Need a big sister’s secret to cleaning? Here’s an easy and fun way to get kids to clean. This tidy-up game makes children feel important, needed and gives them purpose. Don’t nag your kids to clean their room – inspire them to want to.
Listen: Big Sister’s Secret to Cleaning
Watch: Big Sister’s Secret to Cleaning
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
A Big Sister’s Secret to Cleaning
Do you want to know a big sister’s secret to cleaning? There is a person that wrote into the show and asked this question.
“I’m a 14-year old that has to clean the house alone. I’m the oldest of my three siblings. My parents don’t clean and I’m the one that has to clean, and I feel like I can’t clean. Yeah, I want a clean house, but I don’t know how to explain how I feel or why I feel I can’t clean. Anyways, if someone reads this, thank you for reading.”
I love this kind of message. I love the fact that at 14 years old, you’re willing to help out your parents and you’re willing to help out your other siblings by cleaning the house. That is so exciting and I’m sure your parents also feel blessed.
You’re Already Doing the Right Thing
Now, I want to stop for just a second and say that you’re doing all the right stuff. You came to YouTube looking for solutions on how to find help with house cleaning and you found me. I am super glad and super grateful that you are inventive enough and resourceful enough to use YouTube to find help for some of the questions that you have. So yay on you.
All right, the next thing that I want to share with you is some big sister secrets to cleaning. Now, I’m a big sister, myself, and I have 15 younger brothers and sisters. I have older brothers and sisters. There are 19 of us total, but I have 15 that are younger.
As I was growing up, I was in the same kind of situation where about your age, I had lots of younger siblings that I too had to kind of lookout for and then help clean out with the house and all this stuff. It was overwhelming and I too felt exactly where you are. And so I had to get really creative as well.
I Would Pretend That I was the Boss
One of the things that I did is every time I would have chores, I would look around me and I would pretend for a minute that I was the boss and then all my siblings were the employees, and I had to motivate them to help me clean and help me do my job because I was also kind of babysitting at the same time.
We would have lots of contests and I love contests. I’ve been holding contests since I was this tall. I don’t know why I love contests, and it seems like the people that are in the contest love them as well. I think they’re so awesome.
Turning Chores Into a Contest Helps
But as a kid, what I would do is I would say, let’s say that there were Legos all over the floor. I would say, “Guys, we’re going to have a contest. We’re going to see who can pick up the most yellow Legos in the next two minutes.” I would get a stopwatch or we would watch the clock, get ready, get set, go.
Everyone would scramble through, “Oh, hey now, that’s mine. That’s mine.“, and they would reach for all the yellow ones. They left all the other ones there, but they would get all the yellow ones. Then they would have piles of little yellow Legos.
Then, we would say, “Count them up.” Then, whoever counted them up would win, there were no prizes or anything, but we’d all clap and go, “Yay, Caleb. Whoa, you got the most yellow. Let’s do it again. This time we’re going for blue.” Well, before long, all of them were picked up.
What Other Chores Can You Use This Secret With?
“What else can we play the game with? Let’s do clothes. Who can pick up the most shirts?” Then, people would start scrambling for shirts. We broke it up. It wasn’t like who can pick up the most clothes, who could pick up the most shirts or the most socks or the most, whatever it was.
When we were outside, it was who can pull the most weeds? Who can pick the most rocks out of the garden? We had to pick the rocks out so that the rototiller blades would not break when we till the land to put in the next row of seeds because we were farmers. Who can pick up the most? Who can collect the most eggs from the chicken coop without breaking eggs?
We had farm fresh eggs. Everybody went to task doing all these little chores and it was always a contest. It was always a game and it got everyone involved. It kept everyone busy.
Making Chores Exciting Will Get Your Siblings to Help
Because there were several of the kids that were playing the games and there was this excitement going on, the other kids that were not part of it would come racing over like, “Hey, what are you guys doing? I want to play. Great, jump in and help us pick this up.” And so everybody jumped in and we played all kinds of games like this, depending on what the task of the day was.
Trust me, there were a lot of tasks, whether it was picking up storybooks or whether it was cleaning up things from the bathroom. We would all help out and it was always a game. It was always a contest.
Spread the Sense of Enthusiasm Around Chores
Before long, even though it wasn’t perfect, everybody helped participate. Everybody got this sense of enthusiasm. Like, “Hey, I win.” So we loved doing it and we love doing it as a team. It wasn’t that you had to do it alone and, “Oh, it’s so much work.”
It’s like, “Hey, I have to do this. How can I find some help? I got all these other siblings that can help me, let me get them involved. Let me get them excited about it. Let me motivate them to help me.”
Before long, you’ve entertained, the kids you’ve been able to help with the housework, and all of a sudden, mom and dad are like, “Whoa, look at this. The kids all pitched in.” Now, the parents are in a different state of mind and everyone wins.
Big Sisters Make Cleaning Fun and Exciting
My big sister’s secret to cleaning is to make it fun and make it exciting and don’t do it alone. Get help from your siblings because your siblings are probably bored and they probably want to participate in something that’s cool.
If you’re the big sibling, they probably look up to you. They probably secretly want to be like you. They probably follow you around anyway. So what you can do is you can get them involved and you can make them feel special and important. Then, bam, all the housework is done and now you can all go outside and play together.
I know. Super cool. Anyway, keep me posted. I am here rooting for you. Super excited that you found me and I’m super excited to hear the continuation of your journey.
Resources
Roscoe Learning Responsibility Star Chart – https://amzn.to/3uLUNiK
Melissa & Doug Mickey Mouse Magnetic Responsibility Chart – https://amzn.to/3uHKWe3
1st Place (Blue) Premium Award Ribbons with Card – https://amzn.to/3sHPT4v
Play22 Kids Cleaning Set 12 Piece – https://amzn.to/37XkJOK
Mini Broom with Dustpan for Kids, Little Housekeeping Helper Set – https://amzn.to/2MEhTqA
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