Any Tips on Cleaning Skills for Kids?

My daughter is almost 5, and having to always remind her to pick up toys not only dampens the playing mood, but makes me have to nag all the time. So, i instilled a few areas where toys ALWAYS have to be picked up. Now she and her little brother ALWYAS pick up their toys there...Outside Toys, Toys after rest time, and Bath toys. They just do these areas without being told. Every now and then, we tackle the playroom together or their bedrooms, but I have picked my battles and feel like i have won :o)

Excellent ideas from everyone.
About every three months, I give my kids a time (e.g. lunchtime on Sat., movietime on Fri.) to clean up whatever is bothering me. When the time comes, and it is not cleaned up, I clean it up. When they're younger, (5 or 6) they can earn the toys back by doing chores for me (after all, I had to do extra work because they did not obey) and then after a month or so, I just throw or give away the remainders. So we (the children and I) learn what is important to them and get rid of the junk. And they learn obedience. My older children (8 & 10) do their own cleanouts of the junk by themselves once in a while.
Good luck, K.!

I was watching "John and Kate Plus 8" and they bought containers and then marked each one with a polariod of what goes in it. Then at the end of the day they were each responsible for cleaning up their own messes. They made it kind of a game.

Tell them they can keep all the toys that they pick up. Any toys that are still on the floor by a time determined by you (by bedtime, for example)you hide for a couple of days. Won't take long for them to realize that if they want to keep their toys, they'll need to pick them up. Check out "Love and Logic" by Jim Fey for more great ideas.

My boys are older than your girls, but when they leave their toys around I give them a warning first and then the next time the toys are left out I take them away. In order to get their toys back they have to earn it by keeping their rooms clean and putting away any other toys they have played with for a week. Since your girls are younger, a week may be too long, but a day or two might do the trick.

There are two websites that I have found... the first is www.flylady.com which is more geared to helping us moms (or anyone who does housework) get the cleaning under control, although they also have challenges for kids. The other is one that is a program that is an offshoot of flylady, but is specifically for kids. It can be found at www.housefairy.org.
The thing we do with our older boy (2 1/2) is clean up before bedtime. It usually takes us pointing them all out to him, but at least once he is in bed I can relax without tripping over his toys.

We started by wrapping a present like a cheap movie or a game and setting it out so they can see it, but they don't get to open it until the end of the week and only if they have a clean toy room every day, we have also thought about locking some of there toys up and switching them once a week only if they put them back. I do feel what you are going though we have been going though the same thing with our 6 kids. We are still working on it also but so far the present thing has kept the toy room picked up for 2 weeks.

Good luck
J.

Here are a few ways to get them to help clean up after them selves 1) have a chart with gold stars the child that gets most of the stars for a few day of cleaning will get something. 2) tell them that if they can keep their toys picked up they can pick out a place to go and who ever has tried the hardest will get to pick. 3) have the winner of the keep toys off the floor bake some cookies or something for dad. I hope that this helps.

do not allow your child to play with all the toys just offer a few at time during the day and then continue to reinforce the fact that before she can play with the others toys that she will have to Help you pick up the ones she has out, Continue to do this over and over again and dont give in to the routine. Make it fun and a happy event, not a chore that needs to be done. Make it a part of her activity and stay firm with your decisions. Your child is learning from you and the more she knows mom shows stance and direction the easier and the more fun it will become when picking up toys. Learning to pick up toys and be responisble is a good virtue to learn at that early of age Its the starting of helping out. Be consistant and you will find that they are learning to help mommy out and having fun with it. Good Luck! KM

K.,

My kids get overwhelmed by too many toys, so we have a couple of pick up times a day. Just before lunch and just before dinner are good because hunger is a good motivation to be quick and they go to sleep after the meal with clean rooms. Make sure there is a place for everything to go and they know where it is. Keep working at it, they are old enough and this is a skill they need for Kindergarten. You will have to do it with them for a while before you can just say "clean up.

Good luck,
S.

Young children don't necessarily know what you mean or want when you tell them to "clean up" I have found that it works best for my 3-year old if I tell her Mommy's going to help her clean up and then I tell her "I am going to fold all your blankets, you put your animals in the box" or whatever needs to be done. Being very specific is helpful. If we tell her to put her books in her room, that's what she does--but they end up on the floor; but if we tell her to put her books on the shelf, that's where they go. Just be very specific what you want them to do, and help them (even if it's just a couple items and they do the majority).

Training kids to clean up after themselves takes years. I have seven (23yr - 16 mos.) and it's still a task, but it is possible! We make regular sweeps through the house daily, cleaning up together (it's more fun that way). We try to instill in them the idea that we are a family and have to help one another - I can't do it all by myself, nor should I. Currently I charge my 10 and 15 year olds $1 for each item left out after clean up/transition time, since they refuse to "see" what's around them and deal with it. I'm not the maid and I won't turn them loose on a future spouse, thinking someone else will p/u after them. Mulitple little ones in the house makes for an accentuated kind of chaos, so you may have to lower your standards of clean a bit, too.

Homeschool SAHM of seven

Hi K.
I also have a five year old daughter. she does not like to clean as she goes either. So we started a chore chart and on the chart is pick up toy room. So if she gets it done for that day. She gets to eat breakfast at school which is a BIG deal to her. So you may want to try something like that. The other thing that really helped her. Was I went through and cleaned and organized all her toys each toy has a special spot(we used the craft drawers)I took pictures of the toys in there spot and taped them on the drawer along with its name. This helped alot because she was always saying "I dont know where it goes". she can't use that one anymore. Good Luck :) T.

Wow! I thought one 5-year-old was a handful!!!
You can try doing a few mini-cleanups during the day, maybe after each meal. Set the timer for 3 minutes and have them race to see how much they can clean up. With 3 of them they should be able to make a decent dent.
We organized most of my sons' toys into plastic bins and boxes. It's a bit out of control at the moment, I have to admit, but the idea is they are limited to 1 or 2 boxes at a time (with boys it's usually trains, people and cars, or blocks and cars) and they have to pick them up before taking out another. It takes a lot of energy to enforce it at first, but they'll get the hang of it.
I'm excited to see what other suggestions you get. I fan guarantee you're not alone in this!

They are 5 -- EVERYTHING is a game for them! SO...make cleaning up fun. Pick a room, turn on some funky music and do a "cleanup dance." (if YOU dance, too, they'll think it's A LOT more fun/funny!) Make it a race - see who can pick up the most toys in 3 minutes. Tell them they ARE tornados -- CLEANING tornados! Make it a learning game -- let's pick up all of the toys that are red...all of the toys that make noise...etc. Give them a sweet goal -- ice cream sundaes after ALL of the toys are put away. If you come up with a wide variety of ideas, they may actually look forward to clean up time, and they may come up with clean up ideas of their own. Good luck!

I have 3 little ones right now so I know what you mean :o) I have my kids clean up their rooms while I cook supper each night. That way I get some time to cook and they get it done. If it gets too bad during the day I just have a quick clean up time.
I have also taken some of the "small and lots of pieces" toys and put them up. If my daughter wants to play with barbies I take them down and she plays and then she cleans them up when she's done and I put them back up.
Hope this helps,
J.
Mom to 4 and soon one more through another adoption.

You just have to be consistent. I have 2 boys, 6 and 5. I tell them I will pick up 3 toys each and they have to do the rest, and if they didn't, they (toys that is) would be thrown away. That gets them moving. Also, don't sound like a broken record. The first few days, it will take a little bit of "encouraging", but it seems to have worked. Also, maybe there are too many toys around to play with which is causing distraction. Pack some up and rotate toys around. My boys always think I've bought them something new...until one goes, "Oh, yeah, Mom just gave them a vacation." Hope it helps.

I have a suggestion...but don't know the results because it is just an idea and we haven't started implementing it yet. My daughter (2.5 yrs) loves to put coins in her piggy bank. So, we are going to start giving her a penny as "allowance" for doing her chores. At this point, it will just be for making her bed in the morning, and helping clean up her toys in the pm (we have the same tornado affect at our house). I don't know if the newness will wear off, but it's worth a shot!

Check out www.housefairy.org. It's an awesome programs that really makes kids WANT to clean their rooms!

K.- It's B. Jarmoluk from twin topics. We've got a system from a gal who worked daycare- singing clean up- and we help to help teach them. When your girls go to school it will really help too. Part of our cirriculum at our priv. school. Email me when you can. I'd love to catch up.
B. J
____@____.com

Others gave great advice-most of what I was going to tell you is already said. Another thing with charts could be like sticker charts---once they are full they can do something bigger (like movie with just mom or dad, or the zoo, etc...) Something rewarding. ? Are they in daycare at all? Most daycares work hard on teaching the kids to clean-up. That might even help, even if it's once a week-to get used to a routine. Hope that helps too.

What really works for me is you send them in there with a task. For example 1st go pick up all the dolls,then when there done praise them and say okay now all the puzzles and so on and so on. It really works well at our house and it seems to be like a game. I also believe they feel less overwhelmed like "where do we start first" now each time they go back in there they are on a mission. Anyways good luck and I hope this helps!!

When mine want to play something else, I say "after you pick up your toys." Even if it's getting a snack, something to drink, going outside, whatever. Sometimes my 5 yr old (sometimes BOTH - 3yr old too) will start whining about it or flat out saying "NO." So, I calmly repeat myself - we can ..... "after you pick up your toys." Sometimes it takes forever - and SOMETIMES I get pushed too far, BUT when I can keep my calm and keep consistent, they get the point. Now - I don't have to say it as many times because they know it won't get them anywhere anyway! :-) I keep trying to tell them that being part of our family is like being part of a team - we ALL have to pitch in to help. That's how we keep a nice house and a cozy place to live. Hope that helps - I'm anxious to see what others say :-)

I read this from Flylady.net....Kids LOVE timers and games. Instead of insisting that everything gets picked up, set the a timer for 15 minutes and tell the girls that the game is to get as many toys put away before the bell rings. Encourage them by helping, too. You could even sing a funny clean-up song or dance around for the 15 minutes. Unfortunately I cannot attest to this method (my son is only 5 mo old!), but it sounds a lot more fun than what I always had to do...."Clean up your toys, NOW!" If you know what I mean. Good luck to you! You have your hands full!

K.,
My friends are trying them, "It's time to pick up and if you don't pick up your toys, they go into the box." The toys then get put in a box and put away in a closet or something. They'll either learn in a hurry and snatch their toys up to put away before you get them, or they won't even notice and you can pare down some of the stuff they have till they do. Either way, it might be something to try that would result in a little cleaner house at the end of the day. The key is you have to do it consistently.
S.