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It’s clean up time!
Spring has sprung and who isn’t in the mood to start (or finish) their spring cleaning?! But mom and dad aren’t the only ones who have responsibilities around the house. Our children can start their own cleaning routine as early as the baby stage. We’ve always felt it’s super important to involve our kids, and teach them to pick up after their toys. But once they hit age three it’s time to start adding in daily chores. We started small with putting dirty clothes into the hamper and cleaning up spills, but now our girls help out in big ways that save mommy lots of time! That gives us more quality time after dinner for play and reading time. Plus it teaches children independence and helps them feel like they are part of the family and contributing. Kids thrive when they are in the middle of the action – a win win in our book!
Here are our Top 5 Easy Chores For Kids!
1. Clean Up Time
Call me crazy or OCD…but we try to clean up one activity before moving on to the next. Whether it be legos, puzzles or even an art project, it really helps keep the mess contained. I learned this the hard way one day when I walked in to my bedroom to find a bin of legos, Mr. Potato Head and all it’s pieces, and a slew of nesting blocks and puzzles all over the floor. We still have to remind them sometimes, but this has almost become a habit. Our girls also know Saturday morning is clean your room day! We get this done early so we can have a fun weekend once our chores are done. “Clean up, clean up everybody do your share!” (Yeah that song is getting old!)
2. Laundry Time
Laundry could be the most hated chore on the planet, but moms, you don’t have to do it alone. Kids can help bring their dirty clothes to the laundry room, and it’s a fun sorting game to make the piles. Then when the laundry is clean, our girls love picking out their own clothes and putting them into piles to help fold, and after folding it they can take their clothes straight to their rooms. And trust me, three year olds love to put their clothes away, and our six year old has mastered hanging up her own clothes. Don’t underestimate the ability of those little hands!
3. Wash the Windows
Let’s be real, who has time to wash the windows? Unless we’re having a big party of course! But for some reason our girls love to wash the windows. So get out that spray bottle and roll of paper towels and watch them have fun!
4. Vacuum
Since toddler-hood our kid have been fascinated with the cordless kitchen vacuum. They also love sweeping too, so a couple times a week they get their sweeping tools and help clean up the floors after dinner. And since we introduced a kitten to our home, they also vacuum their bathroom now and pick up the stray litter. It may not be perfect, but it helps me while I’m loading the dishwasher!
5. Clear the Table and Wipe Down Counters
Speaking of dinner, once they are old enough (around three) after dinner we all take our plates to the sink. Then we clean off the excess food into the trash and then wipe down the table. They also like to help wiping down the counters and island, I think it’s all the bubbles from Palmolive® Multi Surface cleanser! I love that it can be used on dishes and kitchen surfaces, plus it smells really fresh!
You can pick it up at Walmart in the detergent aisle…
and then let your kids get to work!
And Palmolive® Multi Surface is not just for dishes, it’s great for cleaning up after craft projects,or spills on the floors and counters. Palmolive® Multi Surface eliminates 99.9% of bacteria (*staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enterica and E. coli ((157:H7)) from dishes and hard non porous kitchen surfaces. Plus it’s important to let our children learn to help take care of themselves and their messes. It empowers kids and gives them confidence that it’s OK to make a mess, and they are big enough to clean it up!
Good luck with your spring cleaning and don’t forget to call on your junior helpers!
Some great ideas and I have tried to do a few of these with my own kids, as believe it or not mine love to clean. Wish I liked to clean half as much as they do! 😉
Believe it or not, my son actually likes to clean the bathroom and my daughter loves to spray and wipe with cleaner!
Good he can come clean my toilets!!
I totally agree with you on chores. My kids have been helping out with laundry and plate clearing since they could walk. It helps teach discipline and responsibility!
Great post! I have my kids do all of these things. I am like you with having to pick up before moving on to the next thing. I have to have things clean and cannot stand clutter! It is so important to teach them responsibility early on!
This couldn’t have come at a better time. Just this weekend our kids’ entitled attitudes jumped out at us and we started assigning daily chores to make them realize that families work together to keep the house going. It’s not JUST the responsibility of Mom and Dad. Thanks for the ideas!
I loved this! That’s always been a question of mine. At what age do you start? A interviewee recently shared that her Dad talked finances to she and her sisters at a young age; helped them budget and earn their own money. When they got older they weren’t afraid of finances. Exposure and equipping is huge! Kudos to your family!
Yes I started early Kristen – really out of necessity. My husband travels a ton so I need help around the house. And my little Cinderella’s love helping!
I’ve been meaning to set up daily chores for my son. I love the window cleaning idea and we do it sometimes. He also enjoys the sprayers so ends up cleaning the baseboards, too.
but what about the allowance part??? we also do FEED THE DOG!
Actually, laundry is my favorite chore – I know, I’m strange. Turning on fun music to get your kids cleaning is also helpful and they are never too early to help. Even toddlers can help pick things up. Good tips!
Becky you’re hired! What time ar eyou coming over to finish my laundry?!
ooh, I should put my boys to work. They are at that copycat stage, so they love to do whatever I do..and they also like to be “helpful.” I do have them helping load laundry and unload the dishwasher..not I just need to arm them with sponges and spray!! haha
yes! Sorting is great for boys their age, as is sweeping and putting clothes in the hamper. Good luck!
I’m diggin’ this new look! Way to go mama. You gotta start them with chores at a young age. It’s a great way to build character.
Great post Kristen! We’ve been working on this more with our 2 as well and our oldest has just started with his own set of daily chores. At this age they just seem to love “helping” and that makes it so much easier 🙂
I def need to get my 6 year old doing more chores… great post!
thanks and put him to work!
I have just started my middle kids on washing the dishes. That is definitely when the good old Palmolive comes in handy! Having kids help with chores makes them appreciate what you do around the house more for sure!
Call her crazy, but these are all Scarlet’s favorites! We all do family cleanup time and even with a song and dance. Scarlet will wash windows and fold socks and underwear quite well!
Maddi loves to clean…and use tools, too. She tried to take the pool cleaning tools today at swim lessons! Great tips! Going to make my kids wash windows this weekend..and maybe floor boards too!
We sing that same song! I’m the same as you – we don’t do another activity or craft until we put the previous one away. I just can’t stand to see my house look like a tornado barreled through it. We’ve also gotten into the habit of having the girls put away their clothes and clean the table after dinner. We had some people over once and they were impressed to see our girls immediately take their shoes off at the door, hang up their backpacks and put their socks in the clothes basket right when they came home. Love teaching them young!
Adorable! Your kids are so dang cute.
My big girl LOVES to clean – aren’t I lucky? She loves to wash dishes and dust and wash windows and Swiffer. She hates vacuuming, but I think that’s because we have a huge freaking vacuum that is really hard to wheel around.
My other kid, however, loves to destroy everything. She is a little dust demon. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that maybe someday she’ll be interested in, I don’t know, NOT throwing things on the floor for entertainment purposes. HA!
My kids love to vacuum. Thanks for posting. Hello from Think and Make Thursday.
I need to start in on having my daughter help the with laundry. I don’t mind the chore until I have to fold and put the clothes away…I might as well attempt to get her help!
Her favorite chore now is putting the silverware away. 🙂
I started the “Be A Star” system with my boys. Each day, I write a certain task on the chart like cleaning rooms or picking up toys and if they complete their task; they’ll get a star. I like your suggestions too. Thanks for sharing on Small Victories Sunday link up.
Kids doing chores is important it teaches them so much more! Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness link party 🙂
These are great tips! I have a hard time coming up with chores for my kids because it takes more work for me to teach them to do it than it does for me to just do it. But I know I need to. Thanks for the inspiration and ideas!
I love this list and you gave me a great idea! You are so right… who has time to clean windows? I am definitely going to add that to my son’s chore list. He is older so he helps us be taking out the garbage and also helping to manage the kitty area also. He’s been helping with chores for years and I really feel like it’s an important part of learning responsibility!
Getting kids involved in chores is so important, and an excellent way to teach them responsibility. Laundry is my least favorite, so I train my kids to take over their own laundry completely by the time they are 10!
That’s really good to know Anne, I make take your advice on that!
My little ones love to help clean so I am taking advantage of it while I can 😉 I think their favorite thing to do is wipe down the counters and sweep the floors. #client