Hi thanks for stopping by. Who loves chores??? I know our kitchen fluctuates between super messy and near tidiness many times a day! Today I’m posting this Guest Post from Sophia over at Tidy London, Here she gives a bunch of ideas of how to get your children involved in the battle to keep the kitchen clean!

“When it comes to chores, nobody loves doing them. But if we don’t do them regularly, we risk ending up with a really messy home. The best solution, then,is to make our chores fun so that they are more pleasant to perform. Moreover, we should indulge our children in the process.

You probably remember the time when you were a kid and your parents made you vacuum the living room or clean the refrigerator. Even though you didn’t like performing those activities, they have certainly taught you several things like how to be more responsible, for example. Also, thanks to your parents, you know how to properly clean your spaces in order to live in a healthier environment. That’s why you should pass that knowledge to your children. The best way to do it is to give them regular tasks, i.e. let them do chores.

You should bear in mind that, just like you, your children weren’t born with the knowledge how to properly sort out laundry or how to sweep the floor. That’s why you should always monitor and guide them while they are cleaning. Patience is a crucial part of the whole process; remember that if you start pushing your child, you risk making them cry, and no parent wants to make their child cry, right? You should be helping them throughout the process of cleaning too, of course.

But what kind of chores are suitable for your child? Depending on their age, we have come up with several ideas. However, remember that even if your child’s age makes them suitable for a certain chore, you shouldn’t necessarily appoint those activities for them.

The easiest way to teach your child that chores are necessary is to appoint daily cleaning chores to your child first, and work your way up to weekly and, later on, monthly cleaning chores as they grow up. Rather than simply appointing sweeping and dusting in the living room, you should consider appointing kitchen cleaning chores to your kids – most of them are daily and they are the fastest and efficient way to teach your child that cleaning is important. If you use your imagination and make the chores seem like a game, your children and even you, will eventually start loving the whole process of doing chores. Moreover, depending on their age, children must be allowed to choose among a certain number of chores. 3-4 year-olds should be appointed one chore, 5-6 year-olds – two, etc. What’s more, 2-year-olds should help you set the table, 3 to 5 year-olds should place dirty dishes on the counter and unload dishwasher. 6 to 9 year-olds should be suitable to clean kitchen appliances, etc.

You see that kitchen chores get harder as the child gets older. That’s why you shouldn’t ask your child to clean the inside of the refrigerator if they are only three years old, for example. A good idea to make chores fun is to make chore carts and let your child pick one, two or three of them, depending on their age. Cleaning the table after a meal is a habit, but your 2-3 year-olds might not have adopted it yet. Wiping appliances and washing dishes are good ideas for chore cards, too.

All in all, remember that you should teach your children the importance of chores. The way to teach them is to appoint daily chores to them, and since most of those are in the kitchen, don’t hesitate, and ask your child to wash the dishes instead of you every once in a while.”