“This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure document here.”
How hard is it to get your kids to do their chores? Pretty hard huh? They hate cleaning and I don’t blame them.
I have a strong opinion that kids should clean up after themselves. My kids actually do a lot of their own things. They do their own laundry, the dishes, they mop and vacuum and they keep their rooms clean (for the most part, ha ha!).
I have a list of chores kids can do according to age HERE that will help you plan out your chore charts. Kids are capable of doing a lot more than parents think they can. That being said, every child is different and they need different motivational techniques.
Having 5 kids, I know that one child needs a checklist and one needs to cleaning to be made into a game. One child needs music playing and one child needs to just be left alone to do his work.
I have some fun ideas to help kids have fun cleaning and I want to share them with you. Hopefully one or more of these ideas will help you. Good luck!
Here are some products I mention to help cleaning easier!
1. Get your laundry basket and walk around the house. Anything that is not in it’s place, add it to your basket! Now the trick is, once the kids get home from school, they have to separate their stuff from the basket and put it back where it belongs BEFORE they can do anything else! Bribery always works!
2. Have the kids grab a grocery sack and set the timer for one minute. Everyone runs around the house looking for things that are not in their place and adds them to their bag (whether the item is theirs or not). Everyone gets a penny or a dime for each thing in their bag once it’s put back in it’s place! My kids love this game!
3. Have an apron with deep pockets for your kids! Take a pillow case and follow the directions found here! It’s so simple, all you need is a pillow case and ribbon. Or you can grab this Laminated Kids Apron from Amazon. Then teach your kids that while they are cleaning a room, if they come across something that doesn’t belong in that room, they put it in the apron pocket and put it away after they are done in the room.
4. Use a color game. Tell the kids to look for everything white. Pick it up and put it away, then come and report to me. Then I say look for everything green, pick it up, put it away then come and report to me… works like a charm for little ones, and it helps them learn their colors.
5. Use a sorting game. Tell the kids to pick up everything you can wear on your body. Next, anything you can eat with. Next, anything that you can play with. It’s like a scavenger hunt!
6. Set a time limit for the room they are cleaning. Reward them if they finish before the timer goes off.
7. Use checklists. You can not expect your child to clean a room exactly how you would clean it. You have to clean the room with them a few times and show them what you expect. Use a checklist as you go so the child knows what each item on the checklist needs done to be checked off. I have some awesome check list ideas HERE and HERE.
8. Reward them. Kids love being rewarded for good behavior and hard work, so how do you reward them without giving them tons of sugar? Reward them with media time. I have a whole system set up using puzzle pieces. Why puzzle pieces? Head over and find out how I do it.
9. Use pictures. Young kids are very visual. So why not use pictures to help them with their chores? For instance. When loading the dishwasher the kids can look at the picture to figure out where the dishes go in the dishwasher. This way you won’t get any dirty dishes coming out with the clean ones because the kids shoved the dishes in the wrong place.
10. Give them the right tools. Wouldn’t your kids love to clean with a broom or mop that’s their size? How fun would that be? You can find some HERE and HERE. Also, have them help you mix up some all natural cleaner themselves. They will be eager to use them after making them.
Bonus. Do a speed clean every night. Every night before bed, gather the whole family together in the kitchen and set the timer for 5 minutes, or turn on a song. See if the family can beat the timer or the song by getting the kitchen clean, then move from room to room finishing the living areas of the house. You will all feel better about going to sleep with a picked up house. It’s much easier if everyone helps too.
Using these tips and tools will help your family have a pleasant experience when it comes to getting the house clean. No crying, screaming or constant reminding. Cleaning can be a fun time the family spends together.
You might also like:
Year Round Cleaning Binder Printable: Say No to Spring Cleaning!
How to Speed Clean Your House for Unexpected Guests:
I was searching for some information on keeping your house clean today when I came across this post.
Great stuff! Really good read!
It’s funny, I recently put together tips from 20 influential mummy bloggers for an article on keeping the house clean with kids.
It’s quite interesting that many of them share the problems that you wrote about.
Let me know if you want to check it out.
Cheers,
Lucian