6 Tips to Get Kids to Clean Up After Themselves

Imagine a world where clothes are put away without asking, dirty dishes aren’t left on the table, and you aren’t standing on Lego left in the middle of the lounge room.

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you pride yourself on keeping a clean home. Unfortunately, your children likely don’t share your vision.

Word of warning: this process may take a little trial and error to find what works for your family. And while it’s tempting to just clean things yourself, taking the time to teach the kids to clean up their own mess has considerable benefits in the long term.

Tip # 1 Start Small

You can’t expect miracles to happen swiftly, so you’ll have to be patient, especially if this is a new concept for the family.

Set simple tasks to begin with and make sure that they are age-appropriate. Jobs such as:

• Putting dishes away after dinner.
• Putting folded washing away (or teaching older kids how to fold themselves)
• Keeping a certain room of the house clean (it doesn’t have to be their bedroom)
• Packing the dishwasher

Tip # 2 Just Don’t Do It

It’s easier said than done but parenting experts say that we are actually doing our children a disservice by not letting them do things they could be doing themselves.

One American mother even went so far as to go on a cleaning strike for six days. The results and this article about her experience are quite entertaining.

And while her approach was a little extreme, it can be used as inspiration here.

Pick one area or task around the home and let the children know you won’t be cleaning it for the time being and that it is now their responsibility: something such as the toy area or their dishes after dinner.

Hold firm and resist the urge to step in. This approach may take a little tinkering. Remember it’s likely you’ve been doing this for them for some time so turning the tide isn’t going to be simple.

Tip # 3 Don’t Use Cleaning As A Punishment

Changing the rhetoric around cleaning means not using it as punishment.

Be mindful of how you’re speaking about your own cleaning duties in earshot of the children, too – as we all know, kids love to imitate our behaviour.

Start talking about cleaning as a means to an end.

Here are some great ‘reasons to clean’ we discovered during our research that you may want to share with your children.

• A clean house helps us to keep healthy
• An organised house means we can find our toys or clothes when we want them.
• Helping mum and dad with the cleaning means we get to have more playtime together

Tip # 4 Make it Fun

Put some music on, turn it into a game (who can put their folded clothes away the quickest?) or play Timer Tidy Up once every couple of days or as needed.

Timer Tidy Up is a fun game that involves setting a timer for 10 minutes and the whole family sees how much they can get put away or tidied in that time. You’ll be amazed at what can be achieved and with everyone chipping in, it makes easy work of getting the house clean.

Tip # 5 Instil A Rewards Program

We get paid for the work we do as adults so setting up a rewards system will teach your child what it’s like to earn money for a job well done.

This Woman’s Day article has some great chore chart ideas for setting up a rewards system for when your children get their jobs completed around the house.

If you don’t want to reward the kids with money, reward them with an experience instead – a trip to the beach, museum, or place of their choosing.

Tip # 6 Consider The Emotional Benefits

While there are myriad advantages for you when your child takes a task off your hands, helping around the home has benefits for their development too.

• Lifelong skills – As adults, we know that chores are just a part of life. Introducing your children to chores but also teaching them how to do certain cleaning tasks around the home is a great way of preparing them for adulthood.
• Pride in their things – Teaching a child to value their environment and their things is an important part of growing up.
• They learn natural consequences – Having your children contribute to the household teaches them the reality that keeping a clean home is an important part of what makes the family work.

It’s also a lesson that when you make a mess, it is nobody else’s responsibility to clean it for you.

They will also learn firsthand the benefits of having an uncluttered space.

And that’s a win-win for everyone.