Teaching kids to Clean and Organize

I recently received and email from a reader that got me thinking about how important it is to include our kids in the cleaning and organizing process.  Here’s what she said,

“I just came across your blog through a Google search. I am desperately trying to find a “new” cleaning routine. I have 4.5 & 1.5 year old boys. I hate the house looking cluttered during the day with toys, food on the floor, etc. But if I wait until the end of the day to really clean, then I’m so tired and don’t get much done. In your opinion, is it more productive to clean throughout the day (even though with kids the clean doesn’t last long and has to be repeated), or wait and do most cleaning when the kids are in bed?”

After receiving her question I decided that teaching kids to clean and organize would be another great addition to my organizing resolutions!  To answer her questions I’d say “yes”.  Yes I think it’s important to clean throughout the day but I also think it’s important to clean up at night.  Let me explain.

Kids are messy, we all know that.  But the great thing about kids is that they are teachable.  If we don’t teach our kids to pick up after themselves and to be organized, they’ll never learn, so I believe it’s our responsibility as parents to teach them these tools.   So how do we do that?  Let me give you a few ideas.

#1 Teach by example
My mom taught me that when I was done “playing” with something then I needed to put it away before getting something else out.  I try really hard to live by this rule and the more I do, the better example I am for my daughter.  If leave messes all around the house then I’m teaching my daughter that it’s okay for her to leave messes all over the house.  I’m not going to lie and say I always pick up every mess right away, because it’s not true, especially when we’re working on a house project, BUT in my day to day life I try really hard to pick up after myself and encourage my daughter to do the same.

We also have a rule in our house that if my daughter leaves toys out, that I’ve asked her to pick up, then they will go in “timeout” until the next day.  This has been a very effective rule in our house because it devastates my daughter to think she could lose a toy for a day.

So throughout the day encourage your children to pick up their toys.  It’s okay to not want your house to look like a hurricane swept through, and it’s okay to ask your kids to pick up after themselves.  You are the mom but you are not a maid. {wink}

#2 A Place for Everything
It’s very important that if you are asking kids to put away their clutter, that they know where it goes.  Make sure their toys, books, clothes, etc. all have a specific place they go, and make sure your kids know where that is.  This will require organization on your part, but if you take the time to organize their toys, etc. it will make it SO MUCH easier for them to put things away in the right places.  For more ideas on toy organization see this post and this post.

#3 Get them involved
Kids love to feel like they are being included in things and they love it when you give them attention and teach them something.  Kids don’t know that most people don’t like to clean their houses, for all they know cleaning the house can be super fun!  If you give them a task and make it fun for them, they will enjoy helping you keep the house picked up and clean.

For example laundry is one of my least favorite chores, but since my daughter was young, I’ve had her helping me, and she thinks it’s fun.  I used to put her in the laundry basket and “choo-choo” her to the laundry room, along with all the clothes.  Now that she’s older I don’t do that anymore but she still helps me sort the laundry and she’s great at matching the socks!  I don’t do it all the time but I’ve also let her help me put the clothes in the washing machine, and pour the soap into the water.  She thinks it’s fun to see the bubbles and put the clothes in their “bath”.

There are lots of ways to make “boring chores” more fun when you get your kids involved!  My friend Amy, at 20 Minute Mom has some great ideas for Toddler Chores, here are a couple of them:

* Plant Watering: Have your toddler place an ice cube or two into each of your house plants for slow indoor plant watering. Outside is the place for your toddler to use a watering can!
* Fluff Pillows: Give your toddler pillows from the couch to fluff (showing them the proper motion).
* Dusting: Go to the dollar store and grab an extra dusting wand for your toddler. Show them the coffee table and the front of cabinets that are easy for them to dust.

Other ideas, that I have my daughter do, are:

* Feeding the animals
* Wiping off door handles and light switches with a Clorox wipe
* Setting the dinner table
* Wiping crumbs off the floor if she makes a mess while she’s eating
* Helping to put away the groceries
* Pick out school clothes each day
* Sort the laundry
* Fold socks and wash cloths

If you start them doing chores, and picking up after themselves, at a young age, then they’ll never know any different!  If you’re just starting out, and your child is a little older, it might be a struggle to get them started, however if you can show them how much fun it can be (the whole “teaching by example” thing), then they will start enjoying it too.

#4 Reward them
It’s important to reward children for helping out around the house.  Since you are teaching them a lifelong skill I think rewarding them is a good way to get them motivated to learn.   The rewards don’t have to be grand, it could be just an ice cream date with mom and dad, or an extra 30 minutes of watching TV.  Whatever it is make sure to tell them you are giving them this extra privilege because you really appreciate how hard they’ve been working around the house.  If you affirm them and tell them how proud you are, that they are being such good helpers, it will make them eager to help you out even more!  Sometimes my daughter will, out of the blue, tell me she’s going to clean the house for me.  She will pick up all her toys, dust for me, etc. and when I get down and look her in the eyes to tell her how much I appreciate her hard work, her whole face lights up and I can see she feels so affirmed and validated.  It’s moments like this that will motivate your children to help you out because they love seeing how much pleasure you get from them helping you out.

#5 Chore Charts & Job Lists
Chore charts and job lists are another great way to motivate your kids to pick up around the house! In our house we don’t have “chores” we have “jobs” because a few years ago my husband and I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace class and in one of the sessions he talked about “hiring” your kids for “jobs” rather than just giving them an allowance.  You can read my full post on it here. Here is what Malea’s Job Chart look like.

At the end of each day we check off the jobs she complete for the day and then at the end of each week she gets paid.

Here are some other ideas I found on Pinterest for children’s chore charts.

Source: A Spotted Pony

Source: Loving our Chaos

Source: Pinterest

#6 End of the day pick up
Make sure before your kids go to bed they do one last glance around the house to see if they have any toys, etc. laying round.  In our house the rule is, “whatever is left out for mom to pick up goes in timeout for a day.” Sometimes Malea will complain and say it’s too hard to pick up her toys but my response is simply, “If you can take all your toys out, you should be able to put them away.  If you feel like it’s too hard because you have too many toys, I’d be happy to take some of them and give them to a kid that doesn’t have very many toys.”  She hates it when I say that, but it’s true, if they can take the toys out they can put them away too.  Trust me, they will learn very quickly that it isn’t really that hard to pick up all their clutter at the end of each day.

Remember the “teach by example” rule?  Yep, same thing applies here.  At the end of each day walk around the house and pick up your clutter.  I find that I am in such a better mood in the mornings if I wake up to a tidy house.  If I wake up to a cluttered and messy house, I start my day off feeling overwhelmed and stressed by all the messes that need to be picked up before the day has even gotten started!

If you follow these simple steps you will notice a huge difference in your home!  Taking a little extra effort to teach your kids how to clean and organize from a young age will HUGELY pay off when they are older and don’t have to be asked constantly to pick up after themselves!  And don’t worry, you don’t have to be perfect at it, I’m not either.  There are lots of days I forget to have Malea check off the jobs she completed that day, and there are also days I forget to ask her to pick up her toys in the evening.  But the overall concept is still in place and she knows the rules.  There are days when she picks up all her stuff without even being asked and those are the days that motivate me to keep reminding her, to keep teaching her, and to keep setting a good example!

If you’d like to check out my other Organizing Resolutions click on the links below.

How to Organize Paper Clutter
How to Organize Kids’ School Work

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