Laurie and I were talking tonight about the house, about our feelings of it being so cluttered and chaotic. I think I might just take a bunch more toys out of circulation. It seems like they really engage with their playthings for such a brief time, and then they just become things to throw.
Just now, I was on mdc, and felt disproportionately relieved to find a thread in the "parenting multiples" area where everyone was talking about how they felt keeping the house clean was an impossible task.
Let's see how it goes - I'd like to spend the next few days just slowly paring down the available things for all of us in our common areas. A neat, open space would be a huge relief.
Do you have any secrets of keeping things tidy with young children around? I would LOVE to hear them.
I pretty much just don't. I know that doesn't help you. :)
ReplyDeleteI do have a bunch of bins around, and we use those a ton. I've gotten the kids to play the fun pick up game with me, and once in awhile they surprise me by picking up on their own...rarely, though.
I try to teach them that we have to pick up a room before we move on to another. It's a process and they are not good at it by any means, but I hope one day it actually sinks in.
I save all my picking up for the end of the day after they are in bed. Other than that, I try to pick up as we go and ignore the clutter. It's temporary.
No tips here, really. We're in the same boat. We have a 1,000 sf house, and the living room has been taken over by toys.
ReplyDeleteI have found some cool toy/book shelves online but they're not cheap. I hear that one of the things to encourage kids to clean up at this age is separating and categorizing - putting all the cars in this bin, the legos in that bin, etc. I can see how that may help some... but when I'm trying to encourage my kids to clean up by categorizing, etc. they just get interested in the toys all over again and start pulling things right back out of the bins!
at the preschool where I work I keep some shelves covered with a cloth (out of sight...) and the other toys are in bins on shelves. I would put alot up high and just take out afew. there are some nice open bins available but living with toddlrs is a daily clean up task that quickly becomes messy again!
ReplyDeletePutting things in clear (plastic, sorry) bins helps around here.
ReplyDeleteI also use bins but I use the cloth bins. I just got a bookshelf and the cloth cube bins they sell at Target. Then you can't see the toys just a shelf with different colored bins on it. It makes it easy to clean up and makes things look much tidier. :-)
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