Tackling the Messiest Rooms

In our home, there are two rooms where the children spend most of their indoor play time. One is a small play room, and the other is our family room. I am flexible with allowing messes with in these areas, but a few times a day I will have the children tidy them up. Here are a few tips that have helped us with those messier spots.

If a room looks like a Toys R Us exploded in it, don’t just give you children the general “clean up this room!” command. They probably will not know where to begin! Be specific in what you want each child to do, and make each child accountable only for their own part. For example, in cleaning up the playroom, I might say,

“Sweet Pea and Gameboy, put the Battleship game away.
Bubbles, put the dolls in their box.
Happy, you clean up the Army guys.
Princess, put Cutie’s baby toys in their box.”

Giving your children specific commands gives them a starting point, it takes the pressure off them, it teaches them to how eat an elephant by breaking into bite sizes, and it allows you to see at a glance who did what they were supposed to.

To save time in the cleanup process, I have placed a large basket in each of our messiest rooms. When we are in a hurry and just want to quickly tidy up the mess, the kids will drop many of the toys in those baskets. This is fine with me, and greatly simplifies things. However, we do have to go through those baskets occasionally and put all of those toys in their correct homes. This is not a fun, easy, or quick job, but we don’t do this very often. To make it a little more fun, my children like to think of themselves as cowboys! Back in the days of the cowboys, cows were allowed to wander far into the neighboring fields, but once a year the cowboys would have a “Round Up,” when they brought all the cows back home. When we go through the big toy baskets and transport everything back to it’s rightful home, we call it a “Round Up”!

Here are a few more quick strategies that we use to make tidying sessions a little more fun:

• Have a “Tidy Race.” When I say, “Go!” the children will begin to pick up as many things as they can and put them away. They will count each item, and whoever picks up the most items wins the race.
• Have each child use their age to determine how many items to pick up. An eight year old will pick up eight items, a five year old will pick up five items, etc.
• Set the timer for five minutes. You and the children run through the house the entire time putting away as many things as you can during that time. Congratulate them afterward and tell them (in all honesty) how amazed you are that they could make the house look so pretty in such a short time!

Want more? Check out Tidy Spaces or see the list of all my Home Management Posts.