Cleaning any home is hard enough, but the job is doubly difficult with a young family to care for. But it’s only right that everyone living in a family home pitches in with essential cleaning jobs — and on a regular basis.
Let’s be brutally honest about this: very few children want to waste their play time vacuuming carpets and polishing tables. If you want to get them involved — and lighten your load in the process — you need to make cleaning more fun.
Here are seven ways you can make cleaning a real family affair. Who knows? You might just end up having some fun yourself.
1. Have cleaning races
If your children like races at school, there’s a chance they’ll respond favorably to any type of race — including cleaning races. Give each child a similar job, and tell them it’s a competition. If you only have one child, you can take part in the race… although you’ll probably want to lose this particular challenge.
2. Create a reward chart
Lots of children receive stars or merit points at school — for good work or behaviour. You can apply this principle in your home with cleaning charts. Allocate jobs evenly every week, and every time one is completed, update the chart.
To make this work, there has to be an incentive. While you can add a competitive element, it’s best to take a positive approach with rewards for everyone. For example, each completed job could be rewarded with a sweet treat or extra TV time. Completing a full week of chores could be rewarded with family day out or something similarly impressive.
3. Assign jobs according to strengths and preferences
There may be cleaning jobs that your children enjoy, such as vacuuming, cleaning the car or cleaning windows. If you can, give your children the jobs they enjoy, or at the very least the jobs they don’t despise. And if certain members of your family display an aptitude for a particular chore, give it to them indefinitely.
4. Serve a few praise sandwiches
While cleaning should be fun if possible, it still needs to be effective. If members of your family aren’t delivering, they need to know — and they need to know how to improve. This can be tricky when it comes to children, as the merest hint of criticism can result in tantrums.
When you’re not happy with a job, deliver the feedback away from other members of your family. Start by talking about what was done well, then move onto the issue. Finish off with more praise to complete the “sandwich”.
5. The fun doesn’t have to stop when cleaning starts
There are lots of things you and your family can do while you clean. For example, there may be times when your children can watch their favourite TV show while cleaning. There may even be times when cleaning can be punctuated with fun games. Why not hold a family quiz during cleaning time? Whether you play motivational music or let your children listen to an audio book, there are ways to multitask your way to more enjoyable cleaning.
6. Chores come first
A great way to motivate children to clean is to insist that chores are taken care of before more enjoyable activities can begin. During the summer, for example, lots of children want to get outside and play with friends from the moment they wake. This is the best time to get them cleaning. The quicker they finish their chores, the quicker they can start having fun outside.
7. Clean little and often
This tip is going to take a little longer to enforce. However, once everyone develops a cleaning habit, you’ll find that your home is tidier and cleaner than ever. When a mess is made, make it a house rule that it must be cleaned up immediately. If toys are out, make it a rule that they must be put away before others are brought out. Show your children what they can clean or tidy as they move around the home — such as door handles, switches and tabletops. Once there is a cleaning culture in your home, there’ll be far fewer big cleaning jobs to take care of every month.
Cleaning CAN be fun, and it can be used as a way to spend time with the most important people in your life — you just need to be organised in your approach.