Children learn through play, and everyone knows that dirt is good in their learning process because they are being active, exploring and making the most of their childhood. However, this may not always bode well for the state of your home at the end of a weekend.

Teaching your children how to clean up instils a sense of responsibility, accountability, and discipline in them, training them for the days when they will have to keep their own home clean too (we can only hope). Obviously, depending on your children’s ages, you will not have them taking part in large jobs around the house that grown-ups do, such as moving the furniture to dust, deep cleaning the kitchen/dining room/living room, replacing old fixtures, or having them take part in garage, basement or attic cleanouts with the use of a dumpster, that’s the parents time to dig deep and get things done. But they can still do something that contributes to the cleanliness of your home. In addition to this, mom deserves some help around the house, especially when it wasn’t her creating a Barbie house all over the entire lounge floor.

The trick here is not to make your children neater, because they are learning through play and need to feel free and have fun. After all, that is what their toys are for. This is why we’re going to share our top five housekeeping secrets for cleaning with kids with you so that you don’t spend hours cleaning up all alone after a day of fun.

Sing Songs

Children love rhymes and songs, and teaching them to speak and understand things using song has been proven to be highly effective. Do some research on the internet and find cute, simple cleaning up songs, such as ‘Tidy Up and Pack Away,’ which is sung on repeat as you move about neatening up.

Have a Place for Everything

Purchase a nice, solid toy box where all the scattered toys can be placed into at the end of the day. Have a bookshelf, the toy box and perhaps a display cabinet for all the teddy bears in your child’s room. This makes cleaning up much easier if they know where everything should go.

Have Clear Instructions

According to Simplymaid Australia, younger children may feel overwhelmed by a sweeping ‘clean up your room’ request, so rather compartmentalize the tasks by first asking your child to put all the teddies in their cabinet, then all the books on the bookshelf, and so on.

Make it into a Game

In addition to the song the two of you are singing together, make a game out of cleaning up. For example, you can have a race to see who can pack away their delegated toys first. You can even put a kitchen timer on to see if all the tidying up can be done before it goes off. Alternatively, you can teach your little one about colors or shapes whilst clean by, for example, having them pack away all yellow items first.

Hands On

Children are capable of getting hands-on in the cleaning tasks. If your future soccer player has acquired grass and dirt stains all over his pants, let him help you clean them up. Show him how you put your best stain remover on the stains and then he can help you pop a load of washing into the machine. Explain why you are putting automatic washing powder into the machine and that it is ‘soap for clothes.’

By using these little housekeeping hacks with your kids you will be instilling in them a sense of responsibility. After all, if they make the mess, they can help clean it up. Be firm but lighthearted, as the secret here is to make it feel like fun, rather than a chore. Good luck and happy cleaning up time!

Published: 2018-08-16 11:51:24