5 great ways to get kids to help with chores

1. Get a feather duster. Despite the myriad of cleaning products, a feather duster is all you need to remove dust from your furniture and tables. Given something fluffy, your kids will love to dust for you.
2. Let them spray and wipe. Kids love spray bottles. Let them handle all the counters and surfaces that can be sprayed and wiped with a paper towel. Let them do some easy-to-reach windows, too. You may have to go over them again, but you’ll be surprised how well a child can do windows.
3. Your kids can so put away their clothes! Get different colored bins with handles for your children. As you fold laundry, put clothes in each child’s bin. On their way to bed each night, they can take up their bin and put away their laundry. On their way down each morning, they can bring down the empty bin. (These are a great place to put anything else you find around the house that belongs in your child’s bedroom.)
4. Make a game out of the most boring jobs. Divide up the socks between two children and have them play a “matching game” similar to Go Fish. When they get a match, they can fold the pair together and throw it in the “ocean” pile.
5. Hide a quarter in a cluttered room that your kids will find when the room is cleaned up. Finders keepers with the quarter.
Diane Laney Fitzpatrick