It can be a real challenge to keep your home clean, neat and orderly when you have young children at home, but it is possible to achieve, provided you make your little ones’ part of the solution, and not the problem:
Let your toddlers help around the house:
Most very young children love to help out around the house, and often enjoy mimicking the cleaning and tidying actions of adults. While you won’t be able to give them big tasks to carry out, you can have them help by picking their toys up and putting them away, or collecting place mats after a meal.
While preschoolers may be too small to make their bed in the morning, you can at least get them to pull the comforter up to the top of the bed; small acts can make a big difference, and it’s important to be proud of each of their little achievements.
Give them simple instructions, one at a time:
Rolling off a barrage of cleaning or tidying instructions is only going to confuse and overwhelm small children, so give them one, specific direction at a time. Visual aids can also help them to understand and remember what they are needed to do, so if a box has a picture of a toy on it, they will easily be able to see that their toys need to go in it.
Have plenty of storage containers:
Many containers for storing things in can be attractive and match your décor, so try to buy some (or make them if you’re that way inclined) that you don’t mind being left out in a room, and figure out what you want to go in each one. One box may be for puzzles for example, while another is for toy cars or dolls. Storage is a great way of helping to keep your home tidy, and your little ones will quickly begin to realise that anything left out after a play session, needs to be stored away.
Engage them with role play:
Many small children enjoy role play, so kit them out as a professional cleaner with a little uniform, and have them pretend that they have a cleaning company, such as Casey’s Cleaning Crew, or Harry’s Helping Hands. You can pretend to be a customer, and give your kids small cleaning tasks to carry out.
Encourage your little ones and be appreciative of their effort:
While no small child is ever going to clean your entire home for you or even perform small tasks to the same standard as you, if they at least make the effort and try to do a good job, that should be reason enough to appreciate them and thank them for their efforts. When they feel as if they’ve really helped you out, they’ll be keen to do so more often, and that should be a win-win.
If your little ones are doing more to make your home dirty and untidy than they are to keep it clean and tidy, you could always call in the professionals and have a team of cleaners get your home spotless and shipshape for you.
