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Cleaning. Get the Children Involved in Cleaning

No matter if you are a mom, dad, or a single parent, all that housework just seems to keep piling up no matter how late you stay up and how much you seem to spend on cleaning your home. If your children are getting a little older, their messes are getting a bit bigger, now is the time to get your children involved in house cleaning, the chores, and lessening the workload that you have to handle daily.

The children that are getting a little older can be coaxed into helping out more around the house when you add a little allowance to make them want to clean, when you start making statements about – well if you want a ride to xxxx, you’ll do this weekly.  Or you can just sit everyone down and tell them that you just don’t have the time to do everything and that they are going to have to start helping out if they want you to do things for them (run for this, pay for that, and the list goes on). Generally the older the children get, the more they want so you really should be expecting more from them, and they can handle the responsibility to take care of it all the time as they get into the habit.

There are many things around the house that you can start getting your children involved with so you can work on other areas of the house, or just take a break if you need. All the laundry that needs washed; the children can sort by dark or white and have them put into piles for you on washday. All the wash can be put on the couch or on your bed and then all the children can help sort and put clothes away at the same time.

Children, even as young as seven or eight, can be using the sweeper to sweep the living room and learning about helping in the house. They can sweep their bedrooms, the halls or other carpeted rooms in the house, even if they don’t get it all done as you would, at least this is a quick pick me up for your carpet that will get you through until you have the time to do it thoroughly as you would like it to be done.

The new dusting mitts are great for having children help out with the dusting on the end tables, around the corners of the floor and even in their playroom. The dusting mitts, found in just about any home store or center, fit right on your hand and you just dust away. You can use the dust mitts that include furniture polish or a dry dust mitt that will just pick up the dust fast. Either way, a child of any age can help with this task around the house so that you can free up a few more minutes in your schedule.

When you are discussing with the children, from seven to seventeen, about helping out around the house remind them that you are busy and that if all the chores get done you can rent a few movies, you will take them swimming or that you will let them use the computer an extra hour this week. What ever their favorite things are, you can let them have more of or a special treat because they are helping out with all the chores around the house.

You need to make the chores seem as if they are not so bad, heck everyone has chores to do in the home!  Just keep talking about how things get done so much faster when they help you (even if they are not perfect) and you will find that as they keep doing their chores, they will complain less, they will try harder to please you and every one is going to be so much happier in a clean and organized home!