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amyable
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 7:39am | IP Logged
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How do you organize "clean up times" in your house?
I have been trying in vain for years to get my children to clean up an activity as soon as they are done with it. But what inevitably happens is my 9 and 7 year olds take a ton of things out for some dramatic play, and then abandon it for the little ones to play with. Well, at 4 and 2yo they soon abandon it too - leaving me to clean it all up (because they are now off with the next "creative adventure" and have TWO areas to clean up!)
Has anyone found success with getting kids to clean up as soon as they are done? Any hints? I *really* prefer this method as they play in two small main areas, and even one abandoned game leads to a ton of clutter to step over in the main living areas of the house.
Or do you have set times: everyone chips in before lunch or before dinner, etc. Does this bring complaints of "I didn't play with that!" ? (it does here). Add in a 2yo who *still* thinks "search and destroy" is her middle name any time I turn my back and you can see why I want to get rid of all our stuff! LOL
Details, please!
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Lisbet
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 7:48am | IP Logged
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We do a pick up before lunch and then another before dinner (before dh comes home) Everyone one of us pitches in and we are done in under 5 minutes. We no longer have complainers or whines of "I didn't play with that/get that out, for they know if they do, the whiner will be assigned to do it him/herself.
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CAgirl4God
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 7:49am | IP Logged
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"I didn't play with that" lives at our house too. when they start in with that I calmly say, "neither did I" or "well I didn't wear you undies but I wash them for you...." THAT one gets the older one good, lol.
I do have the kids pick up throughout the day. we all work together, as a family unit. Because that is what we are a unit, that works together to take care of our house and our family.
Now when they were two and four, they didn't understand this much, but still we would so it together.
I also have a good system for storage. because it is hard to put things away if there isn't a good place for them. this helps tremendously.
mine also are pretty good now about picking up after they are done with something and asking if they can get something else out. esp the asking part. they need reminders still, but for hte most part it works.
good luck.
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JenniferS
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 9:33am | IP Logged
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Ummm...well, when dh is in school(he teaches) we are pretty good about having several clean up times throughout the day. First thing in the am, before lunch, right before dh gets home. During dh's summer break, we get very lazy, so we are in the process of getting back on schedule, which is a bear. UGH!!!
Jen
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 9:45am | IP Logged
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I totally sympathize Jennifer, my husband teaches, too.
During the school year, though, I set a time about a half hour before he's due home or the younger child's nap time for everyone to help clean up the living room and maybe the kitchen (if toys have been dragged in there).
Since we moved into this townhouse a year ago, though, our playroom is upstairs so the bulk of stuff stays up there. Then we have a small corner of what would be the dining room where we keep a bag of building blocks, a few other play sets that I rotate, a basket full of odds and end toys (balls, Happy Meal junk, Weebles, little people, and strays from upstairs), and some board books.
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Willa
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 10:19am | IP Logged
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We had a pick-up time twice a day where everyone contributed no matter who made the mess. If the kids were discouraged by the amount of mess, sometimes I would say "pick up twice your age" -- once everyone had done that it looked a lot better and then one more "twice" usually covered the rest of the mess.
As the older kids got older I assigned the pick-up as a daily chore twice a day -- the job was rotated weekly. It used to be one of the bigger chores in the house, but now is generally one of the lighter ones. My youngest is four. Sigh! He can generally pick up his own toys with a little help now.
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doris
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In theory we also tidy up as soon as something is finished with -- but in practice things are never finished with! So I do let the dc leave things like a big Lego creation out for a day, or until Daddy has seen it. It helps if I take a picture of the creation before they take it apart.
I also get the 'I didn't play with it' line. I'm trying to stress that we're a team, we all play our part, etc etc and also to emphasise how kind it is for us to think about making the house tidy for when Daddy comes home. Right now the dc are tidying up two big messes with the bribe/promise of painting time afterwards.
I also invented a silly game to help with tidying up. Detailed on my blog. Unfortunately, it only worked the first time...
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Leonie
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 6:15pm | IP Logged
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We had ( have) regular pick ups. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternon tea, at bathtime when they were little, at dinner time, at bedtime...You get the picture! 
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KC in TX
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| Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 6:17pm | IP Logged
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We clean up at the end of the day (before dh arrives home). We also have the "I didn't play with that.", but I just tell them that as a family, we're a team and a team works together.
It's taken us 3 years to get to this point. It's still difficult, but I just couldn't get myself to be on top of them to put things away. If it had been a habit I instilled in my children from day one, it may have been easier (it may have been easier if I had had the habit in the first place ).
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Angel
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We pick up different rooms at different times of day: dining room/kitchen floor in the morning; and family room/living room after dinner. We need a regular time to do the bedrooms, though, because they are a disaster.
My husband has a saying: "Team work and hard work." That means that everybody has a job in our designated pick-up areas, whether that person contributed to the mess or not. Because the family room is usually the messiest room, primary responsibility for picking up that room is traded between my 10 yo and 8 yo on a daily basis. My 4 yo is assigned to picking up toy tractors, trucks, and blocks. We do try to get the toddlers to pick up a little bit... but at this age they're still just the primary mess makers. In order to get the rooms reasonably clean after dinner, my dh will often take the twins outside to get them out of everyone's hair.
--Angela
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graciefaith
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We have pickup several times during the day. If i see them playing somewhere else and a mess in the previous area, i will tell them to clean up their previous mess before they continue playing with their current things. We clean up before we leave the house too. I cant stand coming home to a messy house.
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JodieLyn
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I find that I get less complaints when I give a specific task to each child.. which works well because I can tell one of my older ones to pick up a category (all the shoes, all the movies, etc) but I can also tell the 4 yr old to pick up one particular item (and when he runs back he gets another "job") and even the 2 yr old can be handed something and told where to put it and sometimes it even gets there 
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Mary G
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| Posted: Aug 09 2007 at 9:06am | IP Logged
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JenniferS wrote:
Ummm...well, when dh is in school(he teaches) we are pretty good about having several clean up times throughout the day. First thing in the am, before lunch, right before dh gets home. During dh's summer break, we get very lazy, so we are in the process of getting back on schedule, which is a bear. UGH!!!
Jen |
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Jen this is so funny as it's the EXACT opposite here -- when dh is home on vacation we keep the house REALLY clean (even when he's doing a renovation, he cleans up before and after ) -- but when he's teaching, we do a quick buzz thru just before "daddy's home" rings thru the neighborhood
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juststartn
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I'm with Leonie on this one.
We clean up before breakfast, after breakfast (the kitchen), before we leave the house/before lunch, after lunch, before naps, after naps (cause "certain dc who shall remain nameless" are outgrowing napping on a regular basis), before dinner, after dinner...before bed...
LOL
Basically, any time we have a change of activity, we clean up. LOL
Rachel
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