3 Ways to Teach Your Kids to Clean Up

Lyn — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 16:30:38 +0000

INSIDE: 3 WAYS TO TEACH YOUR KIDS TO CLEAN UP AFTER THEMSELVES….THANK ME LATER! Have you created monsters? Cause I have… And now they need to be taught how to clean up after themselves! My kids want to help me organize. We go to Target or The Dollar Tree and they ONLY want things that will help us organize (not really – they also want the dumbest toys I’ve ever seen but that’s not the point today) which is wonderful except I’m not sure they truly understand the meaning of organize…. Disclosure Statement: The links in this post contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my link. Click here for the full disclosure. Those funds help keep this site alive and kickin’ but it doesn’t cost YOU a thing! This is what they did to “organize” our family office – They took “organizing tools” from all over the rest of the house and unorganized the office. So, how can I make them understand what organization ACTUALLY is?? I’m going to use the same ideas that keep me organized – the magical 3 ways to keep clean up easy Time Management Organizing isn’t just putting stuff in its place. It is figuring out a system that works for YOU! Because each of them is their own kid – time to rethink how we structure THEIR time at home. Ask yourself: Kids are on their best behavior for 7-8 hours at school, sometimes they need to get the wiggles out. Older kids need this too, even though their wiggles look a little different. The point is let them decompress, if they need to. If they do better finishing homework immediately, then have them do that. Again, each kid has different needs. The next part of this is keeping them on task. Use timers to keep them focused. If you say, you have 30 minutes to “play” and then you have to sit down to do homework, set a timer. Stick to it. Then make it clear that they can go back to playing as soon as they are done with homework. If they drag their feet, they are wasting their own time. NOT YOURS! I came up with these cue cards to serve as reminders. Now they won’t forget what they need to get done after school – Cleanliness Being clean is SO different than being clutter-free. It is extremely important to teach this to children. Cleaning up after themselves involves more than tidying up. Teach them: Giving them chores they can understand will help teach them how to be clean. Creating age appropriate tasks that they can achieve BUT also see the importance of keeping it clean, like the toilet….I thought everyone understood why that thing needs to be clean…..apparently, it is not COMMON sense. Again, cue cards to help them remember – Proper Places I can decide where everything goes in my house, but if it doesn’t make sense to the “OWNER,” what good is it? However, there are a few “rules” to this process: So learn to embrace how the kids organize their stuff. Teach them to keep like things together and let them do it. They do not need expensive organizing “tools” to make this happen. The Dollar Tree has some great options for keeping things corralled without breaking the bank. Using these tips, I took back the office. I went through everything they “organized” and here is what we ended up with: I needed to come up with an idea of how to disperse the things I removed from the office. Here is my solution: They argued, said ‘we’ll do it later,’ and even went to hide. After about 10 minutes of these shenanigans, they both sat down and went through the boxes. They were amazed at the things I found. I heard a lot of “Oh thank you Mom for finding….” They do not always follow my suggestions for cleaning up. I have to be consistent with telling them to pick up and clean up DAILY!! It’s just as hard for me as it is for them. It’s all a work in progress. And teaching your kids to clean up after themselves with help you keep your sanity too! Do you have to teach your kids to get more organized? Are they clean? Do they leave a trail of messes? Happy Organizing,

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How to Make Chore Charts

Lyn — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 16:00:41 +0000

I have been so busy lately. We had a hurricane that caused three weeks of missed school….yes….I still have most of my hair. Sanity? Remains to be seen….. But with all that going on and trying to help friends recover, finding people to store watch the kids, and restarting my own masters program (yup cause I needed that!), I have not had much time to write. However, I have been doing things around the house to improve my organization and stop the daily screaming matches about cleaning up!!!! New chores were created and instituted. Along with a list to check off for weekly monetary rewards. Because that is the greatest motivator. The biggest child…..he has a lot to do…..he is almost 17. He does have a job outside of our home but he is responsible for mowing the lawn (and all the particulars of that), bringing the laundry down on Sundays, taking the trash out, helping change the guinea pig cage (PUKE), and giving the dogs their monthly baths. No checklist for him……he gets calendar reminders on his phone. 8, almost 9, year old is now in charge of emptying the dishwasher. She is learning how to load it, as she has a very particular mother that likes things loaded in a certain way. This has been so amazing, in fact last night, she said she feels “like its just the right thing to do.” Score one for the parent team! 6 year old………….she feeds the dogs twice a day. This has been her chore for about a year. She loves those dogs more than any person she has ever met. Sorry grandma! We added more responsibility around picking up her own messes at the end of the day to her. She is NOTORIOUS for “I’m coming back to play with that in a minute….” and never does. So, now she is picking up one mess before moving on to the next. We went to Target (DUH) and got her some more storage bins, she carries all her toys in them, so pick up and transport is easy now! So by now you are wondering…..who cleans the toilets? Nope we don’t live in filth. I have a housekeeper that comes every two weeks. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford myself that luxury. I found an awesome lady that does it for relatively inexpensive given the size of my house. On the weeks that she does not come, the kids help with dusting and sweeping etc according to the chart I found here during the hurricane. I laminated them with self laminating sheets I always have on hand and we put them on the fridge. The kids use a dry erase marker to make checks on their charts and Mom or Dad reward them at the end of the week. The best part, there are no more yelling matches!!!! Happy teaching,

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3 Ways to Teach Your Kids to Clean Up

How to Make Chore Charts