Teaching Young Kids to Clean

Housework is something you do that nobody notices until you don't do it.
~Author Unknown

Ain't that the truth! You work hard all day and the kids and husband comes home. “What did you do all day mom?” You get sick and suddenly the house is a mess. Hopefully most the time we have kids and a spouse that help out.

I like hugs and I like kisses,
But what I really love is help with the dishes!
~Author Unknown

If you are a stay at home mom typically the house workload is put on you. That's okay to a point. I mean, you are home during the day. Other family members are at school or work. But... if there are 4 people in your family, you are ¼ of the family. Yet sometimes it feels like you are doing most 3/4 of the work. If your kids are all at school, then cleaning is a little easier to get ahead. If you have little ones at home still, you need their help.

Cleaning sometimes isn't fun. But why not make it fun? Kids like to play. Make cleaning into a game. If you are stuck in a cleaning rut, here are some ideas that hopefully will make it go smoother. (FYI, my kids are 5, 6, and 2. The older ones love these games. The 2 year old doesn't understand the games yet.)

1) I Spy: I spy with my little eye something that you build. The kids look around and try and figure out what it is that you might build with. They race trying to find it. One of them gets it. They put it away. You could do something that is green. Something that goes quack quack. Have fun with it.

2) Hot or Cold: Have the kids take turns. Pick out an item. Then tell them if they are hot or cold. I'm sure we all know how this game goes. And to make it even more fun for the kids, let them have a turn picking out an item and you find it and put it away. Make being in charge of cleaning fun to.

3) Pick up (X) items: Sometimes we just tell everyone to stop what they are doing. Everyone picks up 10 items and put them away from every room that needs it. That's 40 items per room (2 year old doesn't quite get it, but we encourage her to pick up something.). Let's say you need to clean up 4 rooms. That is 160 things picked up and put away. You could spend 30 minutes doing it yourself. Or you divide it up between everyone and get it done in 1/4 the time.

4) Make cleaning a race: Sometimes when we've all fallen behind a bit we'll race to see who can clean their room the fastest. I clean my room, the kids clean their rooms. We have had whining on this one sometimes because one of them feels bad that they didn't win. But it's a good way to encourage being a good sport when you don't win. Sometimes the winner gets to pick out one small treat from the treat bag. Sometimes the winner gets two treats and everyone else gets one treat. Sometimes we don't win anything. Because sometimes we clean not to be rewarded, but because that's what you do.

I don't have experience yet with cleaning with older kids. But, I have read Don Aslett's book "Help Around the House". (If you go to Amazon, you can preview the book to have an idea of what's in it.) He has lots of great ideas of getting your family involved with cleaning. The nice thing about this book is that he has ideas sent in from readers. Some of them completely contradict each other, but it really is about finding what works with your family.

Here are a few more quotes to leave you with that I found about housework.

"Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy.
~Author Unknown

"The Rose Bowl is the only bowl I've ever seen that I didn't have to clean." ~Erma Bombeck

"If the shelves are dusty
and the pots don't shine,
it's because I have better things
to do with my time."
~Author Unknown

"I am thankful for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.... I am thankful for the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby."
~Nancie J. Carmody