Hey everyone! I’m back and ready to blog again. I took a little break to catch up in life and maintain my sanity! Life it good though and I feel great! I have been doing THIS eating plan and working really hard to exercise daily and drink more water and I feel awesome! I’m exhausted though because I stay up way too late and need to get better sleep…but there is soooo much that can be done after the kids go to bed!! Balance I guess! Anyway, last week I went to a Relief Society activity on keeping a house of order. I love what was shared and have some great things I want to implement into my own home! Today I wanted to share with you 3 ways I encourage my children to clean up their own messes. I have a wide age range of kids, from 3-13. Some of them just clean up, others need to be reminded and some I just have to do it with them! Today I am excited to share 3 things that have worked for me that help encourage my children to clean up their messes.
3 Ways to Encourage your Children to Clean Up
For the most part my house stays pretty clean. I am not a crazy cleaning mom, but I have all five of my kids home all day long. It could be a total disaster by the end of the day if I just let them leave out whatever they are playing with. Today I am sharing 3 things that I do to encourage my children to clean up. Most of these tips are for my younger kids who make the messes, but some of them help all of my kids, especially when it come to cleaning up the whole house before bed.
The first things I suggest, and this isn’t’ really one of the 3 ways to encourage your children to clean up, but it will help with the process. Start with a Clean House! Every morning we start our day with a clean house. We do our jobs and get the house cleaned up before we do school or play. You might think that sounds totally crazy to do when we are just going to make it a mess later, but for me it starts out our day clean. The kids know what a clean house looks like and they know that if we make it too messy it will take a long to clean up.
One Thing at a Time– I usually only allow one thing out at a time. My little ones like to play games, puzzles, and toys and could have everything out of a closet in a matter of seconds if I am not watching too close. I don’t have a lot of toys out. I have them in bins in the closet or in some toys drawers that we have. When my kids want to play with a toy they usually ask. They can play with that toy, but then they have to clean that up to get something else out. This has worked for the most part, unless I am gone, then they somehow forget and leave a big mess. That is when this next tips comes in….
Set a Timer – Sometimes my children’s playing entails a lot of different toys that they “need” to be out in order to play what they want. Cars, Action Figures and Blocks for instance! Usually when it’s time to clean up I tell my kids that I am going to set a timer for 5 mins (or however long you think it will take) and they see how fast they can clean it up! Usually I help because sometimes for little kids can get overwhelming. If their older siblings were playing with them, they can usually clean it up on their own. The timer motivates some children, and some children hate it. Don’t make your kids crazy if setting a timer doesn’t work for them, think of something else that might!
Secret Scrap– I am SOOO excited to tell you about this one. I just learned this awesome tip from my amazing friend Shelly! She told me she does this with her family when the house needs to be cleaned up. She calls is Secret Scrap. I came home and tried it with my family the other day and it worked awesome! All you have do is you tell your family it is “Secret Scrap time” and that the whole house or room or what ever you are clenaing up need to be cleaned up. You then pick one item that is the “Secret Scrap” and at the end of clean up, whoever cleaned up that item wins a prize! I am going to go to the dollar store and buy different prizes. My daughter won and got a pack of gum. Some prizes might not be very big and some might be nicer, I want them to be different every time so that my kids won’t figure out a method to this fun way of cleaning up.
I won’t say that my house is clean all the time, but these have been great ways to encourage my children to clean up after they our done or help clean up the house at the end of the day! I would love to know what you do to encourage your children to clean up their messes?
