Share with Cif your top tips for getting family members to clean up after themselves - you could win a £250 voucher NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We know that sometimes getting the family to clean up after themselves can be a difficult task, so Cif would like to hear about your top tips.

Here's what Cif have to say, "Our latest cleaning product - Cif Express Direct to Floor - can be used direct on the floor and small surfaces for a sparkling clean home. It leaves a long lasting and fresh fragrance. It's suitable for tiled, laminate and washable/ varnished wood floors. To use, you simply squirt the product directly onto the floor, then wipe with a damp mop, there's no need to rinse and it dries really fast! Now available in Antibacterial, Lemon & Apple Flowers and Wild Orchid & Velvet flowers, the RRP is £2.00 for 750 ml."

Check out the MNers review video here (and check out their feedback here):

So, what are your top tips for getting your family to clean up after themselves? Do you give your DCs pocket money for doing their chores? Or maybe you try to make cleaning fun by starting a 'who can clean the fastest' contest?

Whatever your top tips are, Cif would love to hear about them.

Everyone who adds a comment will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £250 voucher for the store of their choice.

Please note comments on this thread might be used by Cif on their website or on their social media channels: please only add a comment if you're happy for your comment to be used.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

My kids are 5 and 3 so some days they think it's fun and exciting to help tidy up - especially if we make it a race. I'm sure this will soon wear off and I'll have to start with the threats and bribery.

we use a marble jar for chores! once filled they get a treat!

Everything you flush or wash down the sink effects our environment,

When it goes into our sewers it goes into our rivers, at our treatment plants, everything gets shower washed through gravel, then fed into our waterways, that's it. nothing else, the gravel is not magical it only breaks down the size of lumps.

So when you wash things down the drain you are adding it to our river and sea, and it kills.

so don't put anything down the drain that you wouldn't put through your body,

Would you drink Cif?

NO , then why are you expecting the fish and all the other water life forms to, it's products like this that kill our world,

pretend all you like you don't have an impact,

but you do,

If a product will kill a tank of fish when you put it in , then don't use it.

If Cif can persuade any national aquarium to add a bottle of Cif to any of it tanks , I will apologise.

If you have children you should care, one day your grandchildren will want answers, I hope I can answer without lying.

Cleaning with headphones on - singing along allowed!

My children are very competitive so I have a laminated list of daily jobs and whoever does each task sticks their coloured sticker on the appropriate job on the list (red for ds and blue for dd). Whoever has completed the most jobs picks the end of the week treat, for example they will choose whether we all go out to eat, go to the cinema, or stay in and watch a dvd. It has become quite amusing seeing arguments over who "gets" to clear the table

My son's a bit young still to understand chores but we make a game of tidying up his toys before we go out or before bed, for example. He loves putting toys into his toy boxes or putting his bricks back in the box just like mummy is doing. I just have to redirect him before he tips them out and starts again!

Start them young. DD, not yet two, pit her (bagged) nappies into the bin after a change, puts her dirty clothes into the hamper, takes her dishes to the sink after eating and washes them (I redo in hotter water later).

All her toys are colour coded to help with tidying up; for example, all music instruments have a blue dot sticker on them and go in the blue box.

She also likes dusting and taking the washing out of the machine so intake advantage of that

Once the children were old enough they knew they were expected to clear their own washing up from the table - and often would clear everything without being asked. Washing had to be put in a specific place or they knew it would not be washed when they next looked for it. I had large plastic crates/toy boxes so that tidying toys was quick and easy for them - done most quickly when there was an incentive to follow (e.g. put all the lego away and we'll go to the park). I didn't make a big thing about there being "chores" to be done - it was simply something that was done as routine.

our dcs have always been encouraged to tidy away toys, put their rubbish in the bin. use the recycling bin. put heir clothes away. we started doing this once they were 18mths old and it works well now their older.
They also love to load and unload the washer because we've made it into a game.
it works well for us

I tell my 18 month old to 'put away!' Which is sometimes successful!

DD and I have a chopstick system (literally chopsticks in a jam jar with chores written on them) where she has five chores per day and 20p for each chore completed. If the chopsticks are all turned over each evening then the pocket money is transferred each evening into her bank account. 20p deducted for any chores not completed or half done and a chance to reflect on what she could have done better. Chores get rotated on a regular basis and some chores like drying the dishes or doing her bed are actually her responsibility and she is not paid to do. This system works wonderfully in our house and encourages my pre-teen to help out and earn.

Anything which isn't tidied up when asked gets put in a bin bag and is sent to the charity shop. They are quite happy to clean but just don't see the mess beforehand.

I think starting early is key. Ds aged 2 already knows to put rubbish in the bin. I will often say to him to put something in the bin for me and he'll do it :) and I make a game of wiping and tidying up - he loves having a splodge about with a clean sponge and some water in a spray bottle.

Dd aged 11 needs reminding about some things but I expect her to do basic things like make her bed and put her plate in the dishwasher etc.

For me keeping tidy and clean is part of being a family and everyone working together to keep the home nice.

i use a post it note saying' PUT ME AWAY"

once i left a birthday card to something that had been put under the sofa for a bloody YEAR

OH GOD the chopstick thing sounds ludicrously complicated

i jsut say ' Help me with this' and they do.

then i pay for things when they need it

Cleaning up after themselves is a life skill, something they need to learn to function in the modern world. Making it work in practice is a bit harder. We have watched episodes of 'How Clean Is Your House' and my eldest is absolutely horrified that people live in those conditions. If he doesn't clean things up, I just tend to use the magic works "How clean is your house?" and he generally does as he is told.

DS and I make it into a game. See who can tidy the fastest. Sometimes we turn the music up loud, I give him a cloth and he washes the windows. It helps that he loves the Hoover!

I sing a song. And I don't stop singing until they all stop tidying. If you have ever heard me sing, you will understand.

"Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share"

When Ds room is particularly bad, we do it together (or it all ends up shoved under the bed). If not, then DS will tidy it up when asked/pestered/ordered/bribed!

I always that DS does his jobs before he sits down to watch TV or computer or do homework etc. If jobs etc not done, then there is no freetime

Well said, Quoteunquote

Dd I'd not quite 3, so not exactly pulling her weight in housework terms yet. I am trying to instil good habits by including her in housework, e.g. by giving her a duster and asking her to clean the table while I am hoovering. Not sure if it's working yet. She still likes to rub cheese into the carpet.

"have you got legs? Yes? Do you know where the kitchen is? Yes? Oh well then, you know what to do. Good. Thanks"

mine is a teen now, however from an early age there was the expectation that he had to clean up after himself. So toys had to be put away at the end of each day, games had to be put back in boxes with all the correct 'bits' or if there were lots of toys out already something would have to be put away before another one could be got out - I would always help him, but i would not do it for him. It was always made to be fun, and not a chore and eventually it became a habit.

some times it's a case of finding an easy option - eg for putting dirty washing in the laundry bin I found the easiest way was to give him his own laundry basket in his room.

My 2 year old has to tidy up her toys before bed, sometimes we race, and other times I offer an extra story if she does it quickly.