Make Cleaning Fun: How to Get Your Kids Involved

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of a clean and tidy house, is there? But when you’ve got kids running around, things can be made difficult, toys can be thrown about, and your beautiful home can quickly turn into a zoo.

While it may seem as if your child’s mess making habits are the bane of your house’s existence, we have some solutions for you: getting your kids involved in cleaning by making the cleaning fun. In our eyes, something is only a chore if you make it one. So why not make tidying up something you and your kids can enjoy together and have fun while doing it!

Here are a few of our favorite ways to get your kids involved in keeping the house clean while still having fun…

1. Employ a Star Chart: While something as simple as a sticker star might not be enough to motivate you to clean up your mess, there’s something about a shiny gold star that can pretty much guarantee your kids help out. Though they can often be a menace (our menaces of course) there’s no doubt that verbal rewards actually make a huge impact on children’s behavior and long term learning of what’s right and wrong. But even better than a simple pat on the back is recognition that they can visualize. A star chart, such as these can help kids actually see that what they are doing to help around the house is being recognized and acknowledged by their parents. So stock up on stickers and get ready for a spotless home!

     2. Make it a Race: If you’ve got more than one little tyke around the house, you can either see it as                      double the mess or as a faster way to clean up! Kids love games, and love competition even more. So if          you’ve got a stack of laundry that needs folding, try splitting it up and timing them to see who can get            their piles neatly folded first. Same goes for making beds, doing the dishes and pretty much any other          at home task.

    3. Assign Rewards: Hey, there’s no shame in shelling out some rewards if it gets the job done. In all                   honesty, sometimes kids just really need that extra boost of motivation to be excited about cleaning.            So, on the morning of cleaning day I recommend making a little list of chores with corresponding                  rewards that your child will receive if the task is completed. Whether that be monetary and you assign          each task as a couple cents or dollars they can earn, or if it’s something like “Clean the bathroom and            mom will buy you an ice cream cone,” your child will be far more inclined to help out.

That’s it for our favorite ways to get our kids involved in cleaning—we hope you found it helpful and can’t wait for you to try out these tips! Happy cleaning 🙂