How to Make Chores Fun For Kids PART 1

Picture This.

Pretzels and Egg Crumbles under the table from breakfast and snack
Dirty Dishes from last night's dinner
Legos sprawled across the floor
dirt spilled from houseplants that were knocked over
wet bathing suits thrown on the carpeted floor
wet towels on the wooden floor (i still cringe at that one)
cushions off the couch
crumbs in the sofa. everywhere.
Toilet paper unrolled in the bathroom
Pee on the toilet seat (maybe even smeared poop)
bikes, trikes, scooters, helmets strewn in the yard
socks hanging from the trees (yes, socks--my boys used to throw socks)
every possible toy in the playroom dumped out and non-organized
You get the point...we could go on and on....


How to go from this: 

to This:







If you want to know, keep reading.

The reality is, kids want to play. Their brains are programmed to play, and in most cases, children are able to filter out normal clutter and mess. (we are not talking about mess created by hoarders). Their minds are designed for play, imagination, creativity, learning, growth; and, well, that takes dumping out every single crayon in the crayon box to get to that one color that we need. (and then leaving all the dumped crayons on the floor because our focus is finishing that picture with that special crayon color.) This is perfectly normal when we have children. Boys tend to be worse. However, there is a way to successfully train your children to be domesticated without the fighting, whining, and crying that is normally associated with cleaning up and chores.

My secret to having little housekeepers and chefs: Make it simple, keep it fun! On this blog, I will give all my secrets to how I keep my two little boys in line while I hold a baby most of the day. Don't get me wrong: we have messy days still. All the time. However, I can quickly recover from those days by using my strategies that I have truly sat down, thought about, researched, implemented, and changed to see success. And I will share all those strategies with you through my blog.

My children, who are 8 & 4:
vacuum
sweep
pick up legos
clean their room
throw laundry in the wash
pick up clothes off the floor
put away their dishes and throw out their trash
feed the cats
get dressed without any assistance from head to toe
brush their teeth regularly
AND get this....
without being asked about 80% of the time.

They also participate regularly in chores such as:
helping to clean out my car
sweeping up crumb piles
taking their sheets to the laundry
dusting
spraying and wiping the table and windows

Most of the time, I do not use threats, grounding, and discipline to get them to clean up. Instead, I use fun and games. Use tactics that click with the natural programming inside a child's mind, and you will be on a roll. As they grow, you can adapt other methods, but stick to having fun when it comes to children and chores.

Laundry Organization with Kids - Get control of your laundry pile!

Do you have a laundry tower in your house of dirty laundry? Clothes piling up at the bottom of the basement steps where they are thrown downstairs by everyone? What about this one: Socks and t-shirts hanging in your trees outside? Yes, that actually has happened before to me compliments of my boys. Here's what we do for Laundry Organization with three kids in our house and two adults. Laundry can be a complicated problem, but our solution is very simple, and we virtually have NO LAUNDRY MESS ON THE FLOOR! Can you actually believe that? Welp...believe it. It takes a little work to set up, but if you follow this, your laundry woes will be greatly decreased and may even disappear.

Here's what you need:
YOUR CHILDREN AND HUSBAND MUST DO A FEW SIMPLE THINGS EVERYDAY.

(if they don't, it's still easy enough to run around and do yourself, but you must be consistent for this to work. Give yourself just 3 minutes before you go to bed to implement this laundry system. You will be amazed in about one week.)

Ok, here it is:

What you will need:
-7 pop up hampers from Walmart that range from 1.50-1.80
-Mesh laundry bags for the number of people in your household including babies
-Hanging laundry hampers for the number of bedroom and bathroom doors in your house plus some extra if you have an area to hang laundry in the basement. (about $2-3.00 @ Walmart.
-plastic tub for soaking clothes that have stains

Note: All the mesh laundry bags, pop-up hampers, and hanging laundry bins are extremely breathable for laundry and will not add to the smell of dirty laundry like some laundry bins.


Instructions: 


1.) PUT AWAY all baskets, fancy laundry hampers, bins, and bags. All they do is just take up space and are not super helpful when it comes to organizing and actually getting the wash done.

2.) Count out 7 outfits for each child/adult in the house. Make sure each "outfit roll" contains underwear, a pair of socks, 2 shirts, and one pair of pants or shorts (depending on the season) and jammy (for kids). Add a white undertank for hubby if they typically wear one. If you have messy children, have each outfit roll contain 2 of each item. Please make sure nothing is missing. If you don't have enough pants, buy more. You can grab t-shirts and shorts from goodwill or second hand stores easily enough. It's worth it to make your laundry life easier.

3.) Take the hanging hampers from Walmart and hang behind every door you can get away with. Preferably all the bathrooms and bedrooms. Designate one for each person in the house.

3.) Keep the pop up hampers folded and store somewhere in the laundry area.

4.) Hang two mesh laundry bags somewhere in each bedroom. One is going to be for underwear, one for socks.

5.) Go around the house and pick up all the clothes and socks on the floor. Put each person's (CLOTHES ONLY, not socks) in their designated hanging laundry bins. Don't worry about color, whites, jeans, etc. when putting away the clothes in the hanging bins. Take all the SOCKS directly to the laundry room and put all socks including whites in a pop-up hamper.

6.) Towels, blankets, and sheets, can be brought directly to the laundry room and put in a pop-up hamper.

7.) Now, start washing to catch up. Take one hanging basket, and throw all contents into the washer on COLD or WARM on DELICATE with a GOOD laundry detergent (we love ECOS magnolia and lily-the clean smell of clothes is to die for) and a scoopful of oxiclean. (We have found that colors typically don't bleed if you use the cold cycle with a good laundry detergent. Plus, this can drive you insane if you have multiple children).

8.) Set a timer for when the washer is done. When the timer goes off, RESPIN the clothes. Do NOT RE-RINSE. Just "re-spin". You should easily be able to find this on a regular washer. If you have an HE stackable that takes the "soaking wet feel" out of the clothes, you do not need to re-spin the clothes.

9.) Take the freshly spun clothes out and throw them in the dryer. They should be much less wet now and shouldn't shrink nearly as much. If you have delicates or hang to dry in the laundry load, only turn the dryer on for 10 minutes, take them out and hang up the delicates. Continue drying the other clothes.

10.) After each load is dry, take the clothes out and unpop a laundry basket you had previously stored in the laundry room. Now, all the organization you did prior to the wash cycle should pay off. Each load is for a designated person, so you are now just designating a pop up hamper to that person as well.

11.) Repeat steps 7-10 until all the wash except socks is done.

12.) Pick a pop-up hamper and take it to whoever the laundry belongs too. Start folding like

Fresh Fruit Healthy Snack Idea for Toddlers: Banana & Grape Dolphins

Love this healthy fresh fruit snack idea for toddlers and small children!
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