The dreaded words, “It’s time to clean” and the frustrated nooooos that accompany those words. How on earth do we convince our kids that they need to learn to clean so their roommates don’t curse our names when the kitchen is a disaster or their spouse doesn’t hate us as in-laws? Some things that have worked for us are a chore chart, clean up tag, and magic item pick-up.
Chore charts
We use the Skylight Calendar for our kid’s chore charts and every week they have the same chores so we all know what needs to be done. It makes it simple for everyone. They need to make their beds, Beddy’s makes it so much easier for everyone, keep their rooms picked up, take their laundry baskets down every Monday, things like that. Keeping it simple during the week when we have school and then on Saturdays, they have extra chores that are based on their ages.
Clean up tag
What is clean up tag? That is where we each get a turn to clean. Pick a room, say the family room, and each person has to pick up a certain number of items, say 10, and when they are done, they tag the next person. If the room is extremely messy, join in the cleaning so you are leading by example and maybe you won’t get complaints like “Why do I have to do everything in this house by myself?”
Magic item pick-up
Magic item pick-up is a fun one. I pick an item in the room that is the magic item without telling the kids what it is and whoever is the lucky person that picks it up gets a prize. The key is to not tell them who picked it up until after the room is clean so there are no tears until the room is clean! If it is super messy, you can pick multiple items so there can be multiple winners. The prize can be something as easy as a piece of candy, one on one time, or five extra minutes of screen time. This is also a fun way to get other kids to clean up when visiting your house!
Do these things work 100% of the time, no. But if the kids know what is expected of them every day and know that Saturdays have extra chores it is laying the groundwork for them to have the life skills we all want our kids to grow up with. And maybe you won’t have to do all the cleaning in your house.
