Teach Your Kids the Value of Cleaning In 6 Simple Steps

Some kids will grow to tolerate cleaning the more they’re asked to do it, while others will abhor it for the rest of lives, but whatever type of child you have, and whatever age they are, there’s no reason why they can’t be taught the value of cleaning and come to learn that it’s a necessary part of life.

Below are some simple, but often effective ways to help teach kids of all ages the value of house cleaning, and what’s best about these, is that you get some much-needed help with cleaning around the home!

Table of Contents

Cleaning for Toddlers

Toddlers won’t be able to participate in any meaningful or particularly productive cleaning around the home, but they can certainly learn to push a duster over a surface, take washing out of the machine, pick up toys and so on.

Cleaning for Kids of All Ages

Try to avoid making cleaning any kind of punishment, or they’ll forever associate it with that, instead, try to make it fun and something that can be full of reward. Encourage them to clean and keep their rooms tidy, as a way of them getting access to things they want to do, or own. Put your toys away after playing with them for a full week, and you can choose a new toy at the store, or something to that effect.
Give choice wherever possible, too, and let them select the cleaning chores they want to help with. If they like doing even the simplest of chores, that can still be helpful; it pays to encourage any kind of desire to clean and keep tidy. Some young children may even take pride in ‘that task’ being ‘their task’, and will be keen to fulfill it each day, or week.
Keep chores small and don’t allocate them too much responsibility, since this could be a little bewildering at such a young age.
Use a timer to give cleaning a competitive edge, but make sure that tasks are still being executed properly in record time!
Money can be used as an incentive provided it’s done in the right way, in fact, it can be used to help teach kids about working for money and earning.

Whether your kids are actually a real help around the home when it comes to cleaning, and relieve you of some of the burden, or whether they simply carry out a few chores a week that help them learn the value of a reward system, getting your kids to understand why cleaning is an important part of life, is absolutely achievable. However, nobody ever said it was going to be easy! To make life easier for everyone, why not hire a cleaning service who can come in and get all the chores done that your kids aren’t able (or willing!) to?