/coffee/liquid – Utilize a cloth with 3 tsp Baking powder and 4 tbsp Toothpaste removes stain and does not damage….Tried and True. Hope your readers can benefit from this post – did save my coffee table expense to refinish – it works !
Eva Mitton-Urban
Hello! I have used the tips for the carpet to use dish detergent when I run out of carpet cleaner, except I never used the iron part. Thanks for that!!
I really like the tip about getting stains out of carpet. I will have to try that next time. Thanks!
I liked the tip on how to take care of frozen treats that get on carpet or furniture.
Great tips, thanks for sharing!! :o)
Love all these tips! I can use any tips I can get when it comes to cleaning!
These are really great tips to help me during the Summer. The cupcakes tip is really helpful to me.
Great. I have some cupcake liners in my cabinet right now that can be put to use today.
Great ideas for summer messes! I especially like the no drip idea and the carpet cleaning tip.
Thx for all the great tips!!
The cupcake cups are an awesome idea!
I like the idea for using muffin liners to catch popsicle drippings!
Great tips for the summer thanks for sharing some of these I had not thought of.
Yay for glitter clean up tip !! my kid can do this ! and I might be able to go to work without glitter somewhere on me !
Awesome tips!!! They will really help out in my house.
Great posts and tips for summer!
I love the how to clean up glitter. I am afraid to even have glitter in the home, LOL!
I had never heard of the Dawn and Iron tip!
The popsicle tip cracks me up. If you can get kids at a young age to want to pick up to have a nice environment, it makes it easier to have a house that’s “lived-in” yet still be livable.
I love that helpful tip on the cupcake liner for catching the stuff that melts! great idea
Summertime fun can get really messy and any tip would help
The cupcake holders for popsicles is a great idea. I’ll tell my friend who takes care of her grandkids sometimes.
I love the idea of mess protection using baking cups for popsicles. With summer does come bigger messes.
I would never have thought of using an iron! Thanks for the tip!
These are great ideas!
the cupcake paper for drips is absolutely genius.
I would love love to see my children give me a Momcation even if it just a little bit of one. I love the tip about the cupcake liners around popsicles.
This is a great tip on getting stains out of carpet. I have always used soap and water. I never heard of using and iron. I am pinning this tip for next time I need it.With two kids you know I will need it. 🙂
The iron is also a great tool for getting candle wax out of the carpet!
LOVE the cupcake paper for drips! DUH! How have we not thought of this before now?
These are some really great tips–some I’d never thought of before!
some cool tips to have love the tips going to use them with the grankids
Good tips! Lately I’ve been having my 11 year old take out the garbage and vacuum. It’s nice to get the help finally!
Thanks so much for the great tips! I have 9 kids so this is so so helpful
Great helpful & useful tips here. My kids sometimes are a pain in cleanup when messes occur but for the most part they do pick up after there messes. The cupcake wrapper trick is awesome to prevent a mess. love this.
It’s always nice to see kids learning to help at home.
Thanks for this helpful and useful feature.
Great tips for keeping my house clean this Summer. I like the popsicle tip by putting a cupcake holder around it to keep the drips from falling. Also I like the tip in getting stains out of my carpet.
great tips for the carptes