Owning a boat should be a family affair. After all, chances are you spend a lot of family time on your favorite body of water, so it’s important that you involve your children in all aspects of your family’s boating experience. This is why you should get your kids to help you with your boat cleaning chores. In this way, they learn to take proper care of the boat and appreciate it more. Having them help out with various cleaning tasks will also instill a sense of responsibility in them, as well as give them extra time to bond with the family.
Getting your kids involved with the boat will also help them learn about the ins and outs of what it takes to have a well-maintained boat. This can also translate to more time in the lake or sea. Having them help with boat maintenance is a great way for them to learn what it’s like to take care of their own vehicle later when they’re older.
Since they’re kids, they may not take responsibility as well as you’d like, so make sure you give them specific boat cleaning tasks that won’t do too much damage to the boat if they don’t. Do it well. You should take some extra precautions and give them easy tasks at first until they can handle more responsibilities. Here are some tips on how to get your kids more involved in the maintenance and cleaning of your boat!
Boat Cleaner Essentials You’ll Need to Get Started
You’ll need a few boat cleaning essentials to get started. Things like quality sponges, brushes, non-marring marine hose, microfiber towels, and a quality sprayer will help clean your boat faster and easier. If your kids already do housekeeping chores, they’ll be familiar with the right equipment or a little lesson will get them up to speed on how to use it on various parts of your boat.
You’ll definitely want to make sure you have a long hose to reach all ends of the container, a plastic or rubber lined spray nozzle (so it doesn’t cause too much damage if your kids drop it), a soft brush to remove dirt and stains. and assorted microfiber towels and a mop. Always use tolls that won’t scratch the surface of your boat! The right boat cleaning products will make the job easier for you and your kids by making the job go faster so they can get in the water much sooner!
Quality products for boat cleaning
Once you have all the gear on board, you’ll also want to get the right boat cleaning products! To ensure the safety of your boat, be sure to use quality boat cleaning products made especially for boats. Using other products can damage its various surfaces, which is what you don’t want to happen. Also look for boat cleaning products that are non-toxic so they won’t harm the environment and are safe for your children to use while helping you clean the boat.
Easy Boat Cleaning Tasks for Kids
To make it easier for your kids to help you clean the boat, you’ll want to give them easy chores at first so they get used to taking care of a boat. Once they fully understand how careful they need to be, you can give them more advanced boat cleaning tasks. The easiest ones to start with are cleaning the boat’s vinyl and upholstered surfaces, as well as helping to clean the fiberglass areas. They can’t do much damage to these surfaces as they are fairly easy to clean!
How to use boat upholstery cleaner
When teaching your kids how to clean your boat upholstery, you want to make sure you show them how to properly clean these surfaces so they are gentle yet effective. Ask them to spray on a boat-specific upholstery cleaner and then gently rub it down with a clean, soft microfiber cloth. And if there are stubborn stains, show them how to use a small, soft brush to gently agitate the surface to clean away stubborn dirt.
What to do with boat vinyl cleaner
Once your kids have tackled the upholstered boat surfaces, have them work on any vinyl surfaces with vinyl boat cleaner. It works the same way as boat upholstery cleaner and its easy spray application makes it the perfect cleaning chore for your kids.
What to do with a fiberglass boat cleaner
Your boat will get dirty when you use it and that is why you need to use a specific hull cleaner to remove things like rust, algae, fish blood and other tough surface stains. Regular cleaning of the boat’s hull will help reduce drag and allow the boat to move more efficiently through the water. Since this is a bigger job, you will have to help the hull kids at first until they become cleaning experts. A specialized fiberglass boat cleaner will get the entire area squeaky clean. Simply spray fiberglass boat cleaner on the hull area and then show your kids how to gently rub the surface with a sponge or towel. Then have them rinse the boat out with clean water!
