Operation Cleanup

Unless you plan to have a forklift truck on standby on Labour Day to help clear your home of an entire summer’s worth of kid-related clutter, you’ll want to train your kids to pick up after themselves on a day-to-day basis. (While your odds of achieving Martha Stewart-like housekeeping standards while you’ve got a houseful of kids are pretty much slim to none, you’ll at least have a fighting chance of keeping the public health inspector at bay!) Here are a few tips on convincing even the most reluctant of recruits to participate in Operation Cleanup.

- Be realistic about your expectations. It’s perfectly reasonable to insist that your kids wipe up popsicle drips and other sticky messes before they start attracting bugs: it’s a bit over the top to insist that they keep their rooms immaculate 24 hours a day. (Your kids are supposed to be enjoying a summer vacation—not a boot camp experience, remember?)

- Have a family meeting to talk about the "ground rules" when it comes to housework: how often each person’s room should be cleaned, what constitutes clean (a checklist or written definition may be helpful!), what other chores each person is responsible for around the house, and so on.

- Make sure that your kids have the equipment they need to hold up their end of the cleaning bargain. If you want them to keep the toys off the floor in their bedrooms and in common areas such as the kitchen and the familyroom, for example, make sure that they have storage bins and shelves where they can store all their various bits and pieces.

- Keep the house as clutter-free as possible. It’s that one-inch-thick layer of newspapers, puzzle pieces, and candy wrappers that makes a house look so messy. If you get the entire family in the habit of decluttering each night after dinner, you’ll wake up to a reasonably clean house the following morning—a much more pleasant way to start the day than feeling like you’ve just stepped into the aftermath of a hurricane. (Hint: If your kid "forgets" to transport his pile of clutter to his room after you’ve finished a round of clutter-busting, put his stuff on his kitchen chair and insist that he get rid of the clutter before he sits down for his next meal.)

- Find ways to take the drudgery out of housework. Crank your 12-year-old’s favourite tunes up full blast when everyone’s doing housework. Who knows? You might even catch yourself coming up with the lyrics to a truly inspired bathroom cleaning rap.

- Don’t overlook the motivating power of rewards. Your kids will do their chores at breakneck speed if you let it be known that you’ll all go out for ice cream as soon as everyone’s room has been cleaned. Likewise, you’ll have kids fighting for the privilege of folding laundry if you spread the word that anyone who pitches in on laundry patrol gets an extra turn on the computer. (Some might call it bribing your kids: I call it providing an incentive programme. And if incentives are good for motivating people in the workforce, what’s wrong with dishing them out on the homefront?)

- Be prepared to call in additional recruits if it becomes apparent that you’re losing the war against dirt. Hire a cash-hungry high school or university student to help out with the heavy-duty cleaning so that there will be fewer chores for you and your kids to tackle and you’ll find yourself with more time to enjoy all the great things that the Canadian summer has to offer.