Preschoolers make the best housekeepers

Atticus is getting so, so good at helping around the house already. I love that he is going to grow up in a house where gender roles are not defined, and where he is expected to help. We try to not ever complain about cleaning up (which is hard, mostly for me), and make it fun. Tim always puts on music or a podcast to do the dishes. We often have family clean up time where we turn up the music and set a timer and speed clean the entire apartment (luckily, cleaning up 600 square feet takes about 15 minutes). When I was down in bed this week with mastitis, Atticus often would grab my rice bag and put it in the microwave and heat it up then bring it back to me. He (almost) always will clean up his games when he is finished playing, because he knows not to take out another until the current one is away (otherwise, our apartment would be a disaster of tiny figurines and cards). He often comes down to the laundry room and divides up the clothes between darks and lights and starts the washers, or moves clothes from the washer to the dryer. He likes to clean the bathroom with me, scrubbing out the toilet and spraying/wiping everything down with the vinegar. I love that our home is full of safe cleaning supplies so we can involve our kids in the process. 

Our vacuum is the perfect size for him to push around and he recently discovered how cool the hose is. He likes to sprinkle baking soda mixed with essential oils on the carpet and hose it up (thanks Austin, for the idea!)

I can only hope that his healthy relationship with housekeeping remains into the older years...

Sometimes he gets distracted sucking other things up as well, like his shirt.