This week marks the first full out-of-school week for most kids in the area. That means backyard playtime just increased exponentially. MomSpeaker Jeanne McCullough's got some easy, cheap hacks to make hanging out in (and cleaning up) the backyard a snap this summer.
I love my backyard in the summertime! The grass is kind of crappy and the ground is a little bumpy, but it’s the perfect place to host a messy playdate! I’ve learned a few tricks over the past couple of years that have made our Backyard Summer awesome.
I wanted a way to corral all the toys and I wanted it to be easy for the kids to clean up themselves. Last summer, I picked up a couple of baskets from the dollar store and zip-tied them to the fence. I hung them low enough for the kids to access them, and I drilled holes in the bottom and hung them a few inches off the ground, so rainwater could drain easily. I also found a simple coat hanger in the dollar store and zip-tied that to the fence as well, and it makes the perfect hanger for hula-hoops. (All pictured above)
Somewhere on Pinterest I found this great idea — dump all the bubbles into a recycled laundry detergent bottle! The kids love having easy access to bubbles and I love not having a million little bubble containers everywhere to clean up! I’ve added a second bottle for Dawn dish detergent, because there’s always bird poop on the kiddie picnic tables that needs to be cleaned up and I like to have a safe soap handy. Dawn is also great because sometimes it’s fun to fill the pool with bubbles.
Sunblock is important when you’re rocking the Backyard Summer, and it can be a chore wrangling these two crazy kids every day for proper application! I bought a simple bathroom hand-soap pump and now I funnel all of our sunblock into this one bottle. It makes sunblock time a lot easier since I don’t have to worry about handing a slippery bottle while wrestling slippery kids.
Jeanne McCullough is a Montgomery County, PA mom. This post was adapted from her blog Mom Hearts Pinot.
