Tips to Stay on Top of Chores This Back-to-School Season

August 15, 2025 at 01:00 AM EDT

SPONSORED CONTENT -- (StatePoint) The start of a school year ushers in new messes and less time to tackle them. But you can stay ahead of dirt, clutter, slime and grime with these innovative tools and strategies:

Power Through Messes

Busy households, especially those with kids and pets, can benefit from a powerful cleaning tool that makes everyday floor care faster, easier and more efficient. That’s where solutions like the Tineco GO H2O HammerHead MessDetect, available at Target, come into play. A 3-in-1 mop, vacuum and self-cleaning system, its versatility and ease of use will encourage you to make quick daily passes in high-traffic zones so that even with little ones and furry friends tracking in dirt, you can keep the home spotless.

Dust bunnies and after school snack crumbs have finally met their match thanks to its lay-flat design and 128-degree swivel brush, which let you reach under low-clearance furniture without heavy lifting. Plus, the bacteria-resistant Zero Tangle Brush tackles pet hair effortlessly. The brush, paired with an anti-odor solution, help keep your home smelling fresh.

There’s a reason Tineco is found in over 19.5 million homes. The brand is constantly improving its products. The GO H2O Hammerhead Mess Detect features a 60% larger water tank than previous models, a cordless 30-minute runtime, and battery-saving smart MessDetect Technology that automatically adjusts cleaning power and water flow based on dirt levels, so you can clean your whole home without interruption, and cut down on time-consuming refills and recharges. With an LED screen that complements cleaning, displaying mess detection and cleaning progress, you can stay informed as you go. Plus, maintenance is simple. When you’re done, place the unit on its dual self-cleaning and charging dock so it’s fresh and ready for the next use.

Optimize Kitchen Tasks

Smart technology is helping hectic households streamline cooking and cleaning tasks for fresher, more organized kitchens. Certain smart fridges feature internal cameras connected to an app. These allow you to view the contents of your fridge so you can meal plan from anywhere -- your workplace, the school pickup line, the grocery store -- before even walking in the door. They can also help you stay on top of lingering items, and avoid unpleasant leaks and odors in hard to reach spaces.

Today’s latest dishwashers are also saving parent-chefs time and energy on busy weekdays. Embedded AI technology detects how soiled a dish is and adjusts settings accordingly, eliminating the need for pre-rinsing. On the tail end of a cycle, AI is optimizing drying so that dishes come out of the machine ready to be stowed. The best part? These functions can be operated remotely. Using a connected smartphone to run the dishwasher, you can return home to clean dishes, giving you more time to help the kids with their homework, prepare dinner and relax.

Get Help, But Make it Fun

One of the best ways to manage messes is by recruiting the entire family to help. To make it fun, engaging and streamlined, use an app like Sweepy. In addition to organizing a cleaning schedule for you based on your availability, and helping you prioritize what tasks needs to be undertaken first, the app also gives you the option of gamifying household chores. Simply add household members to the app, assign them tasks to complete, and have them compete for a spot on the leaderboard, so that clean-up is something that kids will actually look forward to!

This back-to-school season, don’t let messes get the better of you. With new tools and smart strategies, you can tackle everything from grass-stained sports uniforms to mountains of school clutter with ease.

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