It sucks when the kids don’t help around the house – A Vacuum Cleaner Review

Put your hand up if you can relate. You’ve spent most of your ‘free time’ cleaning and tidying up the house, vacuuming, dusting and organising, only for the place to be trashed by the kiddos as soon as your back it turned. It’s like they have an evil super power! If only all that energy could be harnessed for good!

Well it can. Put them to work I say. You’ll be surprised how quickly they start to develop tidier habits when they’ve spent their free time doing a few easy household chores. You never know, they may even come to appreciate all the hard work you put in behind the scenes. *Insert sarcastic laugh here*

How to get the kids to help with housework - Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum - mypoppet.com.au

This vacuum cleaner review is a sponsored post – This post contains affiliate links

Getting kids to help around the house can be challenging at the best of times, but it’s not impossible. I’ve got a few suggestions that have (somewhat) helped motivate Emma to be more helpful with the housework, and they might work for you too.

I’ll also be telling you about how a new handheld vacuum cleaner has really helped keep our house clean day-to-day – read on for the full product review.

I must preface the following suggestions with the fact that the kiddo’s chores often come with a heavy side of sass, eye rolls and sighs. But as long as the dishwasher is emptied, I can live with it. As a mother of a tween, I’m adjusting to the fact that complaints about everything just comes with the territory now. So looking forward to those sullen teenage years. Yay!

How to get your kids to help with the housework - mypoppet.com.au

How to get your kids to help with the housework:

Start them young

Develop good habits early. It may be as simple as packing up their own toys at the end of the day, setting the table and clearing up afterwards.

Even the youngest kids are very capable and you’d be surprised how much they enjoy the extra responsibilities.  Choose tasks that are age appropriate for your child and incorporate them into your daily routine.

Make it fun

Just like Mary Poppins said “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game.” Sadly we can’t use magic to tidy up like our beloved Mary, but we can add a play element to our household chores.

Pop on some fun tunes or set a timer and get the kids to race each other for the quickest time. If it’s a hot day, get the kiddos to wash the windows and let them have a water-fight afterward.

Reward them

Older kids may start to see though your cunning ploys and realise that housework isn’t really fun at all. Well that’s when bribery rewards come in. Use incentives such as extra screen time, a special treat they can work towards, or a weekly allowance to encourage their participation.

Charts and apps can help everyone track their progress, but remember to be consistent and follow thorough with what you’ve promised if you expect them to do the same.

Make it easy

It’s hard to clean and tidy when the house it cluttered with too much stuff and cleaning tools are inaccessible or difficult to use.

Make sure everything has a proper place to live and it will be much easier for the kids to put things away.

If your vacuum cleaner is super heavy and difficult manoeuvre, motivation for cleaning up a spill is going to be hard to find. Make it easy – choose a vacuum with your kids in mind.

How to get the kids to help with housework - Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum - mypoppet.com.au

Meet Emma’s new vacuum cleaner

When I was asked to review one of Sauber’s brand new products, the Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum, I jumped at the opportunity.

Our current vacuum works great, but it’s a semi-commercial unit that is quite heavy duty and a bit cumbersome to use for quick cleaning jobs. It only comes out of the cupboard once a week to do the whole house and even that’s quite an effort. I wouldn’t ever expect Emma to use it, I barely want to use it.

But the Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum is a game changer. It’s compact, cordless and versatile, easily converting from a handstick to a handvac for multi surface cleaning.

How to get the kids to help with housework - Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum - mypoppet.com.au

Emma really likes that cleaning up her small messes are quick and easy (and don’t involve me getting grumpy!) I like that I’m not constantly confronted with micro-messes every time I walk into a room.

Watch Emma’s video above to see how easy the Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum and its accessories are to use – even for a child.

 Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum - mypoppet.com.au

Things to love about the Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum:

  • Compact but powerful
  • Light and manoeuvrable – easy for kids to use
  • Easily converts from a handstick to a handvac
  • Cordless and rechargeable – no cords to trip over or get snagged on the furniture.
  • Comes with a docking station to make storage and charging easy
  • Motorised powerheads for both hard floors and carpets – we use the hard floor one for everything as our rugs are flat-weaves.
  • Easy to empty with a washable dust bin – no need to buy vac bags
  • Perfect for small messes and quick tidy ups
  • 4-stage HEPA Filtration System picks up even the finest of dust for a healthier home – I have allergies so this is great.
  • Comes with lots of tools for different cleaning jobs, including powered pet hair brush
  • Looks great

Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum - mypoppet.com.au

Points to consider:

  • Not really designed to be your only vacuum. Battery life ranges from 30 min (low speed) to 9 min (turbo), so it’s better suited to small jobs or just to quickly vac a room. May suit a small apartment.
  • Battery takes 4 hrs to recharge from empty so you need to have it on the docking station between uses to prevent a flat battery.
  • Docking station needs to be mounted on a wall with access to a powerpoint.

How to get the kids to help with housework - Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum - mypoppet.com.au

The Verdict

Where has this vacuum been all my life? It’s really made it easy to quickly clean up messes as soon as they happen, as well as helping me tackle those annoying jobs I’ve been putting off doing, like vacuuming the Venetian blinds.

Its manoeuvrable swivel head gets under furniture that our big vac can’t, and because I use it here and there throughout the day, the house generally feels cleaner between big vacs.

It’s really perfect for Emma to use, and the fact that she thinks it’s fun to vacuum now makes it more likely that she’ll do this one chore without too many complaints. Now that’s a WIN in my book.

How to get the kids to help with housework - Sauber Advance Handstick Vacuum - mypoppet.com.au

Do you make your kids help around the house? What kind of jobs do they do?

1 Comment

  • kate says:

    I really need a new vac but I can’t decide between a little one like this or another big one… but you might have swayed me towards this with the idea that the kids might use it! LOL

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