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Having kids is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do with your life. They can bring more light and love to your love than most anything else in your life. However, they can also bring more frustration than most anything else. This is especially true when it comes to having a clean home with kids. Let’s face it; they are loveable balls of fluff but man do they know how to make a mess! If you have been feeling that frustration, these ideas for how to have a cleaner home with kids are a great place to start finding relief.
Everything Has A Home
One of the most important lessons you can teach your kids about cleaning is that everything has a home. This applies to everything from their toys to dirty dishes. If they get into the habit of leaving things lying around, you will automatically have a home that looks dirty even if it really isn’t.
Budget Your Time Well
Another thing that will help you have a cleaner home with kids is to make sure you’re budgeting your time well. This means to clean your home when you will have the least resistance. If you have school age kids, try to clean when they are at school. If you have littles who haven’t started school yet, do your cleaning when they take their naps. Doing things this way will ensure the kids can’t go right behind you and make another mess.
Teach Your Kids to Pick Up After Themselves
The simplest way to avoid a situation where your kids leave everything lying around is to teach them to pick up after themselves. If they know to clean up their own messes, it will be less work for you to keep a cleaner home. Littles can be easy to teach this to, however, if you have older kids who are not already in the habit, you will most likely have an uphill battle to fight to teach them the new habit. To avoid losing your mind when you’re doing so, simply remind them every time you see them leave something lay.
Tidy Often and Clean As You Go
Whether you have kids or not, the true key to having a cleaner home is simply to tidy often and clean as you go. If you see trash that needs to be thrown away, do so. If there are toys that need picked up, do so. Wash the dishes before the sink gets totally full and then make sure to put them away. The more you can keep up on, the less messy your home will be.
And Have the Kids Help
As with picking up after themselves, anytime you tidy up, you should aim to have your kids help too. The more they are involved, the less likely they will be to create messes that make your home look exceedingly messy. Once concept that might work for your kids was taught on the 90’s kids show called “The Big Comfy Couch.” At the end of each episode, they would do a segment where they tidied up the play area. Since it was made into a game of sorts, kids responded to it very well.
To make the game work for helping to keep your home clean, it should be at least five minutes long. If you have small kids, you may want to consider a small prize for the person who picks up the most. This is a great way to encourage them to help clean while making them feel appreciated at the same time.
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Create Daily & Weekly Cleaning Routines
Unfortunately, cleaning is one of those things that must be done on a regular basis, but if there is no pattern or routine to it, you will quickly find that things get forgotten about or skipped. However, once you create a daily, weekly and even a monthly cleaning list, you set yourself and your home up for success.
For your daily cleaning lists, start by marking down each chore that must be done every day. This should include things such as dishes, taking the trash out and so on. Once you have the list created, divide it out among the members of your household. Repeat the process for chores that should be done weekly. If your family has monthly tasks, you might consider doing a monthly one too.
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Reward Good Behavior
Since a lot of keeping your home cleaning with kids will rely on your kids help, be sure to reward their good work and behavior. It does not need to be a big, expensive reward. Even something as simple as extra time on their electronics or a set of stickers can be enough motivation to keep them working toward a new reward.