Is there anyone who doesn’t love a clean house? I can’t think of a single person, now the number of people who love being the one to do all the cleaning, much smaller number! I don’t mind cleaning and I certainly love the end result, the thing that makes me crazy is that it takes much less time for the house to become a mess than it does to clean it up again.
I’ve tried many things to get everyone to help around the house. Some things that work for other people kids, don’t work for mine and some things that work for mine, won’t work for yours. Here are the main things I’ve found that help my daughter to pick up after herself.
• Trash cans. Everywhere she could possibly need one, I try to make sure there is one within reach, if she has to walk to it, chances are she will do it “later”, which in our house translates to never.
• Laundry baskets- one in her room and another in the bathroom. Sometimes the clothes still wind up on the floor but it’s a start.
• An empty dishwasher- if I keep the dishwasher empty then she has no excuse to stack her dishes up on the counter tops.
• Rugs by the door- lots of rugs, it helps save the carpet.
• Shoe bins by the door. My daughter loves to be barefoot so if I can give her a place to put her shoes as soon as she walks in the door there is less dirt tracked through the house.
• Coat racks- rather a bunch of lumpy coats hanging than tossed across every available surface, including the floor.
• Lots of bins in her room- I used to stress about labeling the bins and making sure everything was put away correctly, now I just want everything off the floor and in the bins.
One thing I’ve had to do is let go of the “right” way to keep the house clean. To my daughter a pile of books is neat, she has cleaned up the books, I want them put away neatly on the shelf, my choices are to put them away myself or be grateful she has picked them up, I choose to be grateful for the help.
If your kids always feel like they don’t do things the “right” way, they will stop helping so accept their help and accept that your house will never be showroom perfect, but do you really want to live in a showroom?