Cleaning Tips for Parents

Cleaning can be put on the back burner when you're a parent, that's for sure. Between kids, work, meals and school, housework can become, quite literally, impossible. If you find yourself furiously cleaning for company or your kids' play dates, then you could probably use some house cleaning tips.

The easiest thing to do is to include your kids in the duties. You can also make it part of their routine so that you do not always have to do everything alone or everything all at once. Accomplishing small tasks throughout the day is so much easier than tackling the whole house on one particular day. Make a cleaning schedule that you can stick to. Use these tips to make it manageable and to get your kids willingly involved.

1) Make a reward chart that displays the schedule and put it where all of the family members can see it.

2) Make the schedule specific. For example, throw a load of laundry in and start the washer before school. Load the dryer after school. Fold and put away dry clothes before brushing your teeth at night. For each task completed, put a star or other sticker in the column next to the kid's name that successfully completed the task.

3) Have a reward system in place. This can be extremely effective if you have more than one child. Once they begin competing, you may see your house start to stay in order as if a magic cleaning fairy had moved right in.

4) Make the rewards equivalent to the job being done. A simple guideline is to make each task deserving of a star for every five minutes that it should take. Sweeping and mopping a medium sized kitchen might be worth three stars, but vacuuming an entire level of the house might be worth six.

5) If you see family members being reluctant to do certain jobs, then make those jobs worth extra rewards. Let's say that the bathtub really needs to be scrubbed or all of your ceiling fans need dusting. Make it a special "Weekly Challenge" where whoever volunteers to do it gets a special prize. Money can be a big motivator here for older kids. Or, if there is something big that they're working towards, like a new cell phone or MP3 player, then you can tell them that they can earn it by completing four Weekly Challenges.

6) A good reward system needs to be tailored to the people in your home, based on their capabilities and motivations. A two year old may love to wipe down cabinets and baseboards for a popsicle, and a teenager may mow the lawn for a later curfew on Saturday night. Even grown-ups can be motivated. Repairing doors, fixing leaky faucets, dusting picture frames and cleaning windows can be rewarded with a massage, a night out with friends, or a round of golf.

Rewards that make your children feel special will give you time together. You can offer a special lunch out with Mom for simple chores like hanging their clothes on their baby hangers. Infant hangers make it easy for little kids to accomplish what is normally a grown-up task. Let you child choose the restaurant that you may all go to. Or order the family's favorite pizza to celebrate everyone doing all of their chores for the week. You'll be bonding and basking in the glory of your clean house before you know it!