Teach Children How to Clean at Home (5 Areas that Your Child Can Clean)

As parents, it’s sometimes difficult to identify what chores to give your child.

Some of this can depend on age, but these are 5 areas of your home that your child can clean at almost any age!

1. Bedroom

Make their bed: Making the bed can make a bedroom look instantly more tidy.

This is a great habit to teach your child, and even a toddler can put their blanket, pillow and stuffed animals back on their bed!

Pick up toys: Since children tend to have a lot of toys in their bedroom, teaching them to spend 15 minutes picking up their toys before going to bed can keep the cleanliness of their room more manageable (and prevent anyone from tripping if they get up during the night).

Put away laundry: Even if it’s not completely neat, a 5 year old should be able to help with folding and putting their clean clothes away, so it’s great to start them early with this since clothes can make a huge mess.

2. Bathroom

Pick up toys: Sometimes parents are grateful when they’re simply able to get through bath time – but before your child comes out of the bathtub, have them hand you the toys to put away.

Or if you prefer to let the toys sit in the tub and dry off afterwards, try to have your child help put them away at the end so the mess is not left only for you.

Throw trash away: One of the chores I had as a 5 year old was to empty all of the little trashcans in the bathrooms and bedrooms in our home.

This is usually an easy chore if done on a regular basis before the trash overflows!

Clean the Toilet: This is a job that requires parental supervision, especially if you’re using any type of toilet bowl cleaners.

But kids love to scrub out that toilet bowl and you can give them any type of Clorox or Lysol wipes to clean the rest of the toilet and wipe it down.

Counters and Mirrors: This may be a better job for a 10 year old or older child, but kids usually enjoy spraying down mirrors or counters with Windex and paper towels which can help with the upkeep of the bathroom.

I’ve even given 3 year olds little wet wipes to wipe off the bathroom cabinets if they wanted to help me clean and there wasn’t another job they could do.

3. Kitchen

Clear the table: Have your child start off clearing their own dishes from the table and then have them help remove the other dishes or food from the table if they’re able to carry them.

Everyone jumping into this will help get it done quickly and it usually goes faster when everyone at least takes care of their own dishes.

Put food away: Another easy chore after a meal is putting the food away either in the pantry or refrigerator.

Dishes: Doing the dishes might be a little easier once they’re tall enough to reach the sink, but helping to rinse the dishes, put them in the dishwasher, wash by hand or dry them is a great chore children can do after a meal.

Even if the pans need a little more scrubbing from you, your child should be able to manage most of the other dishes.

Sweep or mop the floor: If your child is tall enough to use a broom, have them help sweep up around the kitchen and dining room table after meals once everything is put away.

They can even on occasion help mop, but that is usually best for teenagers who can manage how much water is on put on the floor.

4. Living Room

Pick up toys: Somehow toys manage to find their way into any part of the home!

Again, having your child spend 15 minutes before bed picking up their toys around the home, teaching them to put one game away before getting out another, or having them clean up their toys in the living room before they move to playing outside will help in managing how many toys are out and about.

Dust the furniture: Swiffer dusters are one of my favorite things to use, so if you’re not concerned about your child knocking anything over or breaking something, have them use something like that to dust the baseboards, window sills, blinds etc.

If they’re a little older and around 8 or 10 years old, give them a dust rag (that you have already sprayed) and let them dust off some larger pieces of furniture like the TV stand, end tables or coffee tables.

Vacuum: If your child is big enough to help push the vacuum around, let them! They may not get every corner, but they will certainly help get the job done.

5. Laundry

Sort laundry: Laundry tends to be one of the hardest things for parents to manage.

Children go through SO many clothes. Even if they’re not messy, your child can still find a way to change out of their clothes several times a day.

Have different baskets devoted to different colors of clothes, and try to teach your child at a young age to put their dirty clothes in the right bins.

Or if you don’t have something to sort your laundry, have your child help you sort the dirty clothes into piles before you wash them.

Switch the laundry: If you don’t have any clothes that require special attention, teach your child to put clothes from the washer into the dryer and what settings are needed.

This can be a help to you and good for them to learn how to dry their clothing or how to start the washer.

Put away laundry: Again, this can be challenging for a young child, but by the age of 5, they should be able to “help” fold their clothes and put them away.

If they’re young, they will need help hanging clothes in their closet, but by the time they’re a teenager, they should be able to have complete responsibility with handling laundry.

Setting Up Guidelines

Here are a few guidelines that will help make teaching your child how to clean as easy and fun as possible.

  1. Have clear expectations
  2. Model a good attitude
  3. Have realistic expectations
  4. Make cleaning fun!
Teaching children how to clean at home.