Cleaning Habits to Teach Your Kids

If you have kids, you know that sometimes it can be hard to keep the house clean. Toys seem to have a way of ending up lost under the bed, little hand print shaped stains seem to appear on the walls and furniture, and clothes can wind up all over the place. It’s unrealistic to expect that your house will always look catalog-level pristine, especially if your kids are younger than 10. But there are a few cleaning habits that you can teach your children early on, which will make for a cleaner home in the long-run.

• Take your shoes off when you enter your home. Some families already practice this regularly, but make sure that your kids take off their dirty shoes as soon as they enter the house, because you don’t want them to leave a trail of dirt and germs from their daily adventures in the house. Having a boot tray by the door can help the whole family with this habit.
  
• Bring any cups from your room into the kitchen every morning. Many of us like to keep a cup of water or tea by our bedside at night, but reminding your kids to bring these used cups to the sink to be washed every morning is an easy way to keep them from stacking up throughout the week.
• After meals, have your kids bring their used dishes and silverware to the sink. The same rule that applies to used cups every morning should apply to used dishes after a meal. Even if they’re a bit too young to wash all the dishes, getting them in the habit of cleaning up after themselves is always a great thing to do early on. Once this becomes a routine, it will be like second nature and you won’t have to remind them to do it.
• Practice the 5 minute rule. Every evening before going to sleep, encourage your kids to spend 5 minutes tidying up their room. Put away any clothes or toys that are lying around, put books back on the bookshelf, and put any other daily use items back in their proper place. This regular tidying takes little time, but it is probably the most crucial cleaning tip, as it prevents messes from piling up, which often results in a much longer cleaning time by the end of the week.

Here at AROCON, we believe in taking care of your home, inside and out. Whether that’s by encouraging the whole family to keep a tidy home, or getting them involved in your latest home improvement project, AROCON is here to support you every step of the way.