Spring cleaning with children
Although most people proverbially hate cleaning, it also has an up-side: a clean household is a healthy household. Since there is less motivation if one deals with cleaning him/herself, we looked into ways how to trick kids to help you to clean up
It’s the weekend and your kids have started emptying all the toy boxes. Even though you find it impossible to convince children to help you, you are wrong. With a variety of tricks, you can quickly convince them to help you with cleaning and tidying up. Let’s introduce the speed cleaning concept, adapted for children.
Make a list
As with just about every successful project, planning matters. Make simple lists of what needs to be cleaned in which room and when. Then put everything on the schedule – experts say it then has an 80% better chance of becoming true. And, truth be told, it works. Especially as the family gets more familiar with every week speed cleaning the faster it’s done.
According to their abilities and age, children should be in charge of their rooms, and parents should share tasks according to their preferences – some prefer to vacuum, while others prefer to wash the windows – everybody should take over the things they prefer.
Keep it simple
Easy does it. It often happens that in the rush of the cleaning fever people tackle things too extensively. And run out of stamina. Don’t exaggerate. Whether you live in a 3-story house or an apartment of 50 m2, it is important to start with general cleaning around the premises. Only when you have cleaned one room (of dirt and excess junk) you move to another room. When cleaning and tidying up several rooms at the same time, it might happen that you do not finish any of them, which takes away your will for the next day and thus leaves the household in an even bigger mess.
Turn it into a game
Ask your children if they would like to do a treasure hunt. Draw them a plan of what to look for and put in a bucket, or write them a list if they already know how to read. Try to stimulate their imagination and ask them to find something round, small, blue … If they lose the desire to cooperate while picking up toys and clothes, try to stimulate them by asking them to pick up just three or four more things. Also, if you say you can pick up five things, your child will definitely compete with you and try to pick six.
Small prizes, big results
Offer children a small reward in return for tidying up. Suggest they can watch a movie and have a popcorn in the evening if they will help you. Or hide some change around the house(hold) that kids can keep if they find it.
Dusting and vacuuming
Kids love to use a vacuum cleaner or mist to wipe off dust. You can also pretend to clean the house because there will be a gala dance evening in honor of Cinderella in the living room in the evening.
Washing the floor
Wet cloths, sponges, and a bucket of water will delight every child. Let them wash the floor and you follow them with a towel. Don’t bother if the floor isn’t as clean as usual, the more times you let them wash the floor, the faster they will learn.
Happy spring cleaning!
