In our home, there are two particular rooms in our house that tend to take the bulk of the messiness, because the children spend most of their indoor time in these rooms. One is a Play Room, and the other is our Family Room. I am flexible with allowing messes with in these areas, but a few times a day I will have the children tidy them up. Here are a few tips that have helped us with those messier spots.
When a room begins to resemble a “Toys R Us” after an earthquake, don’t give your children a general “clean up this room!” command. They may not know where to begin! Be specific in what you want each child to do, and make each child accountable only for his or her own task. For example, in cleaning up the playroom, I might say, "Hannah, you put the dolls and dollhouse things away. Nathan, you clean up the Army guys. Grace, put the Lincoln Logs in their box..." The ones who comply are rewarded with free time, or I might just say, "Great job! Thank you for obeying me right away! Now you can... (read a book on the couch/ do a puzzle/ color a picture at the table)." If one of the children dawdles or disobeys, we deal with it appropriately, and then that child goes on to complete their task.
Another recommendation is to make sure that you provide a “home” for all toys. There is much wisdom in that age-old advice to have “a place for everything, and everything in it’s place.” Your children need to know exactly where all of their things belong, or they can’t be expected to put them away properly. Plastic bins and shelving have worked great in our house. Determine a good spot for your children’s things, and then be sure to inform them of that designated spot.
For the sake of saving time in the cleanup process, I have placed a large wicker basket in our family room, and a large plastic bin in the play room. When we are in a hurry and just want to quickly tidy up those rooms, they will drop many of the toys in those baskets. This perfectly acceptable, and greatly simplifies things. Occasionally, however, it is necessary to go through those baskets and put all of those toys in their correct homes. This is not an easy job and does take a good amount of time, but we do it only about once a month. To lessen the dread of the task, my children like to think of themselves as cowboys! Back in the days of the cowboys, cows were allowed to wander far into the neighboring fields, but once a year the cowboys would have a “Round Up,” when they brought all the cows back home. When we go through the toy baskets and transport everything back to it’s rightful home, we call it a “Round Up”!
Here are a few strategies that we use to make tidying sessions a little more fun:
- Have a "Tidy Race." When I say, "Go!" the children will begin to pick up as many things as they can and put them away. They will count each item, and whoever picks up the most items wins the race.
- Have each child use their age to determine how many items to pick up. An eight year old will pick up eight items, a five year old will pick up five items, etc.
- Set the timer for five minutes. You and the children run through the house the entire time putting away as many things as you can during that time. Congratulate them afterward and tell them (in all honesty) how amazed you are that they could make the house look so pretty in such a short time!
