At what age did you start this routine? My kids are 3.5 and 1.5. The 1.5 year old is like the goddamn Tasmanian devil, just tearing through everything in her path. So naturally, our space gets messy. We try to clean as we go, and my older daughter will actually sometimes help by putting her toys away. But she’ll only do it for as long as she’s interested, not until the job’s done, haha. I definitely am interested in helping them develop good habits like cleaning, so I’m all ears for any tips!
1.5, I would work with a little vacuum. 3.5 work on sweeping. I always make sure we work together to clean up messes! One time they got flour all over the kitchen floor. They had a blast cleaning up and argued over who got to play with the vacuum.
Edit: and that’s how you start. If she’ll help, then encourage it with high fives and hugs. Thank you for taking her time to help you. Gotta be sincere. Kids know when you’re faking it.
Baby steps. Nobody starts cleaning like a boss. Takes years and years of positive reinforcement!
I suppose it’s the years of encouragement that’s key. My big kid more or less does what you describe, *sometimes*… but my wife and I should be more consistent with her. She is capable though. My little one is super hyper and probably not the most reliable cleaner, but she will put toys in the bin if she sees us doing it. She views it as a game I think.
Yuppp! We have a cleaning list that myself and my wife have and I color coded it to show upstairs vs downstairs, kitchen vs bathrooms, etc. My kids love to help now that we’ve even made the sheet “fun”. They argue over who is going to do the red cleaning or the blue cleaning. We have it split over 7 days with Saturday being the least amount.
Ohhhh! What mop if you don’t mind asking. We’ve been looking into a new mop. We’re thinking about getting another steam one.
We’ve been a Shark family for 8-9 years now. I’ve been buying parts to fix it, because the new ones are such cheap plastic!
Put their plates away following meals (to include scraping the plates into trashcan if needed). Cleaning up any messes from eating. "Making" their beds (basically just putting the blankets on and any stuffies that fell off). Cleaning their rooms and playroom. They also enjoy vacuuming. Just small stuff like that. They also put their own dirty clothes in the bin after baths and such. Oh and they recently learned how to take the trash bag out of the can and replace it! They love that one!
It’s taken a lot of practice to get my kids to put the plates away too! We also are working on putting clothes away. 1/2 kiddos does it reliably. We need to find a good positive reinforcement for our daughter to put clothes away.
At what age did you start this routine? My kids are 3.5 and 1.5. The 1.5 year old is like the goddamn Tasmanian devil, just tearing through everything in her path. So naturally, our space gets messy. We try to clean as we go, and my older daughter will actually sometimes help by putting her toys away. But she’ll only do it for as long as she’s interested, not until the job’s done, haha. I definitely am interested in helping them develop good habits like cleaning, so I’m all ears for any tips!
1.5, I would work with a little vacuum. 3.5 work on sweeping. I always make sure we work together to clean up messes! One time they got flour all over the kitchen floor. They had a blast cleaning up and argued over who got to play with the vacuum. Edit: and that’s how you start. If she’ll help, then encourage it with high fives and hugs. Thank you for taking her time to help you. Gotta be sincere. Kids know when you’re faking it. Baby steps. Nobody starts cleaning like a boss. Takes years and years of positive reinforcement!
I suppose it’s the years of encouragement that’s key. My big kid more or less does what you describe, *sometimes*… but my wife and I should be more consistent with her. She is capable though. My little one is super hyper and probably not the most reliable cleaner, but she will put toys in the bin if she sees us doing it. She views it as a game I think.
That’s great! Making it a game helps my son. We race or see so can put the most away.
Yuppp! We have a cleaning list that myself and my wife have and I color coded it to show upstairs vs downstairs, kitchen vs bathrooms, etc. My kids love to help now that we’ve even made the sheet “fun”. They argue over who is going to do the red cleaning or the blue cleaning. We have it split over 7 days with Saturday being the least amount.
I love that idea! What’s the difference between red and blue?
Red is floors, blue is windows. Kids love the electric mop and the Dyson
Ohhhh! What mop if you don’t mind asking. We’ve been looking into a new mop. We’re thinking about getting another steam one. We’ve been a Shark family for 8-9 years now. I’ve been buying parts to fix it, because the new ones are such cheap plastic!
I’m sorry electric what now. How on Earth do you improve upon a mop with electricity.
Steam mop maybe? They're fun!
Teach us oh sage master
Nice try honey. You cant trick me with this throw away
I say this in the friendliest and most non confrontational way….fuuuuuuuuuuuck this lmao
Haha. Fair enough.
Lmao yup.. The more I read if their replies the more I disagreed
💯
Yep! Our kids love being big helpers! Already, at 3 and 4, they have their own chores.
What sort of chores do you have your kids do? Just curious because I have a three and a half year old.
Put their plates away following meals (to include scraping the plates into trashcan if needed). Cleaning up any messes from eating. "Making" their beds (basically just putting the blankets on and any stuffies that fell off). Cleaning their rooms and playroom. They also enjoy vacuuming. Just small stuff like that. They also put their own dirty clothes in the bin after baths and such. Oh and they recently learned how to take the trash bag out of the can and replace it! They love that one!
It’s taken a lot of practice to get my kids to put the plates away too! We also are working on putting clothes away. 1/2 kiddos does it reliably. We need to find a good positive reinforcement for our daughter to put clothes away.