Yes, it’s important to teach kids how to clean and keep the house tidy, but how can we make it so that they enjoy it? How can we turn it into a fun activity instead of a boring and tedious one? Well, there are many ways! Here are eight wonderful ideas that can’t go wrong.

1. Allow them to choose

There are a lot of tasks that can be done when cleaning the house, and so, you can divide them up and assign a chore to each kid and/or member of the family. But you can also let them choose! Be it via a game in which tasks are distributed at random (for example, by writing them down and putting them all mixed up in a basket) or simply by asking what they’d like to do first, kids love it when not everything is set in stone from the beginning.

2. Hide treats

It doesn’t have to be anything big or fancy, nor do you have to do it every time; but it gets the spirit going! Hide a candy or a small present somewhere your kids will find it while cleaning. This way they’ll have an extra reason to have fun while doing chores.

3. Games

Children love challenges. Set up mini games or come up with simple questions that will get them to tidy up a certain place or room. For example, ask them if they can fold and hang clothes in a way that you can easily find a certain item, or if they can set them in order by colour. You can turn it into a healthy competition too: whoever does it best, or faster, gets a treat.

4. Make it a game in itself

How about making the cleaning itself a game? You can dress up or create a world and a story together in which some cleaning and tidying has to be done in order for the hero to succeed, for the princess to become queen, etc.

5. Let them personalise their tools

Another super easy way to make house chores interesting for kids is by letting them choose which tools they want to use, and personalise them. Allow them to draw on gloves and buckets, get some scrub daddy products at House of Knives and get them an extra small broom!

6. Set a time limit and a reward

No one wants to spend all day doing chores. Children can get distracted, and though it is okay if they do so for a little while, by setting a time limit you ensure that they are invested in the task and consequently, that they are not frustrated because they don’t know when it will be over. Additionally, you can give them a reward if they finish earlier.

7. Make it a family activity

Participate! Join them in cleaning and doing things around the house. Your kids will be glad that everyone’s doing the same thing and collaborating.

8. Think together about how to tidy better

Again, you can do this all together. Think of ideas on how to make the place tidier and more orderly. For example, you can decide on a labelling system, and children can choose the design or help writing on the labels. Believe it or not, kids love to be given useful things to do if you make it fun too.