Keeping the rooms clean

[illudium_phosdex]

I pretty much do the exact same thing as Lucypevensie. When their rooms get too much to deal with, I give them small tasks. Like, go upstairs and get all your dirty clothes and bring them to me. I'll wait a while and then tell them to run up and make their bed. Wait a while and tell them to pick up their books and put them away... so on and so on. It may take the whole day but eventually it gets done. When I'm really on the ball, I do this periodically though out the day every day and the rooms never get the chance to get messy. Unfortunately, I'm not on the ball as much as I'd like.

 

[HeKnowsMyName]

I like that idea Lucy. I'll have to figure out a plan for her to do it by. I can't wait until she goes back to school so I can chunk some stuff.

My problem with the clothes thing is that she will bring EVERYTHING to me to wash instead of putting up the clean clothes. That drives me nuts!

 

[lucypevensie]

I like that idea Lucy. I'll have to figure out a plan for her to do it by. I can't wait until she goes back to school so I can chunk some stuff.

My problem with the clothes thing is that she will bring EVERYTHING to me to wash instead of putting up the clean clothes. That drives me nuts!

My DD throws clean stuff down the chute too, though she's getting better about it. THe thing is, she's still going to have to put those clothes away when they're clean. Put 'em away now or put 'em away later. I think she's begun to realize that it really doesn't save her any work.

I do call her out on it and let her know that I don't think it's nice for her to give me unnecessary laundry so that she can get out of hanging up her dress. This, I think, convicts her as well

I figure it's one small price I pay for expecting her to do her own room cleaning. And she HAS improved a lot.

What would really be of some benefit would be to assign her to laundry chores. I'm just not quite ready for shrunken sweaters and pink whites.

 

[Norton Woman]

When it comes to children's bedrooms, I know only this - in the end, mess is only temporary, much like childhood. In addition, I'm not sure that children can throw away junk - they need help in this area (often when they're not around!). I bottom the room very occasionally, they "maintain" it very loosely. It works for us.

 

[Hadassah]

I know with us moving every 3-6 years, we had reason to "cull" our toys often. We were only allowed a certain shipping weight by the military, so we had to keep only the things we really wanted or needed.

We gave a lot to charity, and tossed the rest. There are only a very small amount of toys I kept from my childhood (probably 3 things) but I did keep my Golden Books and a couple of book series I was given that I knew would no longer be available, that my "future kids" would later enjoy.

I just seperated my son's books and toys yesterday into 4 baskets and spread them around the house. He doesn't really even realise they were gone - he was so overwhelmed with having so many that he'd just dump the lot and run around like a crazy person playing with one for a minute and running to the next. I couldn't handle the mess, and he couldn't handle the stress. I figure though, with two little boys - the toys are at a good and manageable level for the age range we will have, so I can't toss them just yet.

However, we will be giving to charity what they don't need as they grow and are at a different skill set. We don't have storage or closets like in the US, so there is a greater need to simplify here.

DH came into our marriage with so many of his old toys I don't know what to do with it all.

 

[HeKnowsMyName]

I let DD clean a section yesterday and she did pretty good. Of course she just moved some of it from one side of the room to the other but other than that I was impressed. I hope to get her started on another section tonight. We shall see how this works.

 

[illudium_phosdex]

I'm glad to see that it has gone well. It generally works with my kids too. I even do the same thing with my own cleaning of the house. When I think about having to do everything, it is so overwhelming but I'll tell myself, "Ok, I'm going to go clean the bathroom sink." Then I just go do it and think of the next thing that needs to be done rather than the whole.

 

[tiffyof6ntwins]

After 17 yrs of child care, I am a major "clean freak" as i have been known to be called. My husband thinks I go over board at times because i am constantly cleaning something. My kids have to "pick up" their rooms every night before bed and thoroughly cleaned; vacuumed dusted and works on saturdays. If they dont clean up their rooms before bed i just figure they will have more to clean up on saturday and they will learn not to let it pile up. My 11 yr old is great at this and my 8 yr old as well for the most part. I dont expect much from my 5 yr old and 3 yr old twins as they all share a room and usually its just toys that need picked up, But they too have learned if they keep their toys picked up each day they wont have so many to pick up on saturday. ( and less the dogs will get a hold of lol)