living room clean ups

Alexander

· #2 · Jun 25, 2004

He's five, and you want him to clean?

Huh! Good luck.

1)
get a BIG dust pan, broom, and general cardboard box.

He won't loose anything. The bigger the bow, the better. Cut a mouse hole in the side, card board funnel in the top.

The amount of time you spend sweeping and dumping over the next 5 years will be less than the time you two whine at each other.

2)
Make sure you have a place for everything. If he ever wants his stuff tidy, it will be easier fr him.

a

See less See more

Reply

Save

Like

ktmama

· #3 · Jun 26, 2004

Hmmmm.....I'm a little more strict on this, especially since it's community space. My rule is simple: The Montessori Rules say - you can't play with something new until you've put the other thing away.

Now, this assumes that the other thing actually has an "away" place.

A bit hard to enforce at first (requires a lot of follow through), but has made my dd really responsible for her things.

Reply

Save

Like

Reactions: 1

root*children

· #4 · Jun 26, 2004

I like to act like I'm having a great time at it..

"WOO-HOOOO the tinkertoy is a rocket ship! It flew into the tin... oh no! these tinkertoys are shooting stars and they're chasing the rocket ship!! aah!"

That usually gets him in the spirit. But don't despair. I sometimes fret from seeing all those darned magazine pictures of perfectly clean houses, and then remember the saying, "Cleaning your house while your children are young, is like shoveling the driveway in the middle of a snowstorm."

Reply

Save

Like

A

Alexander

· #5 · Jun 26, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by ktmama
Hmmmm.....I'm a little more strict on this, especially since it's community space. My rule is simple: The Montessori Rules say - you can't play with something new until you've put the other thing away.

Now, this assumes that the other thing actually has an "away" place.

Well, that's good if he has a place of his own that is not the community space. If his space is the community space, then that's a bit unfair.

Also, I recommend getting agreement on "tidy last item before playing with the next one". In my view, children who are not involved in the creation of rules (excluding health and safety) are not obliged to follow them.

"playing" the tidy up game is also great. Create traffic jams on the way to the car box, Agelina dolly dancing her way to the doll's house etc.

Ususally my lot just start playing with the suff again though.

a

See less See more

Reply

Save

Like

Raven

· #6 · Jun 26, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by ktmama
Hmmmm.....I'm a little more strict on this, especially since it's community space. My rule is simple: The Montessori Rules say - you can't play with something new until you've put the other thing away.

Now, this assumes that the other thing actually has an "away" place.

A bit hard to enforce at first (requires a lot of follow through), but has made my dd really responsible for her things.

I agree with this.

It doesnt mean you cant make it fun or exciting - it just means the child is aware that s/he needs to pack things away before moving on to the next activity.

My dd doesnt like to pack away either and I have explained to her that if she leaves her things lying around they can get lost or broken. We have also spoken about the fact that there are other people who live here and if we all left our things lying around there would be a HUGE mess and nobody would be able to enjoy the space.

She gets it - and we both decided together that putting things away is the way to go. This does require leading by example too. I cant expect her to put her things away if I dont do the same.

See less See more

Reply

Save

Like

S

srain

· #7 · Jun 26, 2004

From the time my son was 2, he hasn't been allowed to have too much out at once, and has to put it away before he can get anything else out or before we'll read with him, etc. Maybe because we started so young, maybe because of his personality, it's never been a big deal getting him to clean up his things. We've decided if he refuses to clean up that we'll clean it up and he won't see whatever toy again for a week, but we've never had to follow through on that. But I strongly disagree that 5 is too young to expect responsibility.

Reply

Save

Like

A

annethcz

· #8 · Jun 27, 2004

Don't know if this would help or not, but every night before bed, we have a big clean up time. It's just part of our evening routine. Kids have to put all their toys away before bedtime stories are read. Of course, my house is always a pit io the middle of the day...

I do try to get kids to clean up one area before we move on to the next activity, but I'll admit to not being consistent enough.

I do agree with the PP that 5 years old is NOT too young to take responsibility of your things.

See less See more

Reply

Save

Like

S

Satori

· #9 · Jun 27, 2004

We do a big clean up before bed time and the rule is if its left out mr trash man will come and steal it! He did about 4 months ago and its been much easier since when she realized her toys really would disappear if she didn't pick them up. It was really bad, my house was a disaster (still is but not as bad) and I get into a really bad depression when the place is a disaster so to me its a mental health issue. If the entire house can not be picked up in a hour its to dirty and its time to clean it up. I also rearrianged the furniture so while I don't like having the couch against the wall it opens up the floor space and gives dd more room to play and she actually seems to more or less contain her mess to a smaller area rather then the entire living room.

Reply

Save

Like

C

Curious

· #10 · Jun 29, 2004

Well Dd isn't even 3 yet so I can't speak to the longevity of my plan. But our living room is also the center of things, and it was a huge mess. Awhile back I started a ritual (headed by me with mixing bowl on my head, hitting it with a spoon to make a chiming sound, singing "we are cleaning", as the bathtub filled.

My goal was to spend 5-10 minutes of the family cleaning, doing what we can.

I let the house go to pot the whole day, but most nights, we do "we are cleaning." It's amazing what just a few minutes can do each night. I find that the clutter clumps aren't nearly as humungous, when they are just from a day's worth of play, rather than a week's.

Dd is enthusiastic about this (so far), and often reminds me if I want to skip the ritual, and wants to do a lot of it herself. She sends me out of the living room sometimes, and really puts everything away.

It's much harder getting Dh's participation!

See less See more

Reply

Save

Like

J

Jolip

· #11 · 5 mo ago

I also recently cleaned my living room and realized that something needs to be changed in the approaches to cleaning this place. It's good that they suggested using the recommendations from the living room cleaning website, which tells about the deep clean living room and also gives recommendations on the selection of cleaning products and tools.

Reply

Save

Like

PeterRCS

· #12 · 5 mo ago

Jolip said:
I also recently cleaned my living room and realized that something needs to be changed in the approaches to cleaning this place. It's good that they suggested using the recommendations from the living room cleaning website, which tells about the deep clean living room and also gives recommendations on the selection of cleaning products and tools.

Having a checklist when cleaning your living room is important because it helps ensure that you don't overlook any steps. It also serves as a reminder of what needs to be done, as well as making it easier to track your progress and stay organized.

Creating a checklist can help save time and effort, while also giving you peace of mind knowing that all tasks related to cleaning the living room have been completed.

Check out this Spring Cleaning Checklist

Reply

Save

Like

annierusso878

· #13 · 1 mo ago

[email protected] said:
the living room is our all purpose room basically

dd 5 1/2 yrs plays, we watch tv etc.

i need some things to try to get more co-operation on cleaning up (picking up stuff)

i am so sick of the fact that every time i want to sit on the couch i break my toes walking to it and then have no where to sit

when i say to dd "lets fix the livign room" the only repsonse i get is "i dont wannnnnt to cleannnnnnn. i haaaaaateeee to cleannnnnn." etc.

like i'm any happier? all i'm doing is a quick 15 minute thing and i spend it fighting with her instead of anything getting done

Hey, so I found a book that worked wonders to get my toddlers 3,4,5 to clean up. It’s called The Sneaky Guru, I highly recommend. My son (3) also got rid of his bottle, because he thought the Guru took it! 2 birds one stone, major mom win!

Reply

Save

Like

Top Contributors this Month