How to Get the Family Involved in Cleaning

Create a detailed list of everything in your home that needs cleaning, from cupboards and drawers to laundry and dishes‎. Create separate lists for each room of your home by detailing every task that goes into keeping that space clean‎. As soon as you have a detailed list, you can divide the responsibilities among your family, keeping easy chores for the tinier hands in the house‎.

Children aged 4 and up can make their beds, help set the table, and pack away their toys‎. From age 6, children can start wiping tables and counters, packing their laundry, and even sweeping floors‎. From ages 7 to 9, loading and unloading the dishwasher and helping in the kitchen are suitable chores‎. These are merely guidelines for assigning chores to children‎. If you feel your child is not old enough for a particular chore, it’s best to leave it off their list until you are confident they can manage the task‎.

It’s also wise to let younger children start with a single chore‎. Once they can independently manage the task, you can add another‎.

Before you hand everyone their chore list, discuss your cleaning goals‎. When sharing household chores in a family, you can let each family member decide which chores they’d prefer or let them avoid ones they really don’t want to do‎. If everyone is content with their chore list, there’s a better chance they’ll stick to it‎.

Once everyone has their list or tasks, print them out and laminate them‎. You can use whiteboard markers to check off tasks and reuse the lists each week‎.

If you have younger children, monitoring them as they tidy up is essential, especially when assigning tasks like wiping surfaces with a cleaning product and cloth‎. Even when it comes to teenagers, you should first show them how to do the chores‎. For example, if your teens are handling the laundry, show them how to separate darks and lights, which detergents to use, how to set the washer and dryer, and how to fold each item of clothing‎. If your child struggles to meet their responsibilities, work together to understand why and create a plan to help them move forward‎.

You could also designate a cleaning time when everyone in the house must complete their list at the same time‎. Diving into tasks is easier when everyone else is doing the same thing‎. Whether you choose a day over the weekend or an hour or two every few days, creating a cleaning time is a great way to involve the whole family in keeping the house neat and organized‎.

Cleaning doesn’t have to be a mundane task — there are many ways to make cleaning fun for children and teenagers‎. Put music on to liven up the atmosphere‎. If you have small children, tidy-up sing-a-long songs can turn cleaning into a fun game‎.

You could also make chore buckets for each child, color coding cleaning products and supplies to suit their favorite color‎. Giving each child their own toolbox of cleaning things is a great way to empower them‎. Star charts are another way to add excitement to chores‎.

When it comes to teenagers, you might not have as much luck with sing-a-long songs and star charts, although you could encourage them to listen to music they like‎. You might find more luck rewarding your teens for completing their cleaning chores‎. Whether you offer incentives such as extra screen time, a day out, an allowance, or anything else, reward systems are a practical way to motivate your family to keep things clean‎.

It can be tempting to quickly pick up your kids’ toys and pack them away rather than continuously remind them to do it, especially if only a couple of toys are lying around‎. But if you make a habit of picking up after your family, they might make an unintentional habit of leaving it up to you‎. After all, why would your family clean up after themselves if they know you will?

Instead, reminding your family to tidy up after themselves will help them develop the habit‎. After some time, everyone will understand their role in keeping things clean, and doing so will feel less like a chore‎. Your family might even find they enjoy the feeling of a nice, clean home!

While staying on top of the chore list will require routine, the act of cleaning up after yourself can become a habit through repetition‎. If everyone cleans up after themselves throughout the day, chore times will shrink‎. For example, if everyone forms a habit of washing their cup instead of leaving it in the sink, there will be fewer dishes to wash in general‎.