It’s almost that time of year again. The time where you actually clean your house! As a Niagara moving company, we sure do love clean houses. Spring cleaning is a great time to get a fresh start on your life, and for that reason we’ve got some tips today to help you for cleaning with kids.
1: Work as a team
It may be more efficient to clean separate rooms from a logical perspective. Tackling multiple areas at once will surely get the work done faster, right? Unfortunately, kids have different ideas. Sending a kid to clean by themselves will feel like a punishment, rather than a goal.
Focus on a single area together and give your kids an easier job to handle. This will make things more fun for them and less stressful for you. Win-win.
2: Make a game out of it
What kid doesn’t love games? For example:
Let one person at a time be the “king” or “queen” and let them give the orders or choose where to clean. Take turns if you have multiple kids, obviously.
Let your kids ride on your shoulders to clean cobwebs on the ceilings.
While cleaning your closets, play dress up with any old clothing.
If you can trust your kids cleaning abilities, have them race to clean certain areas. Be sure to specify it must be cleaned well, otherwise it’s pointless.
3: Play some music
Upbeat music works best, but crank whatever your kids like. Just make sure you can listen to their music without your ears bleeding.
This is a trick a Niagara moving company would use to keep their employees happy too!
4: Dance
What goes well with music? Dancing of course! Dance with whatever you have on, or in, hand. Sing with your mop, dance with your broom.
This is another trick we use in our Niagara moving company to keep our employees cheerful.
5: Make it an event
Do you have kid-sized materials? Get some. Do you have matching attires for the whole family? Get some. Giving your kids their “own” materials will make them feel special and more likely to work hard.
It’s the same reason all labour businesses tend to wear uniforms. It creates a sense of teamwork between everyone. It works well in our Niagara Falls moving company at the very least.
6: Rewards
What is the incentive to finish the task? We’re adults and we sometimes need to reward ourselves to get anything done. There’s no shame in that.
Set clear goals with clear rewards—make sure they’re realistic. Make sure the rewards are something your kids would want too!
7: Break it up
Don’t try to finish everything at once, kids can’t work 8-hour days. Break it up into smaller sections. Try 15-20 minutes at a time. Give your kids a chance to rest and re-motivate themselves.
Use a timer with a ringer to keep track of time.
8: Small is great
Nothing is too small a task for your kids to do. Even if they’re just wiping a drawer with a wet cloth, they’re still contributing in their mind. Tell them their fingers are smaller, and thus, better for cleaning small things.
This can also be used on smaller employees of a Niagara moving company when they don’t want to move boxes.
9: Out with the old, in with the new
One part of spring cleaning is getting rid of older things you don’t use anymore. Let your kids help throw out old toys, clothes, or other unwanted things.
Kids may be unwilling to toss older things. The way to get around this is to frame it as a statement rather than a question. Tell them to choose X number of toys to throw out, and anything broken must be thrown.
Make piles of toys that are for keeping, throwing, and donating.
Talk with your kids afterwards and let them know other kids will be happy from their donation, and that’s a good thing. Let them know they already have lots of toys, it’s ok to get rid of some. Finally, let your child know they’re doing a good thing.
For clothes, let your kids put mittens or gloves together. Let them empty the pockets of their winter clothes. Do the same thing as with the toys. Make a few piles. What will still fit next year, what is broken/ripped, and what can be donated. Tell your kids the same things as with the toys.
10: When the motivation is gone
If your kids are bored out of their mind, find a good way to re-motivate them. The easiest thing you can do is give them a noticeable task. A few easy ones:
Wiping fingerprints off a door.
Dusting a rarely dusted area.
Cleaning any sort of glass.
Sorting books on a shelf.
After they’re finished, tell them what a great job they did. This works on our Niagara Falls moving company as well!
While we’re not a cleaning company—you may just find after cleaning you’re ready for a move. If you’re looking for a Niagara Falls moving company—look no further than Bob the Mover. Bob the Mover services the entire Niagara region with the utmost professionalism. For a free in-home quote contact us now. Bob the Mover is the 2020 Diamond award-winning reader’s choice best moving company in both the St Catharines and Niagara Falls regions.
