I usually dread cleaning my house, and I'm an adult, so I know it's a bit of stretch trying to convince my kids that chores are fun. But since I want my daughters to learn how to pick up after themselves, and become contributing members of our household, I decided to look into ways to make chore time feel more like play time. Fortunately there are products that can get your kids excited about chores, and they might even make your job more fun too.

If you have older kids, you can make creative chore charts or play chore bingo to start turning the clean-up process into something that feels kind of novel and fun. But if you have a pint-size cleaner on your hands like I do, I thought this scavenger hunt idea from Scholastic was a pretty brilliant way to fight clutter: "Make a list of everyday items (newspapers, magazine, shoes, etc.). Set a timer for 5 minutes, then have kids collect stray items throughout the house. The winner is the child who picks up the most (and returns them to their rightful spots)." That's something even a preschooler could do, and perhaps might even ask to do!

But, if all of those creative solutions aren't getting the job done, here are some products that can help motivate your little task-masters.