Trick or Treat? How to make tidying fun for kids
It can be hard work keeping your house tidy, especially when you’ve got a family to look after. The house can start to look like a bombsite pretty quickly. Worse still, your kids probably aren’t partial to actually helping keep the house tidy. But don’t worry, we know how to inspire your kids to help out. It’s time to make some magic by making your cleaning process fun!
Time & Reward
The best thing you can do is make cleaning up a game. If you make the evening fun then your kids may just go along with it! Put some of the latest pop hits from 2019, tell your kids that they literally have until the song ends to tidy up the room and then get started. This sort of game will make them go crazy trying to get the room clean, especially if you have a reward waiting for them at the end.
Toy Fairy
Kids love being rewarded for their hard work. That’s why it’s time for you to add a magical element to tidying up. Tell them that every time a good kid tidies up a room or cleans up their toys, the toy fairy will bring them a new toy whilst they are sleeping. Now, these toys don’t need to be extravagant. Instead, just make them small funny toys that you can literally buy for nothing, like bouncy balls or marbles. They’ll be racing to tidy up your house in no time.
Create a play space
One of the most annoying things that can happen is that you can clean a room, get it looking sparkling, only to go to another room to find that it has been left a tip. If you’re getting a bit sick of seeing your house clean and tidy for only a few minutes, it might be time to create a playroom. That way all of the mess can be contained to one room. You could choose to use a pre-existing room or perhaps create a new room with award-winning loft boarding service from Instaloft, either way, you can contain all of the mess to a single room. If you give your kids enough motivation, and responsibility, they will want to impress you. Therefore, they will tidy up on their own if you trust them.
Competition
One of the best ways of encouraging your kids to tidy up after themselves is to actively supply a bit of healthy competition. Challenge your child to a cleaning competition and see if they can outshine you when it comes to tidying up. As a result, you may even find that your kids end up doing even more work than you!
Dress up
Do your kids like dressing up? Dressing up is a great way to inspire your kids’ imaginations, but it can also make the chores fun if they’re doing the tidying whilst they’re dressed up. If they’re dressed up as Disney characters, you may even want to put on the song of their character. This can help them really get into the cleaning mood, especially if they see it as a performance!
12 Comments
MELANIE EDJOURIAN
September 25 at 3:10 pm
It works super well if you make tidying fun. It’s amazing how much more involved the children want to be and also they tend to get on with it rather than arguing.
Sabina Green
September 29 at 9:08 pm
Well, tidying as adults aren’t exactly fun, is it? So at least making it a bit of game makes it better for everyone.
Sarah Howe
September 25 at 7:36 pm
I may try some of these as my eldest is appalling at the moment! Getting to be a bit of an issue. oops.
Sabina Green
September 29 at 9:05 pm
Funnily enough, it is our eldest two who are the worst too?!
Ella @Typical Mummy
September 26 at 9:47 am
These are all great ideas! My kids are terrible at keeping things tidy (a bit like their mother!!) so I’ll use your tips! I often time mine (or pretend to!) on my phone to turn it into a bit of a competition but I like the songs idea!!
Sabina Green
September 29 at 9:04 pm
Haha, so will you be using these tips to encourage the children or yourself? 😉
Miranda (Anosa)
September 26 at 12:33 pm
We love dressing up though not sure about this year and we always reward the little man when he cleans up his toys.
Sabina Green
September 29 at 9:02 pm
It sounds like he is doing a great job already 🙂
Jenni
September 26 at 9:59 pm
I find the best way to get my kids to do anything – get dressed, tidy up etc – is to make it a competition between them. It’s amazing how motivated they are when wanting to win against their brother.
Sabina Green
September 29 at 9:00 pm
Haha yes, my children can’t even go for a walk without it being a competition to see who can walk at the front!
clare minall
September 29 at 2:03 pm
I will def follow the tips that u are suggesting, that you for sharing <3
Sabina Green
September 29 at 8:54 pm
I hope you find them useful x