Dust the apartment

#dust#clean#home#tidy

Dusting rarely gives a clear before-and-after reward, which makes the chore easy to put off and hard to start. A picture makes the task concrete and bounded. See how the support works below.

A child dusts a bookshelf with a feather duster.

Dust the apartment

A child dusts a bookshelf with a feather duster.

About this visual support

Dusting is one of those chores that is hard to get motivated by. The floor looks the same afterwards, the dust is barely visible, and the reward is not felt in the body the way it is when something turns clean and shiny. When the result is invisible, it is easy to think it can wait, and then it never gets done.

Visual support helps by shifting the focus from the invisible result to a concrete action. A picture of dusting a shelf turns the task into something bounded and clear: this surface, this cloth, done. The child sees what to do and when it is finished, instead of a vague call to tidy up.

A tip: point out one single surface at a time, for example the bookshelf, rather than the whole room. A small, clear goal is easier to take on and gives a sense of having achieved something. In the Routined app you can split the dusting into several small steps the child checks off, so progress shows even when the dust does not.

Use this image in a schedule

Build your own visual schedule with this image and download it as a print-ready PDF. Completely free.