How can I get my child to help out with the household chores? - The Super Tutors

As parents it’s easy to feel totally overwhelmed with all of the things that we have to do to keep our families fed and happy and our homes running smoothly.

Rhi Morgan aka ‘The Home Hack Master’ is an expert at organising her own home with her four children. Below, Rhi shares some of her most useful tips for getting children to help keep a tidy and orderly house.

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Rhi's tips

Start with the laundry

Getting your kids involved with helping around the house builds important life skills - independence and responsibility.   Sorting dirty laundry can be another overwhelming task. Make it fun by putting out wash baskets in a communal area and add coloured stickers on each basket, ‘whites’, ‘darks’, ‘coloured’, ‘delicates’ etc. This way, the kids can sort their washing independently whilst also easing the load on you. This will eventually become a habit and their rooms will be tidier. Once clothes are washed and dried, allocate a box or basket for clean clothes for each child and ask them to put their clothes away.   It might be hard to watch at times, but let your children try things, even if they don’t do it the way you would.

Make cleaning fun

Put music on and dance while you clean to make it a party! Or if you have some telly to catch up on, watch it whilst you tidy up.

You can also use fun equipment like colourful fluffy dusters or amazing smelling non-toxic cleaning supplies.

For an extra challenge, trying cleaning against the clock! Set a timer and ask your kids to put away their clothes or toys before the timer hits zero. Play some countdown music for extra motivation.

There are plenty of ways to make cleaning fun. The more energetic cleaning is, the more cooperation you’ll get from your children!

Create a storage solution

We all have areas in our homes where clutter collects. For example, the hallway can collect shoes, coats, bags, letters and toys without designated places for each item to live.

Once you have identified your dumping area, create a storage system to combat the clutter.   In the hallway for example, you can have designated pegs or boxes where each child can house their coats and bags when they get home from school. Make sure to put pegs at a height they can reach, handing over the responsibility to them.   When your children know where to put things, it eliminates any anxiety they may be feeling at the sight of mess. They’ll know how to put their things away and can be encouraged to do so by you.

Count your wins

We’re only human and our homes will never be perfect. Count your wins, congratulate your children and give yourself credit for what you have achieved at the end of each day whether that is quick tidy ups, cooking, loading the dishwasher, or putting a load of laundry on.     We sometimes feel like we haven’t achieved much, but when we look at what we have really done in a day, it’s quite a lot!

Activities to try at home

Make a cleaning reward chart

You can reward your mini helpers by creating a chart with them to document their help around the house.   Once they have finished a task ask them to write it in the chart or draw a star. When they get a certain number or stars or have finished a certain number of tasks during the week, give them a small reward.  This doesn’t need to be an expensive gift - it could be a movie night at home, a piece of chocolate, or extra time on the computer.

Create a cleaning treasure hunt

Why not turn the Easter egg hunt into a cleaning activity? Carefully hide some small toys and mini easter eggs around the house, under piles of clothes, behind a mountain of toys etc.   Tell your children that the only way they will enjoy the treats is by cleaning up to find the treasure!