Dreamy Clean Kids' Rooms

3. Consider going digital. If you find it hard to toss out books you haven't touched in years, you'll likely find it difficult to do the same with your child's book collection. But if he or she hasn't touched a book in months, it's just collecting dust. Keep classics and favorites and consider buying digital copies of the rest.

5. Purge the closet. Minimalist Mom Janet Jonat says, "Stop doing the laundry until someone complains they don’t have anything clean to wear. Whatever is still hanging in the closet can be donated — it’s not being worn at your house anyway."

8. Don't forget about throw pillows and bean bag covers. Covers often get overlooked for the laundry when clothes make mountains all by themselves, so gather them all up for a good washing. Unless otherwise stated by the manufacturer, it's usually safe to wash cotton bean bag covers in the machine and to dry them on medium heat. Vinyl bag covers should be wiped with a cloth dipped in warm, soapy water. Bean bag covers also go through a lot of wear and tear, so check for holes that need patching up.

Browse bean bags

9. Scour the toy basket. You never really know what you're going to find at the bottom of the toy basket — but it's really important that you find out. Wipe the inside and outside of your child's toy containers according to their material and vacuum for added measure. Clean plastic toys and board games with disinfecting wipes. Disinfect plush toys by running them through a gentle wash or freezing them overnight. (Germs don't survive in the freezer.)

When it comes to purging the toy basket, Tsh Oxenreider (pronounced "Tish") from Simple Mom recommends the following steps: "Sort through the toys with your children, toss out any broken toys or ones with missing parts and select the ones they've outgrown — those are all the ones going into your donate box. I find that the fewer toys my kids have, the more they play with them."

10. Clean the ceiling fan. Most fans have a switch on the base to adjust the rotation direction. Martha Stewart recommends a counterclockwise direction for a more pleasant breeze in the warmer months.

Browse ceiling fans

13. Replace batteries. Test and replace batteries if necessary in wall and alarm clocks, toys and, most important, smoke alarm batteries. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends changing your smoke alarm batteries at least once a year, because two-thirds of fire deaths occur in homes with either no smoke alarms or smoke alarms that don't work, according to the commission.

14. Tackle tub toys and shower curtains. Stop moisture-loving mildew from growing in the tub and bath-toy bin by drying toys immediately after bath time. Once a week, clean each toy with a child-friendly cleaner like Dapple Baby's surface cleaner, which is free of parabens, phthalates, dioxane and dyes.

Trim your shower curtain so it doesn't sweep the floor and create a puddle (and a home for mildew) after each bath. Leave the plastic liner hanging inside of the tub so splashes are contained.

16. Disinfect the diaper pail. It was a struggle to come up with a homeowner-uploaded picture of a diaper pail — perhaps because Houzzers would rather not document what is by far the stinkiest, germ-infested receptacle in the house.

First things first. Before cleaning, remove the diaper pail from the room to prevent germs from spreading. Empty the pail, scrub all the grooves and joints, and wipe the inside and outside with disinfecting wipes. Wipe clean with a dry cloth.