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Are you looking for ideas for organizing your home with a large family? If you are the stay-at-home parent or you only work part-time, you may feel like it is entirely your job to organize your home. But it is also up to you to organize your household chores, including those associated with decluttering and organizing.

Why give all of those chores to yourself? It might sound like a good idea—you won’t be bugging the kids and the spouse. But in reality, it just creates hassles for you and for them. Think how many times you have had to totally redo your hard work organizing because your family messes it up. What if the only reason they keep messing it up is because they don’t understand your system?

Here are a few suggestions for productively involving your family in your organizing efforts.

1. Make sure your family knows your organizing system.

Tired of moving dishes from one cabinet to the next because your kids keep putting them back in the wrong place? Do not simply tell your children, “Stop doing that; they belong over here”—explain why they belong where you want them.

If your kids can see the logic in your system for organizing your home, they are more likely to actually remember the system and adopt it.

2. Allow family members to contribute to that system and adapt it.

Sometimes other family members may have logical reasons for doing what they do as well, though. You might assume your kids have no reason to keep putting things away where they do, but if you ask them, you might be surprised.

The most efficient home organizing system will serve every family member’s needs. Compromises will have to be made, but sometimes that means honoring someone else’s organizational methods and adapting your own system to fit. This shows respect to all family members and will result in less resistance when you really do need to ask someone else in your family to make a compromise and adopt your organization methods.

3. Make plans with your family to organize.

Do not simply dole out chores without asking for input from your family. You may think you are doing them a favor, but they may disagree. Again, if you try and organize your family’s time all on your own, you are likely to encounter resistance because your kids or spouse may have other plans. Sit down together and work out an organizing schedule.

4. Reward everyone for participating.

If everyone does their part in keeping the home organized—especially if they help with a big project—make sure that there is a fun reward for everyone. Go out to a fancy restaurant or plan a special weekend activity. Do something out of the ordinary to thank everyone for their hard work.

It is tempting to think you are helping out by trying to do everything on your own, but in truth, taking steps to organize with your family can pay off not just by making your life easier, but by making life more pleasant for everyone in your household.