Cleaning with family can be fun. Cleaning can sound like a horrible word to some people and definitely doesn’t sound fun but you can change that.
You can make cleaning fun with your family or at least not too awful.
I will give you some tips to help make cleaning fun in your household. Tips on creating routines. Also tips on what not to say to your kid when cleaning.
Starting at a very early age with your kids can help ease this process. If your kids are older it isn’t too late to start and you definitely should.
We all know that you need a clean house to stay healthy. No one really wants to live in a dirty unclean, messy house. Or a house that could expose yourself and family to getting sick.
Cleaning the house is just part of living in a home. Realizing that those that live in it have a responsibility to keep it clean. That refers to kids as well.
As a family you want to have your children help with the household cleaning. Kids really need some of that responsibility so they actually feel some ownership in their room/house.
At what age should a child clean up after themselves?
I think that when a toddler can pick up toys off a shelf or out of a bin they can start cleaning up also. At a toddler age their clean up chores are short and simple. Start teaching them how to clean up while playing with them. Show them how you get a toy out of the bin, play with it, and then put it back in the bin. Or you can start a routine by having your toddler play with toys and then before bedtime they have to clean up.
Personally I wouldn’t push kids cleaning up multiple times a day. They may get tired of it fast and throw fits instead of cleaning. I feel like if they have a playroom or play with the toys in their room they can get messy with them through the day. At evening time then they do their routines of cleaning up the toys and then bath and bed.
If you set up a routine it eventually becomes habit and something you don’t have to really think about. Routines are important and can really help your child out.
I know some people may do the play with one toy and put it back up then another and so on. If that works for you and your child that is fine. I know with my kids that didn’t work so well and I felt like their creative side was stifled that way. My kids loved to get out tons of toys and create towns and villages and build and intermingle so many toys that that concept didn’t work so well. Bedtime clean up worked much better for us.
Setting Family Cleaning Routines
Making the bed – Start off your day with making your bed and having your kids make their bed. If you keep it easy and just pull the sheets up and comforter up that is great. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Don’t use tons of throw pillows as that will eventually make the kids tired of that process. On the other hand if your child loves all those pillows and enjoys making their bed then do that.
Bedtime cleanup – The other daily cleaning routine should be toy clean up time before bed. This can be actually before dinner or after dinner or after bath time. Whatever works the best for your family. Show your kids how to clean up. Help your kids figure out what bins or shelves they want their toys to go in. If you give them that choice it will help them with ownership of their toys and room/playroom.
It’s a great idea to let your kids pick out their own bins at the store if you are financially able to do that. If not you could always find bins, containers, or small bookshelves at a garage sale or second hand store.
If financially strained and can’t find cheap containers you can use cardboard boxes. I have personally wrapped some boxes in cute wrapping paper before and just used those. Just tuck in all the top sides or cut them off and cover the box in wrapping paper. For added longevity you can then cover the wrapping paper with packing tape.
You can even just let your kids color and decorate the card board boxes or cover them in brown paper so they can decorate those. If you can label the boxes, bins, or shelves that can help with organization as well. The more you have your kids help in this process the more your kids will want to keep their toys/stuff organized.
How to Promote house cleaning with family:
Incentive or Family reward
Choose a day that works best for house cleaning. You may not be able to always do the cleaning on that day but you can create a routine and adjust the day as needed.
If you are able to clean say on Friday evenings a big treat for the family after cleaning could be out for dinner, pizza night in or popcorn and movie night.
Having a treat after your cleaning time can be a great reward and incentive. A treat meaning ice cream or something yummy to eat or a treat being something fun you do.
Say cleaning day is Saturday morning as an example then afterwards plan to go to the park, outing somewhere fun, or on a bike ride together.
If your kids realize that after cleaning as family you all get to go do something fun as a family that will be a great incentive. Your kids will be happy to do almost anything with you when they are young. You can make simple things fun. Even just a walk around the block or play in the back yard with them. Your kids just want your undivided attention and after cleaning you can give that to them. They will definitely want to help with chores knowing after they get that wanted attention.
I look at this as having a reward or incentive not a bribe. It is a family cleaning effort and then after a family reward.
Never have cleaning as a punishment. If you have your kids clean as a punishment they most definitely will not ever enjoy cleaning up and always look at cleaning as a punishment.
If your kids ask why do I have to help clean? It always needs to come from a perspective as we are a family and this is one of those family things. We all live here together and all need to do our part to help keep our house clean and nice to live in.
Make a list of chores that need to be done:
Have a list of basic chores that need to be done each week like vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, etc…
Then have a list of chores that might need to be done monthly or every few months like cleaning the windows, cleaning mirrors, or any other deeper cleaning chores.
Create your list with the basic chores and each week alternate one of the monthly deeper cleaning chores in.
With the basic chore list divide the chores up with the family by who can do what. If you have older kids let them choose what they want to do or alternate the chores each week. Then throw in one of the monthly chores for all to do as a family and knock it out together.
Chore Chart – If you want you could even make a chore chart so everyone can see the chores needed to be done. You could then have each person in the family with their name on a piece of Velcro. Each week they move their name to the next set of chores so it’s always alternating. Sometimes seeing that chore list helps kids out and reminds them of all they need to do.
Choose chores for toddlers too. Just give them a small easy job that they will be successful in completing. Having all your kids involved even the toddlers will help them feel part of the whole family.
This is very important! Never go behind your child and redo what they have cleaned.
If your child does not do a good job at cleaning you can politely say for example: Thank you for cleaning the bathroom. Next time maybe try this on the toilet and cleaning the top part first is a little easier or whatever you want to say. Or the next time they clean the bathroom pop in and see how they are cleaning it and offer a suggestion or helpful advise. Don’t ever say oh that’s a crappy job! Or it doesn’t even look like you did anything in here, did you even clean it?
If your kid truly worked hard cleaning and you walk in and completely demolish any work they did by rude comments or redoing their work you will belittle them. You can truly knock down your kids self esteem and make them feel worthless. They will not want to do chores anymore for sure.
Sometimes your child just needs a reminder or re-watch you on how to efficiently clean something. Depending on age they will probably not do as good of a job as you can. Remember that and don’t expect it! It is part of the teaching and learning process. Just realize it’s better than you doing all the work yourself and get over it.
When folding laundry don’t worry about your kids not folding them correctly or perfectly and don’t re do them. You first teach them how to fold and if they can’t figure it out show them again and make it simple. When they have a stack of folded towels let them put them up in the cabinet that way.
DO NOT REFOLD THEM! If you go and refold the stack they will feel useless and won’t want to help again. Put them up in the cabinet just the way they folded them. If you are embarrassed for company to see how they are folded just simply say with a sincere nice voice and smile “I have wonderful helpers that folded my towels” or whatever it was. Just be nice in the way it sounds. Other adults will understand and your kids hearing that praise will feel proud.
As your kid gets older you may show them a different technique on folding or whatever the cleaning is. Just never expect perfection. No one is perfect and you should never expect that from your kids or family.
Even a spouse, if you expect perfect folded sheets and your spouse doesn’t do them the way you like it – get over it! Nothing should ever have to be perfect! Nothing is! Life isn’t perfect and neither are you, even if you think so. So get over it fast because you will actually be the issue that is keeping your family from having fun while cleaning or the reason they won’t help clean.
I’ve had that moment when I was like thinking in my head – wow that doesn’t look clean. But then my kid would be proud and say look I’ve cleaned the toilet and was proud of their work. You just have to suck it up and say “great! I really appreciate you helping clean”. You don’t have to say “great job” if it wasn’t, just acknowledge them helping as a family. Appreciate what they have done and in the future and as they are getting older help guide them on doing a better job.
Make chores fun. Start your kids cleaning at a young age. That will help develop cleaning into a routine that everyone continues.
How to make cleaning with family fun:
Show your kids cleaning can be fun
- Play fun load music where you dance and sing while cleaning. Make a play list of a mix of music your kids like with songs you like. It can be a family cleaning playlist. Cleaning the bathroom isn’t fun but maybe listening to music and singing while cleaning can make the process more fun.
- Washing dishes can be fun with extra soap bubbles. When your kids are old enough to stand on a stool and help out with dishes let them. This is also kind of a messy play for kids that most will enjoy.
- Start off with only letting them wash Tupperware or plastic dishes. As they get older let them wash other dishes. Just don’t let or make your kids wash or dry glasses or other breakable dishes. Don’t put that pressure on your kids. Accidents will happen and you don’t want to yell or get angry with your child if they break a dish.
- You will want to have dish gloves for your child and watch what temperature you have the water at. Maybe just letting them rinse the dishes in cold water then onto the mat for drying would work well. Help them with drying dishes and where they go in cabinets or drawers.
Show them how team work is and how things can get done faster with help. Not only will that help you with cleaning but can carry on to other areas. It can help when they are in school working on a group project or later when they get a job. As your child gets older let them fill the dishwasher with dishes and eventually where they can even run the dishwasher themselves.
- Tell jokes while you are working on a cleaning project together. That can definitely lighten the mood and bring in some good laughs. Plus this is great for promoting reading as they can read joke books to find one to share.
- Set a timer – Some kids work slow or find themselves wandering around instead of cleaning, if so set a timer. You can set a timer for each cleaning task they need to do. If they are dusting set the timer and when it rings they should be done with that chore and then onto the next one and so on. Some kids like a challenge so they can try to beat the timer getting the chore done but still doing a good job. Most kids like to beat the timer and prove they can do it. That could actually benefit the family if everyone is on a timer schedule then cleaning can get done fast.
- Try a game like musical chairs but this is musical cleaning stations. If your family is washing dishes together have them all trade spots when the music changes. One can be washing and trade to drying or rinsing.
- Make up a cleaning song and sing it or rap it. That could be fun and nice to have your own family song. If you aren’t musically talented to do that find a cleaning song already out there such as one on a kids show.
What to do when your child doesn’t like loud noises? Or, What to do when your child doesn’t like the sound of a vacuum cleaner? When my kids were little they hated the sound of the vacuum cleaner and it actually kinda scared them. I needed to get vacuuming done so I started this little ritual and the kids loved it! When I would vacuum I told the kids that this was the time they could be very loud inside. I would grab out pots and pans and let them bang them and let them yell and go crazy being loud.
This loud time for them began a fun time they looked forward too and they would like me to vacuum. We called it our loud time. They even started a marching band as they loved marching around the rooms. Banging their make shift instruments. My daughter even got a drum at one time and plastic flute and would make noises with those. If your child likes to be loud but it just hurts their ears find some ear muffs, ear phones, or earplugs to use.
Even if your kids don’t mind the sound of the vacuum most kids like a loud time. A time where they can be extremely loud and not get into trouble. Give it a try and see if your kids enjoy getting out their loud craziness.
What if you have a child that likes to be noisy? Or is noisy all the time? If your child is one that is very noisy and loves being loud try doing the loud time during vacuuming. Maybe they can get it out then. Worst case is that you may have very clean floors if you need to give them that loud time each day.
Allowing your kids to feel a part of the family and feel like cleaning is a family thing may make your child more apt to helping.
Have your normal daily cleaning routines you start early on with your kids like making the bed and bedtime clean up. Dishes is a daily routine as well so have them get used to helping out.
All other chores keep them on a weekly chore chart where the whole family helps out on a particular day and time. Allowing for adjustments when needed.
Don’t forget to enjoy that fun family treat. Everyone likes to get a reward or treat after working hard.
It doesn’t have to be big just some type of treat that you do or get as a family. Your kids will like to clean because they will look forward to that fun family time afterwards.
Go and have some family fun time while cleaning and making your house look nice.