Inside: Getting your kids involved in chores including sweeping, bedroom clean-up, toy organizing and even vacuuming! Plus a free downloadable Chore Chart and Sticker Counter!
There are two truths in my life – dirt and the fact that it needs to be cleaned up LOL. In all seriousness, I think it’s funny that this blog has grown into such a resource for cleaning hacks and solutions, but I guess that’s just real life right?
Make sure you download my FREE CHORE CHART and Sticker Incentive printouts!
We make messes and we want to clean them up effectively and fast…and in my case, I want to teach my daughter that cleaning up is a necessary part of life.
Getting your kids involved
The key to bringing kids into cleaning is to incentivize them. Which, let’s face it, is just a fancy word for bribing them LOL. But this can be a great teaching time. Teach them that a clean room means more space to play later, that clean dishes mean it’s easier to bake yummy cookies and clean laundry means they can wear their favourite costume wherever they want.
Doing the Dishes
From a very young age, kids can help clear plates, stack dishes and help to dry them. This is a teaching moment to talk about water conservation, avoiding harsh chemicals and low-phosphate soaps!
If you want to really teach them to clean, have them try this eco-friendly hack for cleaning a glass stove top, or even better, my best hack for cleaning a stainless steel sink.
Tidying up toys in bins
This is a chore kids can do almost immediately. While they don’t always listen when you ask them to clean up toys, I watched P’s daycare teachers make a game out of it and wow! It worked!
So now, when she needs to clean up the playroom (or wherever she’s made a mess of toys) we make it part of the game. 
For older kids, it helps to label toy bins with pictures of what should be in the bins. That way, if they aren’t at an age when they can read, they will still be able to understand what goes where.
If you are still in the ‘overwhelmed by toys’ phase and you need to do a full on purge before you can clean – check out this post on Decluttering Kids Toys.
Sweeping & Mopping
This is more of a fun good habit for kids to have. I like to clear a space and let P just have at it with a mop and broom. I like the mops with the removeable and washable mop pads too, because it reduces waste and I find they clean so well!
My new favourite is the DUOP Mop & Duster from Home Hardware. It’s super lightweight (so easy for me and P to use), the mop head comes off so you can use it to actually dust things and it extends really far, so you can do a quick dust along light fixtures, fans and window ledges.
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