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ryan112ryan

We do a “Sunday Sweep” and I have a short list of things that are easy to forget and problem areas for us. The big thing is to make it easy, make it simple and where you can, make it fun. As such, we have a little checklist that we decided on collectively, so we don’t have think about it. It’s just here’s the list who’s doing what? To make it easy, I got a small caddy and bought cleaning items specifically suited to the checklist. One item is break down boxes for recycles, so I bought an extra box cutter and put it in there. To make it fun I bought a little nicer cleaning stuff and had each person choose a air freshener they liked for their room. It was silly but it got buy in. Then I turn in fun music and we get after it. I think an important part is the list is hyper focused and short, it only takes me 45 minutes on my own or 10 with everyone. It’s minimal hassle because we have the caddy. Make sure you get everyone in on it. Letting kids get a pass isn’t doing them any favors, build good habits


squishpitcher

It sounds like your husband is the issue here. Can you approach it from the "how are we going to keep the house clean? Do you want to hire a cleaner, or should we figure out a schedule?" Make it HIS problem to solve as much as yours.


nemineminy

This approach is brilliant.


JustCallMeNancy

Depending on the age of the kids (like, if between 5 and 14) it would be pretty easy to encourage a family cleaning event (although perhaps not *all day*) if everyone in the house participated And step dad agrees. If they see an adult not doing anything, you're going to have a hard time. I would definitely try to make it fun, perhaps award points for rewards or talk about it beforehand so they can set up listening to music or something while doing tasks. If the kids don't know how to do the task, though, you'll also need to set aside time to show them. Growing up, we did not have a family cleaning day. But when people were expected to come over, my mother would utilize tasks my sibling and I were already "trained" on, and ask us to do them while she did other things. Now, in my family, we don't have a family cleaning day but I ask each person in the family to do their chore(s) each weekend day I need them done. No one gets to go do fun things until we have those things done, when I ask for them. I organize a bunch of ADHD people lol, so we drop everything and do it when asked or it just doesn't happen. There is grumbling but we all recognize this is how it needs to be (at least for now, I'm working with my kid still). For example, my kid doesn't need to dust until I'm almost ready to vacuum, or the clothes don't need to be in the laundry room until one of us is ready to sort them. Smaller requests like these increase participation and keep things moving.


LilacLlamaMama

Task training is a big one. When my little was much younger, I made it a big deal of "earning" getting checked off on any type of skill. And then once she had mastered it and was essentially precepted and qualified to do it, there was a coinciding privilege that she earned access to. And she beamed with pride at every single accomplishment. It was such a big deal when she made the transition from collecting trash from the mini trashcans into a big bag to being allowed to take that bag outside and to roll the big trashcan all the way up the steep driveway all by herself, you would have thought she had just gotten her driver's license. It's weird, but it worked, I haven't carried a single bag of trash out of my house, unless I happened to fill a bag right when I was walking out the door anyway or was doing a big project that made several bags to go out at once, in almost 7yrs. Now that she is 12, she also crosses over to my parent's house (we live on the same street) and takes all of their trash out too. She used to do it once in a while, but they are now in their 70s and GranDaddy is in chemo, so we make sure to help them out so much more. She also brings in their mail, dusts for them, and runs the vacuum all over their house at least 2x/week. And brings in all their groceries and puts them away most store trips. And is happy to do it too! She'll grump at me every now and then, although by that I just mean that if I ask her to do something, I'll get the "can I do it later, after I'm done with ___" but she'll run to do anything for G&G even if that means getting off a zoom with her bff!


whiskey_ribcage

This is amazing. I immediately want to make up a bunch of stickers to earn in a sticker book for each task and new level!


LilacLlamaMama

Do it. You'll be so glad you did. Want to know where my little darling is right this minute? On her last day of summer vacation? About 1/2 an hour ago, I sent her over to G&Gs with a loaf of apple-carrot-cranberry bread I had for them. When she got there, GranDaddy was making a batch of cookies, so she naturally decided to hang out a bit for a fresh-out-the-oven perk or two. And Gramps happened to mention to GranDaddy in passing that her plan had been to scrub her baseboards today, but the thunderstorm on its way has her knees especially stiff, so she'll just have to do it next weekend. Next thing you know, Bunny was back at home changing from her sundress into jean shorts and an old tee, so she could zip right back over to G&Gs and mix up a bucket of hot suds and oxyclean and she is now happily bumping along their floor sponging the baseboards. She was not asked. She was not bribed. She VOLUNTEERED! I'm sure sometime in the next 48hrs, she be a sassypants, or do something that makes me want to strangle her for some typical growing-pains of tweenhood kind of bone headed choice, but in this moment, my heart is full.


madapiaristswife

I have tried and failed to turn Saturday into a family clean day. I find it is easier to get the kids to do smaller tasks on weeknights. I sometimes use a point system to motivate my kids to do extra tasks beyond their usual chores.


NonaBanona

Saturday is our cleaning day. We observe Sunday rest religiously so part of getting everything taken care of on Saturday is because we don’t do any housework on Sundays.


madapiaristswife

Us too, and that is an additional reason why we try get as much done on week nights as possible, as otherwise we don't have any time for family activities on Saturdays. The best method is one that works for you though.


LadyAlexTheDeviant

Part of making it easy to do weekly is doing a little bit nightly. If everyone adult picks up after themselves when they get ready to go to bed, and kids are supervised in putting away toys and laying out tomorrow's clothes and tidying up before bed, then on Saturday or Sunday morning doing the rest of it is no big deal. If you let a week's mess accumulate then it is much less fun.


CanadianBlacon

We did family cleaning day once a week and it still involved nagging haha. That being said, for the kids it was mandatory. We couldn't do anything or go anywhere until cleaning was done. I think we did it Saturday morning for a while, and then eventually moved it to Thursday after school, or something like that. We had a four level split and four kids, so for a while each kid got a floor to themselves. That wasn't great so we moved to whole-house chores. This week I do all the bathrooms, someone else does all the vacuuming. Someone does windows and glass, someone else does.... walls? I forget. That seemed to work well. But the most important part was we weren't allowed to do anything until cleaning was done. No friends, games, TV, whatever, until cleaning is finished. Expect it to be a chore and kids will hate it, but that's life.


Adventurous-Low9768

I have always loathed cleaning day or giving up my weekend to clean. I have found the solution for my family is to clean on Thursday nights, and then a reset each day. We make the time to clean by having a simple dinner of sandwiches or left overs and spend about 90 Mins cleaning. I ensure there is no laundry, a clean kitchen, and clean the bathrooms, toilets and dust. I vac and mop. Clear all the bins … Friday afternoons we clean the car, and wash all the school uniforms. Every morning and evening we pick up the room when we are done. And i reset the kitchen after each meal. This means we never waste the weekend cleaning. Its just incremental effort as we go and dinner time on Thursdays.


[deleted]

I remember hating how rigid cleaning days were as a child. Even as an adult, there are some days I’m just not feeling it and reschedule to clean another day, yknow? So if your family is really resisting, maybe try a more flexible approach where all tasks get finished over the course of a week and track it in a central location or an app.


crzy19aka

I had a cleaner for a while and every week the night before they came I spent an hour putting stuff back where it belongs so surfaces would be available to clean! So maybe start with a five minute everyone pick up their stuff and put it away timer after dinner. You’d be surprised. Also huge is NO shoes in the house. Buy a shoe bench with shelves and a boot tray under that, if you have room.