How to Get the Whole Family Involved in Spring Cleaning

With spring just around the corner, the time for cleaning and organizing has arrived. Unfortunately, it can be tough to rally the troops to help you out. If you’re struggling to get your family involved in spring cleaning and maintenance, here are a few tips to help you out.

Make a List

To get started, make a list of everything you need to be done around the house. Cleaning out closets, wiping down countertops, and sweeping the floors are all fair game. Don’t leave a single task out! Whether you’re one of the 21 million homeowners with a septic system or not, the toilet needs to be cleaned. Ordinarily, you might make your to-do list on a scrap of paper or keep track mentally, but to get the whole family involved you’ll need a little bit more pizzazz. Create a big list with boxes that everyone can check off once they’ve finished a cleaning task. Even better, assign everyone their own colored marker to check off their to-do list items with. Not only does this help you keep track of what’s getting done, but research shows that physically marking off completed tasks can actually release dopamine and help improve motivation.

Set Up a Reward

Nothing gets the family motivated quite like the reward of takeout after a long day. But in order to reap all of the rewards you promise, everyone needs to help out a little bit! You can’t complete every spring cleaning project on your own, especially if you’re one of the 80% of people with low back pain. Offering a reward at the end of the day when all of your to-do list items are done can be a nice way to incentivize the kids to help out in ways they might not normally volunteer to. If you really want to incentivize your kids, turn it into a game. Whoever completes the highest number of spring cleaning tasks gets an extra reward at the end of the day in addition to the family reward. Just make sure to double-check the work that’s been done — there’s no point in spring cleaning if everyone is just rushing to get their tasks done and not doing a good job.

Schedule Time for Spring Cleaning

When you have a schedule to keep, everything runs a little bit smoother. The same goes for spring cleaning! Kids want to know that they don’t need to spend a whole day performing cleaning tasks around the house. If you want to get everyone involved, set aside an hour or two every few days or so to get a couple of cleaning tasks done. You might want to check on the insulation in the attic since that’s where almost 40% of heat loss occurs, but your kids might need to organize their books and toys. If you can get through just a few cleaning tasks every day while reassuring your kids that they won’t take up all of their time, you’ll be that much closer to a sparkling clean house. In addition, your kids might be more motivated to help you complete cleaning tasks in the future if they know exactly how much of a time commitment they’re going to be.

When you need to get spring cleaning done, it pays to have the whole family helping you out. Remember to incorporate some of these tips!