Cleaning with Kids

This post is sponsored by Pine-Sol® Clean & Disinfect with Pine-Sol®: The Powerful Scent of Clean." I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

When people find out that I have six children, I am usually met with incredulous looks and questions like, “How do you do it all?”

Well, it’s not a secret, folks.

I don’t!

I have seriously laughingly remarked to my friends that I can:

• read books
• OR cook
• OR knit
• OR re-do furniture
• OR keep my house clean.

But never all at the same time.

I tend to be a little obsessive about my hobbies.  I can do one of those things really well, or a few of them moderately well.

In order to keep the household in the moderately-well category, I need AND require my children to help me.  I think parents do a disservice to their children by NOT expecting them to help with the household chores. I have mentioned before that I expect my children to be USEFUL as well as decorative!  And my children do not get paid for chores.  I maintain that there are things we do because they are for the good of the family, and not because we gain an immediate reward.

So here’s how we do it—or try to!  I keep a chore chart on the refrigerator, and these daily chores are expected to be done starting at 5 p.m. each day.  Younger dwarfs rotate through smaller jobs (You’ll notice that Dopey is only responsible for the back entry and the shoes.  It even gets done.  Sometimes.)  Older dwarfs have larger responsibilities.  It isn’t a perfectly regular rotation, as the schedule is adjusted depending on who has piano lessons or dance or play practice or cub scouts or track practice… you get the idea!  I rarely do.

If you’d like a copy of my chore rotation (MS Excel file), e-mail RedHenHome@gmail.com

“Deeper” cleaning happens on the weekends.  Once upon a time I would give one dwarf responsibility for all the sinks, another for all the garbages, etc.  Unfortunately, that led to instances where, for example, the bathroom counters would not be wiped off, and I would hear a chorus of “It’s not my job!” ringing through the house.  Ugh.

So, borrowing heavily from the chore checklists created by Mads Memories, I created my own chore checklists for the weekend jobs.

Checking for dirty socks is one of my personal additions.

The “wall to wall, corner to corner” bit is one of my additions, too.  Otherwise, we end up with a really clean 10 sq. ft. area in the middle of the floor.  Please avert your eyes from the edges!

If you’d like a copy of my chore checklists (MS Word file), e-mail RedHenHome@gmail.com

Cut apart and laminated, these lists serve as reusable reminders of what REALLY goes in to cleaning a room!   For our personal use, I have separate checklists for each bathroom and each bedroom.

Believe it or not, this is really NOT how our house looks most evenings…

No matter what the children may tell you…

Just a little paraphrase from Ben-Hur there.

…but I do believe that working together to maintain a home saves time and sanity (sometimes—although the whip may indicate otherwise) and teaches children skills they need to become productive, happy, healthy adults! 

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So do you have any tips for me on keeping a busy household clean?  What has worked for you??

Please note:  No dwarfs were harmed in the making of this blog post.

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