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cleaning up toys/ being thorough
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Hello all! It’s been a while since I’ve been to this forum. I had kind of forgotten about it, what a shame! I was praying about who I should ask this question, and the Lord brought this forum to mind!
I have three children- boy age 10, boy age 6, girl age 4. I am a big declutterer-type person, so we don’t have too many toys, in fact most of them are stored away in the basement for rotation. We leave access to wooden blocks, books and a few toy sets that are in boxes and the two oldest have drawers in a dresser that they keep their personal things in that are their things alone. I don’t want to stifle creativity, so if they want to make the animals ride in the toy cars and build blocks at the same time, I think that’s great. They are instructed to put things away when they’re done in the correct container. This is my ideal, but I get distracted and when it gets 100% cleaned up, I relax and it goes to the other extreme of stuff everywhere. I bet I’m not alone in this, I think if I consistent, I would never have any problems, but aaahhhh, consistency. What a mountain to climb.
I think my biggest problem with this arrangement is that the kids are never thorough when they clean up. A lion ends up under the bed and 10 of the legos are in various places, under the kitchen counter, next to the toothpaste, on my computer desk. First of all, they rarely clean up on their own, I have to ask them to. That’s one problem. But when I ask them to, they do. So after they clean up, I go around checking them and call them to where I am to come and get the toy they’ve missed and they obediently do it, but I don’t want them to rely on me being thorough, I want them to be able to do it themselves. Oh, and another problem is they suddenly forget who was the one playing with it. I want to be fair and not have the youngest pick up the mess the oldest made and vice versa. My sister who has 7 children just assigns them each a room regardless of who made the mess, what do you all think about that? Something about that rubs me the wrong way.
So my question is…..what arrangements do you all have with toys? What are the consequences you give for not cleaning up or not being thorough? I want to create good habits, don’t want to be the one reminding them of it. Our days are not smooth and mastering this feels like the key to smooth days.
Thank you if you’ve read this far. I look forward to gaining some wisdom from you all.
Jenn in KS
I have gotten throroughness in this area by doing the following:
After giving them a realistic time to clean up, I inspect the cleaned area with a black garbage bag in hand. If I find any toys left out at all, I pick them up and put them in the bag which then goes to a shelf in the closet. The toys are returned to the communal pile in a week.
It worked great. I haven’t had to use it much lately. When I did, it was…hurry mommy’s coming with the bag!
My daughter used to dance while I was inspecting singing, you won’t find anything!
obviously there were tears and upset the first time. the lesson was hard, but effective.
jo
I rotate toys too. I have found that a clean up sign helps them remember how to clean up. I usually say, “time to clean, look at your sign.” The sign list can be simple such as -put all toys back in containers, -look under beds – check the kitchen, etc. Wherever you have the kids playing, maybe just add that room to the list for checking.
After the list has been done, they are to report to me. Then I usually say, “double check!” If the job is done well, I try to remember to praise and even hug and kiss them. If they’re not doing so well, i have them go back and do it again, and ask the Lord to give me patience. 🙂
Also, if I see that one child is dawdling or complaining and not cleaning up with siblings, then I make that child do the whole job by themselves. It really encourages them to ALL work as a team.
HTH!
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