Ways to Get Kids Involved in Spring Cleaning

It’s almost spring. We’re ready for the snow to melt away. Our eyes yearn for greenery once again. And as life refreshes within nature, families naturally desire to refresh their lives within their homes. In a growing family, staying in control of your household can be a challenge.

Spring cleaning is not only a way to refresh and take control of your living space. It’s also a great way to reinforce some good habits within your little ones, whether you’d like to focus on improving personal organization, enhancing household hygiene practices, decluttering and living without “waste”, creating mindfully arranged spaces in your home, or demonstrating rotation and donation.

Here are some ways to get kids involved in spring cleaning:

Create a chore chart

Creating a chore chart for your little ones is a great way to help them wrap their heads around household responsibility and build good habits. To make a chore chart, start by noting the tasks you want your child to complete on a regular basis. These can include making their bed, cleaning up their toys, and helping with dishes. This can also include chores more focused on spring cleaning, such as identifying personal items your family could try to sell, removing garbage, or recycling/donating personal items.

To make the chore chart more engaging for your child, consider adding stickers or other visual indicators for completing tasks. You can also involve your child in the process by allowing them to choose which tasks they would like to do and helping them create a system for tracking their progress.

To get more information on how to assign chores by age, check out our article on Teaching Home Responsibilities and Chores (by Age).

Make it musical

If your little ones love music, they might just love cleaning up and sorting their belongings to the sound of music too! Music – especially upbeat and catchy music – provides us with motivation and positive energy, and for your young children, it serves as the pillar of reinforcing cleaning routines.

Some kids’ clean-up songs feature:

• Countdowns
• Clean-up instructions
• Motivating lyrics
• Cleaning/hygiene education

… all while building up their cleaning habits and routine in a fun and educational way.

Check out YouTube or your favourite streaming app for some child-friendly clean-up music.

Host a garage sale

Spring cleaning can be a daunting task, but involving kids can make it a fun and educational experience. One way to get kids involved in spring cleaning is to host your very own garage sale. Not only will it motivate them to declutter and organize their belongings, but it can also teach them valuable skills such as pricing items or determining their value, negotiating with customers, and handling money. Even if they’re not the ones doing it directly, they’ll learn a lot from watching their parents/guardians do it!

Encourage your kids to sort through their toys and clothes to choose which belongings they no longer need or use. With your guidance, they can set up a table, create fun garage sale signs, and even advertise their sale on social media. Hosting a garage sale is not only a great way to clear out clutter but also a fantastic to spend some time teaching your little ones about evaluating the value of personal belongings, household organization, planning, and business.

---

Kinder Buddies Oakville Child Care is a Quality First Daycare and Infant Care facility in Oakville, Ontario. We take care of children from the age of 6 weeks to 5 1/2 providing nutritious meals and fun activities all day long.