I reckon parenting would be 99% easier if we could just get our kids to clean up after themselves. Tidy kids would make everything better. Don’t you think? It’s one thing to be at the beck and call of a baby and quite another to find yourself still picking up after the seven-year-old. I can follow my Badoo’s every move from the moment she wakes in the morning and leaves her bed unmade until the moment she drops her dressing gown on the floor by her bed at night, narrowly missing the hook that is right by her bed hopelessly waiting to shine.
Is there a mother on the planet who doesn’t feel a little piece of herself get eaten every time she glances at her children’s bedrooms? Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw. If we don’t fix the problem, there will be nothing left of us. It’s one thing to do a huge family declutter every once and a while and quite another to raise tidy kids in general.
I’ve been trying to get my kids to be neater for the better part of a decade. The biggest revelation was introducing The Sunday Box:
Yep, the Sunday Box is my total game changer, but here are three more things that I have found actually work.
3 Important Rules for Tidy Kids
1. Schedule a daily habit – daily, daily, daily. Having a set time each day where the kids need to spend five minutes (because when it’s daily, that’s all it takes) makes all the difference. Set a timer; we use a song of their choosing – they clean up after themselves for the duration of the song. The kids quickly catch on to the fact that little and often results in a tidy room and a happy mum all for minimal effort, so it’s a win-win-win for everyone.
2. Do daily inspections – When I make the time to check the kids’ bedrooms every night before dinner, they make the time to keep them tidier. As soon as I stop the daily inspections, the mess creeps back in during the night. No wonder my kids are all scared of the dark.
3. Make them accountable – Like any good habit that we’re trying teach, reward is a powerful motivator. Now, you can choose to go the “consequences” route (the artist previously known as “punishment”), but I prefer to turn things around. So instead of saying, “If you don’t keep your room tidy all week, you don’t get any screen time on Friday”, I say, “If you keep your room tidy all week you get to have some screen time on Friday”. Or whatever your reward might be. Dinner seems like a good option some days…
5 thoughts on: Being tidy
1. New York Times: It’s Not ‘Mess’. It’s Creativity
2. Planning With Kids: Tips on Keeping Kids’ Rooms Tidy
3. A Mother Far From Home: Routines to Keep a House Tidy with Little Kids
4. Inner Child Fun: 10 Awesome Ways to Make Cleaning Fun for Kids
5. Zen Habits: Mindful Simplicity (or the art of allowing crumbs to just be crumbs)
How tidy are your kids? How about yourself?
And if you are blessed with tidy children, please, please, please share your best tips with us in the comments. We need you!
Elisha Ross says
Turning the tv off here seems to work for the moment and offering to help them (even though I do most). I can’t stand mess and so its much easier sometimes to just do it myself.
Maxabella says
Yep, no TV is a good one. And saying, “Once your rooms are clean, you can watch that show on TV” is a great motivator!
Helen K says
Does the messy box work for adults too? Because that, seriously, is my biggest problem. I can’t be going on too much to the kids when someone else is very messy, and someone me loses the ability for organisation in amongst three people’s chaos! However, slowly, slowly, we are getting better.
A good list you have there – two additional aspects that seem to help us (and seem so obviously that maybe it’s not worth stating – but in case it isn’t, I will) 1. Have a designated place for everything (so we all know where things are MEANT to be put away – and having them within kids’ reach if the kids are responsible for putting them away and 2. Allowing enough time for things to be tidied away (rushing with 5 minutes before we need to get to school, or just before bed seems to be a recipe for disaster in getting them organised (it does, however, work well if you are looking to generate a tandrum) x
Maxabella says
Allowing enough time is so critical. I mean, you’ve gotta weave time into your day that is specifically for a clean up, or you just don’t do it.
I think the only thing you can do with Al is train him like you’re training the kids. What else can we do!?!
Helen K says
Ha! That’s what I’m doing – and in turn, he’s training me in time management (including leaving on time). We will be perfect, once we’ve learned each other’s lessons 🙂
Emily @ Have A Laugh On Me says
You must had read my mind, the kids rooms are ATROCIOUS right now and it’s driving me BATTY! I’m off to do some reading – thanks for sharing Bron x
Maxabella says
I absolutely hate that sinking feeling when you venture into the kids’ rooms and they are out of control. With a little done each day, we’ve avoided that for a while now. Good luck, Em!
Kathy says
They don’t seem to understand that they won’t be stressed trying to find the ten things they need to find always at the last minute if they could just be tidier – I’m trying this appeal with our 12 year old but alas she isn’t and adult is she? And the six year old – forget it! The Sunday Box does sound revolutionary.
Kathy says
I should add Miss 12 almost had her brand new pair of expensive ballet pointe shoes eaten by our puppy because you know, messy. You think she would learn. Sigh.