The Swimming pool: a glorious luxury that happens to be more high maintenance than your children. It provides a cool escape from the summer heat but can track in a bigger mess than noisy play dates (what a surprise!).
Fortunately, we have a guide to creating a space in your backyard that will encourage your family to keep the pool area cleaner than ever.
1. Storage Bins
One of the hardest parts of keeping the pool area clean is organizing all the little toys and accessories that make it so much fun to use. Diving rings, torpedoes, foam discs, squishy balls, and other toys create clutter very easily.
There are lots of storage bins on the market, but storing wet items in a plastic container in the heat is a recipe for mold. Storage bins are the answer to your problems! Our favorite options are those that are made of mesh fabric (very breathable) and have wheels so they can roll around easily.
2. DIY Pool Organizer
For those of you who are do-it-yourselfers, we have a great idea for an easy project to organize all your pool accessories.
- You’ll need:
- Wire rack shelf
- Plastic bins (3-4)
- Cut paper for labels
- Permanent markers
Once you have these items, it’s super easy to craft up a simple shelf organizer to hold the plastic bins marked with labels for goggles, dry swimsuits, sunscreen, small toys, etc.
Step 1: Stack the wire racks on top of each other according to how you want them.
Step 2: Use small cable ties to keep them together at the corners.
Step 3: Write and attach labels to the plastic bins.
Step 4: Place plastic bins on the racks and fill 'em up with pool accessories.
Step 5: Show your kids the brilliant new pool organizer and have fun!
3. Wet items
Swimming pool fun also brings lots of wet clothing—towels, bathing suits, shorts, shirts, shoes, etc.—and your nerves can only stand leaving them in a sopping heap in front of the laundry room for so long.
A solution to this could be a towel rack that hangs on a wall and retracts out like an accordion, or a standing rack. However, our favorites lately are outdoor clotheslines that can be hung from most surfaces and retract so it’s not always in the way. This will dry your wet items quickly and won’t detract from your beautiful backyard scenery. Looking for a few more DIY ideas? Read a blog from one of our Neighborly brands.
4. Changing tent
Family members (ok, mostly kids) tend to take off wet clothes and drop them wherever is most convenient for them, but having an outdoor changing tent in the backyard will solve two problems: water tracking indoors and wet clothes piled on the floor!
A simple changing tent will give everyone a designated place to change into dry clothes and put them in the correct place. There are tons of options and ideas out there for outdoor tents, and they won’t take up too much space in the backyard.
We hope these tips will help you keep your pool area nice and organized to have a fun summer! Check out some of our other Neighborly blogs to hear more of our tips and tricks for summer fun.