How to teach good clean up habits

snookums2013

Our house looks like a tornado hit it on a daily basis.  We moved a few months ago and I still haven't finished finding a place for everything.  In addition to that, my 17 mo daughter pulls every item out of every corner of every room and leaves it all over the house.  As soon as I put something away she pulls it out again, but then 2 secs later she moves on to something else.  How can I teach her to clean up after herself when she's never technically done playing with something?  How do you find the time to clean if you work full time?  I always think I'm going to get all these things done while she's napping on the weekend or after she goes to bed, but I end up just catching up on dishes and laundry (because I always feel like I'm constantly drowning in both) and then at night I'm out of energy to do anything else after chasing her around all day.  Thanks!

erinmc1

I'm pretty firm about this at our house.  My husband is a SLOB, and I refuse to let our son turn out the same way.  So if he makes a mess, and I know it's something he won't return to play with shortly, I instruct him to put away whatever he just took out, and won't let him get into anything else until he's done.  100% done, not just a little bit.  I help if he has trouble, but for the most part, he's got it down.  He's 22 months, but it's never too early to start.  I still need to remind him most times, and I praise him and clap and tell him he's my best helper and he likes the praise enough to do it without argument.  

tig594

DD is 22 months, as well.  She does a pretty good job when I ask her to put stuff away.  Sometimes I help her, sometimes not, but I ALWAYS tell her cheerfully what a GREAT job she did and that makes her happy.  They also have to help pick up at daycare.  Regardless, I'm sure there are still blocks, plastic food, dog collars, cans of food, and other misc crap under my couch and end tables, in my closet, under the bathroom sink, etc. 

rspalding001

I agree with what PP are saying and think in general its good to explain what you are doing when you clean up and encourage the same behavior from the kiddos but not to expect too much at this age. Any attempt to help shoudl be congratulated though so they feel good about cleaning up and want to do it. 

GillianB32

@erinmc1 I am inspired by what you have shared! At what age did you start teaching these habits? What do you do when the kid just ignores you asking to clean up?

magdalina.h

We tell her times to clean up and she helps puts toys away. Of course we're doing the clean up and she usually misses the toy bins, but she tries.

erinmc1

Part of it is letting him see me pick up.  I've always tidied up his toys and things several times a day, instead of waiting until he's down for the night.  So he's not under the impression that we have house elves. 

I also don't let him have too many toys available at any given time.  I know that's not a view everyone holds, but I think a lot of kids are overstimulated by too many toys.  We own a bunch more, but keep most of them stored away until he gets bored with something, and then cycle them out.  We have a small toy box, like maybe 18" x 12", in the living room, for his small toys, and a couple bigger toys that go next to it.  No toys in the bedroom.  Just a bookshelf on his level.  So the clean up is mostly books, and some small cars, and the mess is never overwhelming.  

I don't really know when I started coaching him to clean up.  My husband deployed when our son was about a month old, and for the first year, our house was kind of immaculate, so it's developed naturally.  He mimics me, but he's always had kind of neatnik behaviors.  When he was 4 months old, he'd pick up little specks of lint and whatnot off the carpet.  So..I guess I can't say whether it's a nature or nurture behavior that makes him so receptive to the coaching.  But for what it's worth, I do think it's modeling behavior as much as anything else.

holly142

DD is 12 months old and I have her help me clean up multiple times a day.  In our living room we have a bookshelf with books, puzzles and cloth bins that hold her toys.  I sing the clean up song and hand her toys to put in the bin.  I model putting the toys in the bin.  She will put a few in the bin on her own and I praise her.  I agree with not having access to too many toys.  We have a good amount of toys in the living room.  We also have 1 small bin of toys in DH's office, a basket of musical instruments and books upstairs in DD's room, plus a bin of toys in our loft.  DD doesn't have access to these different areas at the same time.  I will put up the baby gate or close doors.  Most of the time, we clean up one area before we move to another part of the house. 

However, I do still feel like it is hard to keep up with DD.  She also goes from one thing to another.  This includes dishes in the kitchen (we just installed baby locks on some of the cabinets but she still has access to her dishes/silverware/sippy cups and these items end up all over the downstairs! 

Lyn09

If my daughter moves onto another toy, we stop and say "let's clean up the books before we play with the kitchen" and we always sing a clean up song. She loves singing a clean up song. It's all about the song. That's what works with us. It can be exhausting but hang in there!