Getting kids to clean up

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> School age children

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amother

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 6:45 pm

It is such a struggle. I want to just lock up all the toys.

amother

Darkblue

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 7:04 pm

I agree!!!

amother

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 7:10 pm

My kids have such entitlement. Like they deserve to have all these toys and play with them whenever they want and have Mommy always clean up. And guess who taught that to them 😢

amother

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 7:23 pm

This is my new plan. Lock up ask toys and if you want to play you need to earn my trust by cleaning up after yourself.

amother

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 8:32 pm

Anybody?

amother

DarkViolet

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 8:37 pm

You can motivate them to clean up with stars, prizes.. Set some rules and make some reward charts

amother

Clematis

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 8:38 pm

I do lock up my toys!!

One day I got so fed up. Husband and I packed up tons of toys and put it up in the attic. Next time got messy again we put a lock onto toy closet and only I can open it.

It's still a struggle, but it's for sure better.

NechaMom

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 8:39 pm

Some people have a lock on the toy closet when the kids are little and the mother can control it.
For example take out 2-3 containers at a time and they can’t get other toys until these are packed away.
Don’t let it get into a huge mess in the first place, because then it’s truly hard for the kids to clean up.

amother

Heather

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 8:44 pm

This reminds me of Benny from Uncle Moushy’s song “And the mess grew bigger”

amother

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 10:43 pm

amother Clematis wrote:

I love this!!

So I do have a lock on the toy closet but it's in the play room and a lot of the toys are kept in the bedrooms of each child.

I just took a bunch of toys down. I only left the main things in the rooms like dolls, some games, crayons and books.

I told my kid that they need to earn the right to have more toys in the room.

I got a lot of kicking and screaming but hopefully I can stick to my guns. I'm a real softie until I'm not.

amother

Wandflower

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 10:50 pm

How old are the kids?
I make cleanup exciting, I clean up with them and they get a treat when done.

amother

NeonGreen

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 11:05 pm

Best idea I ever saw, toys that get left on the floor at night go In toy jail, they need to do a chore to get it released.

amother

Razzmatazz

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 11:14 pm

My 2 girls are older and unless I start screaming no matter what I say or do they won't clean up after themselves. I don't understand where I went so wrong

amother

Chartreuse

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 11:46 pm

Step 1 is to not allow toys in the bedrooms .

All toys must stay in the basement so already the mess is contained.

Generally sun and thurs nights we clean up the entire basement and vacuum the floor.
I do sometimes help my 3 yr old clean up the toys from the night bef. After he gets home from school so he can play.. my 6 yr old is the worst with taking out and putting back toys and games ..

amother

Stoneblue

Sun, Jan 15 2023, 5:17 am

My issue with that is the toys are great for me, too. If ds8 plays with tons of lego for hours and then leaves it out, do I really want to lock it all up so he can kvetch for hours the next day instead? I feel like I get more benefit from cleaning it up myself in 5-10 minutes, and then having him happily playing with it the next day for hours again. Or Playmobile, or scissors, and paper. He happily plays for hours. Why shouldn't it be worth it to me for him to be happily playing for hours?

I really want an answer. I know it's better for him to clean up after himself. I know his wife will thank me one day bez"H. But that's not my biggest complaint with this ds in particular. I think it's just not a battle worth fighting right now. Is that legit okay, or am I missing some other issue?

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2023, 7:48 am

amother Stoneblue wrote:

So I was you. I would clean up every night after my oldest. This one has ADHD and it wasn't worth the fight. Although it was morwc than 5-10 minutes. The problem is that I then had a hard time training my younger ones when my oldest wasn't putting away the toys. The messes accumulated. You get the picture?

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2023, 9:12 am

Will keep you posted on how this works out.

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2023, 7:21 pm

Worked out really well. Kids cleaned up and we're ok playing one game/toy at a time and motivated to clean up so they could play with two toys next week. So far so good.

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