Despite how easy it is for your children to make a mess of your home, it can be surprisingly hard to get them to help clean up afterwards.
Turn the tables by making clean-up time as fun as the activity that preceded it. Whether you turn tidying into a game itself, use rewards to encourage good behaviour or try to develop good habits so they become automatic, there are plenty of ways to get some help with your household chores.
Make it a game
Perhaps the easiest way to get your kids to do some cleaning is to frame it as if it's a game. If you have more than one child at your disposal, consider making it a challenge ("Who can put the most toys in this box in one minute?") or you can use it as a learning experience too ("Let's pick up all the blue things off the floor").
You can also turn cleaning into a race. Divide a room into two areas and set your children against each other (or yourself against them). Keep an eye on their progress and you can call out helpful hints to make sure the most important parts get sorted.
The world of make believe
If you ask a child to help you clean up, you may get a million different responses, but rarely a 'yes'. A dress- up game where everyone pretends to be a maid or a butler can disguise your true intentions, while a spot of acting as you film the latest commercial for a surface spray or your new mop can be equally as duplicitous and productive.
Buy kids their own tools
Many children respond well to responsibility, even at a young age. While chemicals and some cleaning jobs should be reserved for adult use only, by buying your children their own cloths, feather dusters and brooms – all in mini-size, of course – they may take some pride in using their new possessions. Check out this cute set from ToysRUs.
Set some routines
Getting help on a one-off basis is great, but if you can train your kids into good habits for the long term, that's even better. Make sure shoes are put away when they come in the house, plates are put by the sink after meals and toys are put away when they're finished with them. Each of these is a small job by itself, but it makes cleaning up a lot easier.
As kids get older, you'll need different tricks and rewards to get chores done. An easy one is to change the Wi-Fi password when you want some help with the cleaning. Once the jobs you want done have been completed, you can reveal the new password.
Create rewards
Many adults get paid to do jobs they don't like, so why not form the habit early by rewarding children for helping with tasks they don't enjoy? Rewards can be basic things like money or lollies, or something more exciting like a trip to the beach. You can also make another game of the rewards – for every five tokens they earn, they can trade it in for a bigger prize.
To add an extra element to the rewards system, consider hiding treats around the room you want cleaned. By telling your children that if they clean properly they'll find some prizes, you can encourage a more thorough clean. Be sure to keep an eye on them so that cleaning time doesn't just turn into a treasure hunt, or you can be sneaky and add the treats once a certain area has been cleaned.
Put on music
Turn a languid cleaning experience into something upbeat and fun. Put on some of your child's favourite songs, crank up the volume and get going. The excitement from the song will resonate through their cleaning, and can speed up what is otherwise a laborious task. Mixing this with a second idea – such as how many toys can be put away in a minute – can be extremely beneficial. Here is great playlist to get them started.
By making cleaning up a fun joint activity, you can get the job done without any complaints – even without your kids realising they've been duped into tidying up!
Some tasks, however, may need more expert help than you can find in your home. Click over to Oneflare where you can get free quotes from some of the best cleaning companies in your area.
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