Kids Clean Up Part 2: Keeping it clean

Today is the second in my two part series of getting your kids to clean up their toys. Yesterday, I talked about organization of toys so that they had a place to belong and streamlining the amount of toys so there wasn't so many to deal with it. If you missed it you can check it out here. 


Now that the toys all have a home we can talk about how to keep them picked up and put away. I think the key to most parenting issues is consistency. When it comes to getting the toys picked up a good part of it is warnings, reminders and regular pick up times. Wait, I know I promised yesterday that you wouldn't sound like a nag, so please just hear me out. 


What I have discovered over the years is any toys left out (especially in their rooms where I'm not the one tripping over it) when the kids leave the room will most likely stay left out and we all know that clutter mysteriously multiplies quickly leaving you with a horrible mess. So, in order to avoid this give your kids a 10-15 minute warning and tell them it is clean up time. If you wait until dinnertime, bedtime or time to walk out the door it will only add stress and most likely the toys will be left out. But if about 10 -15 minutes before the next activity you establish pick up time as a transition things will go much smoother, especially if you are consistent and make this a habit. 


Also start random cleaning up sessions. With my kids I called it a "10 Second Tidy" like on the Big Comfy Couch. When you notice that they have moved on to a toy or two and the previous ones are still left out have everyone stop what they are playing with and put everything away. Yes, everything including the current playthings. (Of course you can use discretion if the kids are working on an intricate puzzle or complicated Leggo creation, but find a way for it to be up or away without being destroyed.) Your kids will resist this, but in my experience when we stop and clean up and I allow them to leave the current toy out about 80% of the time it remains out and they do not go back to it. Once everything is picked up they can get it back out and continue playing. These random checks help keep small messes from turning into huge disaster areas.


The biggest part of getting them to do it without argument is to make it fun. First off I know too well if Mom is dreading clean up time, the kids are definitely not going to want to do it either, so try to add some variety and make it as fun as possible. Here are some ways to make cleaning less of a chore and more of a game:

• Set a timer and see how much can get done before it goes off
• Pick a random number and have everyone pick up that many toys (such as 11 or 27)
• If your kids are competitive have a race to see who can pick up their number of toys first, or who can pick up the most before the timer goes off
• Assign each kid a color of toy to pick up. This is a little more interesting than having Sally pick up all the blocks and Johnny pick up all the cars.

Even if you are successful in establishing these habits, you and your kids will have to periodically throw away broken toys, give away out grown or unloved toys and go through artwork and school work in order to keep the kids' stuff from taking over the entire house.  A member of the Flylady's crew, Kelly, has kid challenges in which she gives kids a special cleaning mission. These range from walk around your house and find all of your books that are laying around and put them away to find 10 toys that you no longer play with and give them to mom or dad to bless someone else with. You can make up your own missions or you can just use Kelly's. Even if you don't want to follow the Flylady plan yourself you can check out what the Flykid challenge is on Kelly's facebook page.

Like anything else it will probably take time to establish these habits in both yourself and your kids. It will also take consistency, so don't give up if you have a bad day, just jump back in. 

Thank you Flylady and Flylady Kelly

Kids Clean Up Part 1: Organization

I think one challenge most parents face is getting kids to pick up their toys and keep them clean. My house is far from perfect and I do pick up toys several times a day, but over the years I have learned some tips that should be helpful. Since this is a fairly broad subject I decided to break up into two parts. I feel that before you make kids accountable for keeping their stuff picked up, they need to have places to put it. The old saying "A place for everything and everything in its place," says it all, but sometimes finding the right kinds of places to put the toys is the hard part. So for part one we are going to discuss organizing toys, tomorrow I will share ideas on how to get your kids to clean up without feeling like a constant nag. (Check out part 2 by clicking here.)
Years ago, I read somewhere a great tip about organizing, and that is not to buy containers until you go through everything first. If you have spent a bunch of money on containers or time making them you may keep things just to have something to put in the boxes. Also, by knowing what you need to store you know what size containers and what type of container will be the most helpful.  So first, sort through all the toys, books and other kid stuff. The first sorting is not necessarily finding places for things but deciding what to keep. If your kids are like mine they have way more toys than they actually play with. 
Depending on the ages and personalities of you kids you may or may not want them around when you do this. It could be a good opportunity to teach them how about blessing others with and that the less stuff to clean up the more time there is to play. (Both are what Flylady and Flylady Kelly teach.) My kids are such pack rats they had a hard time getting rid of stuff like Happy Meal toys that they played with in the car home then got thrown in the room, so this kind of stuff I got rid of when they weren't around. Toys that are expensive or special may need your child's input as far as what to do with to show respect and to teach giving and caring for our belongings. Some toys you may decide to pack up in totes and save for your grandchildren, and that is OK if you have the space and you don't pack up everything in storage, just the special stuff.

Art supplies

But wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves. When you go through the toys for the first time have 3 boxes or bags handy to divide the stuff into:
1. Stuff that is broken that can't or won't get fixed. (ultimately the trash)
2. Stuff to give away
2. Stuff to keep
 If box number two is difficult you can make it "stuff that has been out grown" then go back and decide what should be packed up and what could bless someone else.

Now that you have the toys, books, games and such that you are keeping it is time to organize it. How you do this and just what type of storage system you use is dependent on your house and the space you have, the types of toys you have and your taste preferences. Start by dividing the toys into groups. Try to put all toys that are similar together for example: all dolls, all cars/trucks, all blocks. Then the groups can be broken down further if necessary for example small matchbox type cars would be in a small box but larger push Tonka-style toys may be put in a large box/tote, on a shelf or in toy box.

Trucks

Once the toys are organized the biggest key is labeling the containers that way everyone knows what goes where and what is inside (if your containers are not transparent) so things don't get dumped while looking for a specific toy. If your kids are young and can't read yet, or even if they can, you can either take photos of what is inside each box, or draw or print out clip art of the types of toys and stick it to the container. (The pictures on this page are examples of things you could print out as lables) I like to label the side of the container and the lid if it has one. 

Dolls

Plastic containers, totes, baskets, fabric pins and so on are all great for organizing and storing toys but they can be expensive. This is a time to think outside the box (pun intended). Many household items can be recycled or repurposed to hold toys and such- just be creative. Egg cartons can hold lots of small things such as beads or art supplies. Other things that you may have laying around the house that would work for organizing toys are: baby wipe containers, margarine/cool whip containers, breath mint boxes, large diaper boxes, and plastic baby food containers. (Glass baby food jars aren't very safe to have for kids' toys, but Gerber now sells varieties of baby food in clear plastic boxes with lids that are excellent for storing small things.) For more inexpensive organizing ideas check out this article by By C.M. Vanderlinden on hubpages. 


Here are more resources and ideas:

• A great step by step tutorial for turning diaper boxes into fabric storage containers can be found on Saving Addiction
• Here is an article showing how to make your own collapsible fabric storage boxes.
• Tip Junkie shares five free patterns for storage containers that she has found.
• Family Fun has a whole bunch of crafts designed to help organize kids' rooms. You can find a list of all the projects here. 

Part 2- Getting Kids to clean up can be found here

*Special Thanks to Flylady, Flylady Kelly, Saving Addiction, Hub Pages and Tip Junkie*