Yesterday, my little boy was in his toy room, hanging out as usual. When I stopped in to check up on him, the room smelled like poo. And he was naked. NOT A GOOD COMBINATION. As you can imagine, I spent the next thirty minutes cleaning him and the room.
Little boys are gross! Over the years I’ve developed a few tricks to help prevent the mayhem that I thought I would share with you in hopes that your life might get just a tiny bit cleaner!
1. Backwards zippered pajamas and duct tape
If you have a little boy who just strongly prefers to be naked, yet isn’t potty trained, I have a solution for you! Duct taping the diaper is DEFCON 5, but if you ever find you have a super-skilled clothes-escapee on your hands, you may need to advance to DEFCON 4: backwards zippered pajamas. Make sure you snap the snap at the neck to prevent any funny business! You can cut off the feet if you want to make dressing easier, but you can also just twist the ankles to face the other way, or just buy custom backwards zippered pajamas.
I’m 2. Don’t leave the kitchen while the boys eat
This may seem like a no-brainer to some of you, but a busy mom loves to let her kids snack in the kitchen while she’s off doing stuff around the house. I could sneak off for a few minutes here and there when it was just my daughter, but my boys love to throw food, so I like to be there to thwart their attempts at annihilating the house.
Feeding chairs do not stop my kids. My boys hop while belted in their chairs to get anywhere they want to in the kitchen. To grab stuff to throw, usually.
3. Thoroughly brush crumbs off after eating
If you skip this step, you will have a messy house/car/life. And ants. Because the crumbs get everywhere. Even in their diapers. Don’t just get their face and hands; every square inch of the little adorable terrors must be brushed or wiped off.
4. Keep problem items high and out of reach
At a certain stage, constant vigilance is necessary. The kitchen is a big one: no open drink containers with liquid either on the table or near the edge of the counter. Anything you don’t want broken, like your cell phone, should also be out of reach.
Another issue is laundry. Because I do so much laundry, I like to fold several loads before putting the clothes away, to save time. Unfortunately, as I am often in the same room as the boys, leaving my precious folded laundry in such a vulnerable and unprotected state is a bad idea! I try to either put the clothes away immediately or put them folded back into laundry baskets until I can put them away.
The Lessy Messy
So I discovered this really versatile and effective product that makes messes easy to clean up. The Lessy Messy is an absorbent, leak proof, and machine washable mat that comes in different sizes. I received the 60″x 60″ mat and the diaper changing mat (shown above).
I have a Facebook Live video that you can see here where I demo the changing mat so you can see that the liquid does not leak through. Both the changing mat and the oversized mat exhibit excellent craftsmanship, an important factor when you have two super-active little boys.
The diaper changing mat is a little larger than a regular one, which is awesome, because my boys are squirmy! Also, not every kid is potty trained by the time they’re eighteen months, so the little extra size is appreciated.
The amazing thing about the 60″x 60″ mat is its versatility; you can use it anywhere! You can use it as a tablecloth, a picnic blanket, a trunk mat, or my favorite: a mattress cover!
​Now, I know what you’re thinking: I can’t even get my wiggly boys to keep the sheet on the bed, and it has elastic corners! How is the Lessy Messy going to stay put? I can’t answer that, because I don’t know the inner workings of the magic that is the Lessy Messy, but I can tell you that this mat has somehow stayed put on my son’s bed despite his hourly bed bouncing routines!
So if you’re looking for a solution for life’s messes, whether it be from a squirmy toddler during diaper changes, or a little girl who wants to do an extensive art project, I highly recommend the Lessy Messy! Visit their website here to see all their products and all the different ways they can make your life easier, and visit their YouTube channel here to see product demonstrations and reviews.
Great tips! Totally agree about not leaving the kitchen with a boy!! He will find everything
Thanks! They’re pretty dangerous!!
Need this for my messy littles!!!
We need all the help we can get!
Love these tips-we haven’t reached needing backwards pj’s and duct tape yet, but i’ll remember this!
Not every kid requires it, well actually mine all have at some point, haha
I only have a girl but the mat idea is great. My sister in law uses a plastic picnic table cloth. Covers a large area. 🙂
Honestly I could use several!
Great tips! Oh man, #4 is getting so hard! Our boy is a climber. The only thing he hasn’t manage to reach yet are the top of the fridge and the cabinets above our closet haha
Don’t say that! You know those are next! Haha
Funny how different boys and girls are! My girls aren’t nearly as curious. Great tips!
Chelsea || http://www.binkiesandbaubles.com
This is true! Boys seem to be a bit more bold as well.
Oh the memories this stirs up…. Laughing so hard! Right now though, I’m trying to figure out how to clean up a nice, but messy 18-year-old boy!!! If not for God!
Yes! I feel like I’ve mastered the poop everywhere situation to where it doesn’t stress me out like it used to