How to Get Kids to Help With Yard Work

Summer is over, the leaves have changed and it’s time to get the yard ready for winter. Why not make the process a family affair by including the kids? Not only do many hands make light work, but including children in yard chores is a great way to spend quality time and teach them responsibility all at once. The only question, then, is how to inspire them to get involved.

Here are a few of our favorite tactics:

4 Ways to Get the Kids to Help With Yard Work

Inspire the kids to get involved with these tips:

1. Start the Habit Early

If you want kids to enjoy helping out with yard work, the best tip is to start it early. The trick is to find age-appropriate tasks for your child. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

Toddlers can weed or water the garden, or pick up sticks and trash in the yard
Preschoolers thrive with rules and structure, so let them help you build a new garden feature, pot new plants or add soil, water the garden or container pots, and start seeds
Grade school children can handle large yard work chores, and are great at transplanting bulbs, harvesting flowers and veggies, and fertilizing plants
Pre-teens can rake and bag leaves, lay down mulch, or create a compost bin
Teenagers can mow the lawn, run a lawnmower for weed-wacker (be sure to teach them how to handle this equipment safely), help build garden features, and prune trees

By finding age-appropriate tasks for your kids, you make yard work safe, fun, and accessible for kids of all ages.

2. Make it Easy

Having the kids help with yard work will be easier when you make the process as straightforward as possible for them. For best results, give your kids simple tasks that are quick and gratifying. Here are a few suggestions:

Give them tasks with a clear “end.” Washing windows, clearing the gutters, and raking up leaves all have an obvious payoff – the gutters look clean, the windows are shiny, and the lawn is clear when the jobs are done. This provides a sense of reward and accomplishment for kids.
Make it a game. See who can weed the garden fastest, or who can bag the most leaves. Gamifying the process makes it more engaging.
Stay away from more complex tasks. Things like fertilizing or watering, which can easily be over- or under-done, should be left for older kids or adults.
Keep the chores in line with the child’s ability. You’ll have more luck getting kids to help if you keep the tasks in line with their ability. Kids will be more successful when they feel like they can handle the job, and aren’t being pushed uncomfortably beyond their limits.

3. Make It Fun

Lawn work can also be fun. After all, being outside means fresh air and sun. Take advantage of it with your kids, and help them see the special moments experiences like this provide. Teach them about different types of flowers or how to do something in a new way.

4. Have a Plan

For yard work to be enjoyable and productive, you need to have a plan about what to do with your yard waste. Fortunately, this is where we come in.

Our team provides yard debris removal services. We can help you get rid of leaves, fallen branches, grass clippings, stumps, soil, firewood, fencing, and more. Our junk removal trucks are made to handle those dirty yard debris items (unlike the backseat of your car).

To reduce our contribution to landfills, we recycle clean yard waste.

Nixxit’s Yard Waste Disposal Services

It can be challenging to dispose of a large amount of yard waste on your own if you live in Alameda County or Contra Costa County, as there is a size limit for grass clippings, leaves, and allowed in the green organics cart.

Instead, were here to help make this easy for you. If you need yard debris removal, just give us a call and we’ll get it out of your way in no time, plus we will even do all the loading regardless of where the debris is located.

Here’s some of what we take: