Kids: adorable little cherubs, aren’t they? But as much as we love them, they also have the ability to drive us up the wall with their incessant untidiness and mess making skills. Some say the key to a happy, welcoming home, is one that looks ‘lived in’ – where everything is not always in its place and not everything is shiny and dust free – but there is a fine line between that, and a home that looks as if you’ve just been burgled! There are though, 5 simple tips you can refer to when trying to keep some sense of cleanliness and order in your family home:
Tip.1: Assign your little darlings a number of simple cleaning tasks to carry out, every day. These can be easy chores such as making their beds, tidying their room and putting their clothes away. Feel free to reward them as you see fit, if and when they have completed their tasks, as we all know that most kids need some sort of incentive!
Tip.2: Make cleaning a family affair. If your kids aren’t particularly motivated to clean on their own, ask them to help you as you clean, instead. You could even give them their only little cleaning kit and make sure they know that they are being a big help to you. Perhaps you could tell them that the quicker the house is clean, the quicker you can head off to the park together.
Tip.3: A place for everything, and everything in its place! Teach your children that each and every item that they choose to play with (or systematically destroy!) has a specific place it needs to be returned to. You could even have a number of boxes or plastic crates and label them, so they will know exactly what goes where. Telling your kids that items found unreturned to their original homes, may well be confiscated, just might help, too!
Tip.4: One toy out, one toy back in. Try and get your children to put things away as soon as they’ve finished playing with them, and set a rule that the next toy may only be played with when the first one has been returned to its rightful place. Not as easy to enforce as it sounds, I’m sure, but as with most things in life, practice will make perfect and they’ll soon get the hang of it.
Tip.5: Do as much as you can outside! It sounds a little obvious, but the less time your kids spend in the house, the less messy it will get. Not only that, but if they’re off somewhere for the day (supervised, naturally), you’ll have a great opportunity for a spring clean. If the weather is good, encourage your kids to play outside as often as you can, just make sure they remove any grubby items so they don’t spoil your newly vacuumed carpets or your freshly mopped floors!