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Cheryl
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 7:58am | IP Logged
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What are your standards of neatness in your childrens' rooms? Do you make them pick their rooms up daily? Weekly? Ever?
Last night my dh helped the boys pick up their room. It took awhile. He threw away loads of paper and cardboard and moved the toys into the playroom, which is the bedroom next door to theirs. The room looked great when they went to sleep. This morning we went up to find the linen closet empty and an elaborate tent/RV being built. My ds 7 (in his underwear) was using styrofoam and plastic cups to attach a muffler to the camper. Everyone was supposed to be doing their morning routines up there.
What do you think? Is it fair to limit their building to the playroom?
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Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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stefoodie
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 8:09am | IP Logged
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They pick up nightly, EXCEPT FOR things that are for "continuous play". Currently it's a fort made with Playmobil items and wooden blocks. They go through phases like this (the fort has been up for 3 weeks now), then get tired of it and the room starts getting messy with everything mixed up together. That's when I crack down on them and make them clean everything. It's a cycle here. 
I don't allow paper in the bedrooms -- except for the 15-yo who files/sorts/etc. and generally keeps her room in order (except for her jewelry making things, argh), they have to take them down into the study and file them/put them in their shelves/binders. They're allowed books and magazines and journals in their bedroom shelves/desks though.
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stef
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hylabrook1
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 10:25am | IP Logged
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I ask that my dc pick up their rooms every morning, as part of the morning routine of dressing, etc. Some mornings that is more attended to than others. Weekly they vacuum, dust, do a more thorough job. Like most jobs with children, the thoroughness of the morning pick up varies with my commitment to inspecting.  I am less than perfect with that follow-through. BUT if the rooms are a real mess, then they must be cleaned before they get to do something they want (computer, TV, visiting friends). Pretty much I look for made beds, clear floor, no major piles on dressers. And, oh yeah, I check to see that apparent neatness in the room is not due to jamming *everything* under the bed or into the closet. I don't expect a sanitary look, just some regard for care of possessions, including *my* carpets. I definitely find that picking up before the mess gets too out of hand is not the daunting task it becomes if allowed to get too far.
Peace,
Nancy
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Sarah
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 11:10am | IP Logged
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We TRY to do a nightly pick-up.
The BOYS only have clothes and baseball cards in their room. The room would be impossible to keep up if there was paper and toys in there.
Once a week their room gets damp mopped (wood floors).
Every couple weeks I help reorganize their closet.
Now, dd3 has dolls and a play kitchen in her room, but its easy to maintain with baskets.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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Sarah
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 11:11am | IP Logged
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Oh, and you asked about standards---
I'm not too uptight about it being perfect. I would always be on their case.
Every once in a while I get a bee in my bonnet. . . 
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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ALmom
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 12:29pm | IP Logged
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We were totally relaxed about it for a while - then I got a bee in my bonnet as someone said and realized that that word balance is critical at our house. I love my dc creativity - but when it becomes a safety/fire hazard or encourages disregard of our responsibility of stewardship (after all part of that is taking care of what we have so that it doesn't just become part of our throw-away culture - ie the stuff is all over the floor so that it is tripping hazard, liable to breakage, etc)
I have now moved to an evening spot check. I am not picky about a bit of clutter, but I cannot stand loose legos all over the floor and table, broken bits of trash (some of it sharp), pieces and bits of paper, straight pins (these were used to hold the propellers on their paper airplanes). We got 1 bin for each child for underbed storage - this is the place to store their paper treasures and other such. We sorted legos into various bins that all fit into 2 roller bins (lego people stuff in one container, airplane wings in another, one and two bits in another, etc.). This way when they want to play, they don't have to dump the whole thing. So far everything is working well - they are still playing and creative - but the mess is under control. Projects of long duration can be left out as long as we can manuever through - and scrap raw material is stored in something - not sprinkled all over the floor.
I think I need to train my children to be considerate, to take care of the belongings they have, etc. I do have a rule we just initiated about claiming things at the end of the day that are left out (I can do what I want with them - sell them, give them away, throw them away, etc.) My 4 yo asked yesterday if he could claim my stuff (he was calculating a way to have a source of income and I had to admit that I too am a culprit here - so we are all working on it. It is going better. I am not striving for perfection here - just general order so that we can be good stewards.
Janet
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Patty LeVasseur
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 1:31pm | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
| I cannot stand loose legos all over the floor |
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Yes, we had that problem too. It was so bad in one of my children's rooms that the tooth fairy was unable to make it into his room to leave money. (I do have to say that the next night his room was so clean it was easy for her.  )
I pulled all the toys with multiple pieces out of their bedrooms and put them in the play room. I did leave a few toys in their rooms and each of the children have a bookcase with books. Each day I have them make their beds, replace all books, and make sure all laundry/clean clothes are put in their proper place. Once a week, we do a more complete clean up.
If my children make a fort or something, I leave it up until I notice interest waning or it is time for the weekly clean up.
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Patty
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momwats8
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 1:41pm | IP Logged
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We do general pick up at the end of the day espcially if they have been building forts with their blankets or using their Geo Trax etc. Thye also have to maketheri beds as part of theri morning routines. Then once a week they have to do a thorough cleaning of the room - under the beds, under the dressers, floor spotless etc. Hope this helps
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Marybeth
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 1:59pm | IP Logged
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Cheryl,
As a devoted reader of your blog...I can't imagine any room in your home messy...I am trying hard to believe it...I just can't...
We pick up bedrooms weekly and it should be daily...a winter habit to be instilled...I have to learn it first. 
Marybeth
PS Love your front porch!!!!!!!!!!!
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 2:57pm | IP Logged
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Cheryl wrote:
| What do you think? Is it fair to limit their building to the playroom? |
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I think it depends on how much total room there is in the house. For us, that's not much (currently 2 bedrooms, 1 & 1/2 baths, a kitchen, diningroom and livingroom while we renovate the rest)...and that's for 6, soon-to-be 7 people! 
So for us, the answer would be yes, I do think it's fair to limit their building to the "playroom" (which happens to be in our livingroom and most days spills over into the diningroom). This way I can have a FEW areas of the house where I'm not breaking my neck on Thomas the Train. Absolutely NO toys anymore in the kitchen here. I can't count how many stubbed toes I've had as a result of this. We keep the bedrooms free from all toys (books only in there) and beds are made daily as part of the morning routine. The kids' pajama rack broke about a year ago and we've been too busy to replace it so the jammies are in a pile over in the closet (where I don't have to look at them )until I get the new peg rack put up...at least they're clean!! (sigh)... and to the untrained eye it LOOKS organized in there! 
I do let them keep up their "projects" that have required a great effort (like the farm spread out all over the livingroom floor last week), but usually after a day or so they move on to other things and we get it cleaned up before Dh gets home from work. And no, I don't tend to get too upset about stray tractors parked in the bathroom...the boys are usually more than happy to come retrieve it when I call them, muttering about it being stuck in the mud and unable to make it back to the barn and giggling, "I wondered where that one went..."
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Bridget
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 3:04pm | IP Logged
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Our bedrooms are too crowded to have many toys in them, just a few special ones. Part of their morning and evening routines is tidying up their rooms. Why this is not enough to keep them tidy, with so few things in them, is beyond me.
I don't allow much play up there because i can't supervise. I would not be pleased with an emptying of the linen closet . 
However when they do pull something like that I try to have a sense of humor about it and have them help put it all back.
The thing about routines is they require a lot of initial supervision till they are automatic. 'THE PLAN' falls apart fast.
Yes, it's fair to limit building to the playroom. It's not as if your kids don't have tons of opportunities to be creative. I read your blog too. Your kids have an wonderful childhood!
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Cheryl
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| Posted: Oct 03 2006 at 8:28pm | IP Logged
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Thank you all for your responses.
Mary Beth, it's very sweet of you to think my whole house is neat.
Bridget, thanks for your kind words too.
I used to have my dc pick up during their morning routines. I probably let this slide a few weeks ago when I was getting stricter about ds 7's lessons. I guess I couldn't work on both at the same time. I asked my dh and he thought they should pick up once a week. I asked him if he could be the one to help them and he said yes. After 3 weeks, the place was a pit and I really didn't like bringing the clean clothes in there or reading to them while they were in bed.
My dh cleaned it last night. Hurray! We're talking about what rules to set, so I wanted to hear what you all do. So thanks again for sharing your experience.
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Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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Alcat
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| Posted: Oct 04 2006 at 1:22pm | IP Logged
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Hey Cheryl,
You kids are about the same ages as mine, and keeping clean bedrooms, well, it ain't easy
We TRY to do a tidy up every evening (keeps them from running through the house like mad men while I am doing the dinner dishes). This works pretty well especially if daddy is home 
No matter how much they do I still have to go in once a week to toss and purge. We keep the things they play with regualrly in their rooms (no playroom) but they still bring out stuff to play with into the commom rooms.
If I find things constantly dumped and no one doing a good job of cleaning it up I remove those items until they are asked for again. We have really made it a point to get rid of things that aren't used enough it has made the clean up MUCH easier
But, their rooms still turns into pits and they will continue to turn into pits until I toss most of their clothing and toys or they move out (just like us when we were kids, teenagers, and *gasp* even now )
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