Children bring rays of light into our lives and chaos into our household. After teaching them to crawl, walk and talk, there is one more essential task that they have to learn – clean. Generally kids like to copy what grown ups do so they will be very interested in purpose of your mop or vacuum cleaner from early days. They will also imitate you and with time and the right teacher will become great help around the house.

Letting them help from early age will even improve hand-to-eye coordination, dexterity, and develop a sense of accomplishment. They can help you sort out silverware, snap the lids on plastic containers coming out from dishwashers, help you organize laundry. They will enjoy running around your house with a feather duster or cloth initially just playing around but eventually, by following you, learning the real purpose of these things.

The problems usually come once your child is a little bit older. Once their rooms are already jammed with toys and their clever heads are already full of ideas on how to get that extra time for games rather than cleaning up. They will try it all. They will ignore you, they will shout at you, they will beg you but unless you are planning to pick up after them until they move out well into their twenties or even thirties, all this should be ignored and you must teach your child the importance of cleaning from the early age.

Their room should be their territory in all aspects. Cleaning up there should be their task too. Sometimes though you will find that they are simply confused and don’t know where to start. It will take some guidelines and lots of patience from you.

First, try to keep it simple. They should be able to open and close all the drawers and storage boxes. Do not overload your child with toys. Kids who have too many toys usually get overwhelmed and play with your umbrella instead. Lots of low shelves and baskets that they can have easy access to may be good idea. Do not expect all to be in perfect order. As long as things are back in their places and your child realizes that you will not be picking up after them each time your job is already half done.

Secondly, guide them. Tell them where to start from. For example tell them to start from making the bed, then picking up their laundry and finally organizing the toys and clutter before moving on to dusting and vacuuming. Do this together first.

Thirdly, don’t forget patience. You may have to relax your standards a bit while your child learns. The key is to assign regular responsibilities for your child’s age, teach them how to do the chore a few times, and then let them try on their own. There will be tears and tantrums along the way but the rewards will get you through these.