Has the pandemic wrought havoc on your haven? Is your dining room barely discernible from a garage sale? After nearly a year of living, working, schooling, and playing at home, perhaps your space could use a good ol’ fashioned spring spruce up.
Getting everyone in the family involved in spring cleaning or year-round household chores is a win-win. It’s good for parents, because let’s be honest, you could use some help. It’s good for the kids because it teaches them responsibility and what it means to be part of a family.
Here are some steps and ideas to get you started!
- Make a list of all the housework.
- While we are using the word “chore” as a shortcut in this post, think about maybe not even using the word “chore” at home. Family contributions or housework might be better word choices, since chore has a negative connotation.
- Divide tasks up into Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Seasonal.
- Invite all members to a family meeting.
- Present your list in the meeting so everyone sees all the chores.
- Explain who does what right now and how you’d like everyone in the family to help.
- Ask kids which chores they would like to do, or think they can handle.
- Getting input and buy-in from kids helps! They’ll have some control and say.
- Create a “signup sheet” so family members can put their name next to a chore they’d like to do.
- Encourage children to take chores related to pets, their own bedrooms, playrooms, etc.
- Don’t limit kids’ chores to their own belongings or spaces. Living spaces, kitchen chores, setting the table—these are good for children to help with, too.
- Organize chores and/or checklists in a fun way—charts, desk or wall calendar, a dry-erase board on the fridge, stickers for little ones. Get creative!
- If your family is more tech-savvy, try free apps like OurHome.
- Use a rewards system. Positive reinforcement is a great way to keep everyone motivated.
- Speaking of rewards, try “experience” rewards in addition to money or candy/treats. For example: Do something fun with the family at the end of a whole month of everyone sticking with their housework!
- Organize the cleaning closet. Brooms, mops, vacuum, cleaning cloths, dusters and cleaners should be easy for everyone to get what they need.
- Invest in convenience items like a light, cordless vacuum for stairs, Swiffer, magic erasers, cleaning wipes, etc, to make cleaning easier for kids.
- Make time on the weekends for everyone to do some weekly housework together. Put on some music like Amazon Prime’s cleaning playlists.
- Teach older children to do their own laundry! Even younger children can help by making sure their laundry basket makes it to the laundry room on a certain day, or days, of the week.
- Be consistent! This goes for every aspect of parenting.
- Talk about consequences if chores are not done. Make sure to set expectations and follow through with consequences.
- Have regular conversations or meetings about chores, division of labor, what is going well and what needs improvement.
- Keep it positive!
- Talk about your feelingswhen you’re frustrated. This is a great opportunity to model good communication. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with housework, tell them how that makes you feel and why you are asking for help.
- Use YouTubeand Google to look for cleaning tips, hacks for making housework easier, and other methods for more efficient cleaning.
- Some experts recommend NOT tying chores to children’s allowance. Helping with housework is every family members’ responsibility, because that’s what being part of a family is about. Tying allowance to chores can reinforce a negative lesson (what’s in it for me?), but ultimately it’s up to parents to figure out what works best.More about this topic here.
- Don’t forget meal preparation and cooking as part of the list of tasks and responsibilities for kids.
- Browse Pinterestfor sticker charts and chore calendar downloadables.
- Educate yourself on positive parenting strategies! Many parents find themselves nagging kids to get XYZ done on a daily basis. Get some help by attending Parenting Education
- Angie’s List put together a great chart for age appropriate chores for kids!