Kids make a mess no matter where they go. Kids can accomplish more in one unsupervised minute than adults can in an hour. It gets pretty tiring cleaning up after your children day after day, so why not change up the pace a little? There is no way you will be able to prevent messes from happening all over your house, but you can change the manpower behind your clean-up process. If you follow these five easy tidy-up tips you should be well on your way to a tidier house!
Make a tidy-up song
What kid doesn’t love music? Make a song up to the tune of their favourite song, or dig deep to your childhood memories and try to remember that song your mom sang with you to initiate tidy-up time. If you sing it every time you are starting to clean up, eventually your child will associate the song with clean-up time!
Clean up in front of them so they get the idea
Especially when your children are young, try to do all of the cleaning up in front of them, don’t wait for them to go to bed. As they get older and see the tidy-up routine, they may automatically start to do it on their own. Children are very the epitome of “monkey see monkey do,” so put on a good cleaning demonstration and hopefully they will follow your example.
Make it part of the routine
Just like bedtime and nap time, clean up time should become part of the daily routine. Make it well known that before you go upstairs or before you leave the house that all of the toys are to be put away.
Each toy should have a home
If you don’t have a big toy box that holds every toy your child owns, then it’s better to have an organized system. Have all of your Lego blocks in one box and all of your balls in another. Eventually your child will know where each toy is meant to go and clean up will be a breeze.
Don’t have too much clutter out
Kids tend to have more toys than they know what to do with. This creates a sense of chaos and clutter in the play areas and oftentimes toys are ignored. Prevent overcrowding in the toy room and get rid of excess toys. The fewer toys there are to throw around, the less mess there is to clean up after play time.
With kids in your life you will never be completely free from mess, but with a little persistence and a lot of patience you can have your very own cleaning squad!