Need help with my playroom PLEASE re: keeping it somewhat clean & organized....

[PentecostalMom]

Okay, so I am blessed to have a playroom and a schoolroom. I really like the playroom because it is somewhere safe (i.e. childproof) in the house I can send the kids when I need some downtime or to mop without little feet on the floor.

 

However, it seems to be a CONSTANT mess! Dh has installed closetmaid shelves at various intervals in the closet, and I have all of the toys organized into sterlite bins with lids that have handles so everything has a home. I just cannot seem to get older dd to grasp the concept of getting out one bin at a time, when you are finished with that bin clean it up and out it away, then you can get out another. This child is very intelligent and understands what I say, she just does not do it. Then of course, the popular refrain is, "I'll clean it up mom." Which she does, but sometimes that can take forever and it drives me batty!

 

At this point, my solution is to get rid of 50% or more of the toys, then there is less to make a mess with. By the way, in the room itself is a table with two chairs, a kids kitchen, a TV/DVD player (the only one in the house and it is closely supervised) two small bookshelves, two beanbag chairs, and doll furniture. The larger things do not seem to cause a problem, but all of the toys being constantly out of control causes me to stress.

 

These are the things I have tried.

1. We cleaned the room together, talked about everything having a home, and how important it is to keep it clean. (This was long ago.)

2. We cleaned the room, and the "priviledge" of the room was taken away, (door locked) for two days or three days. (This has been tried more than once.)

3. She cleaned the room alone, and had the same consequences as above.

4. She had to give away some toys i.e. purge the toys, so there would be less of them to make a mess with.

5. Now, I just make her clean the room, and I bought a small stick vacuum that she can manage on her own (my Dyson is too bulky/heavy for her), and she has to clean, vac, etc., all on her own.

 

She can clean the room, she knows where everything goes and it is not a problem. However when I walk in there after the girls have been playing for 30 minutes or so, and cannot see ht floor, it makes me want to scream.

 

The room was clean last night, minus vacuuming. Today (at various points in the day) they have been in and out playing. I just went in there and it is a disaster. I told her to go in the room, close the door and clean it up. Off she went crying and complaining, "All by myself?"

 

HELP! Solutions, suggestions, etc. I have talked to dh about it, and his thoughts are that I am not consistent about enforcing the "one bin at a time" rule. I can take constructive criticism....please. If you think that is the issue, please say so. I just need a solution before the baby comes and I still have this to deal with.

[Whereneverever]

Put most of the bins in the basement and rotate them. I've found that too many available toys overwhelms most kids and they just make a mess.

[Pink]

You are too nice! My 6 year old DD is the same way and mess drives me batty! I've found that pulling a black garbage bag out really motivates her!:tongue_smilie:

[Random]

Does she respond well to rewards? My kids will do a million more things with the promise of a treat than the promise of a consequence. And, when my 5 year-old is putting toys away, we are usually doing it side-by-side, (including me).

 

It does sounds like everyone would benefit from having fewer little toys.

 

Maybe one bin at a time isn't necessary, if you can handle the categories of toys getting mixed up. It used to drive me batty to find potato head pieces mixed-in with Gears! pieces. I had to let it go. They play with it all, then it gets put away in bins. If they can't find something when they want it, it is their problem and not mine, but honestly, that never happens. They always know where their stuff is. ;) I had to settle for having our playroom tidy instead of 'clean.' I had to be the one to relax about it.

 

A side note: (I'm sure you already know this...) A five year-old can be very smart and understand you, but she is still extremely immature because she is five.

[extendedforecast]

Of course it's going to take a five year old a while to clean up a big mess. :grouphug: I've btdt, and I wish I'd lowered my expectations then. I know how frustrating and overwhelming it can be to see such a huge mess. My girls do the same thing and have played like that since the beginning. Thankfully, I don't have to ask them to clean their mess up very often anymore. They do it themselves before I have to say anything. I say this because I wish someone would have told me that it would get better. So here's my advice: lower your expectations. When it's time to tidy up, go in and direct your dd and your toddler (little ones can and do love to help). Try to be matter of fact about it--it's time to tidy up so we can do ______ next. Let's start by gathering the legos in this bin.

In a year or so, they'll be able to do it on their own. For now, you're just going to have to build it into your routine.

Edited July 26, 2011 by extendedforecast
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[LMD]

I don't know if this will help, but my older two are masters at making mess then whining about how unfair it is to clean it all up by themselves *dramatic pose*. DH and I were talking, and he remembers a scene from his childhood:

His mother told him he had x amount of time to clean his room (in her eyes, totally do-able), DH as an 8 - or so - year old was so completely overwhelmed looking at all the mess, he felt he'd never get it done and be stuck with the consequence no matter how hard he tried. He used the x time to get as far across their acerage as he could... :lol:

 

I try to remember that they are having fun when they're playing - not thinking about consequences (having to put it all away again). I use a few strategies, I make sure they confine mess - our house is floorboards + rugs, they must confine mess to 1 designated rug, so it can't get out of control. I put some things simply out of reach. I break up storage of toys between a few rooms so they can't empty simply everything. When it's time to clean up I break up the job into smaller tasks and assign them one at a time (eating the elephant, as it were). But I'm finding at their ages (6 & nearly 4) they still really need the supervision.

 

Still - lego is the bane of my existance. And my older DS will easily take hours of putting one piece at a time away... :banghead: I threaten that the vacuum cleaner will clean up the rest ;)

[snickelfritz]

Once a room gets that bad, my 5 year old can't clean it by herself. Its too overwhelming. I understand, since I feel overwhelmed looking at the mess. I would lock up the bins and require her to check them in and out through you.

 

For my sanity and not having her come back every 15 minutes, I would leave a few well-played with, eaily cleaned up, versatile toys out. These could be on a long-term rotation. Maybe once a week? For my dd's, that might be their doll house and accessories, legos, books, and drawing supplies. Put enough that the kids can reasonably entertain themselves for a good length of time. But, not so much that they can't sort it and pick it up in under 5 minutes if it's all out.

 

Everything else is locked up. Then, each hour (set a timer) they do a quick clean up and (when clean) may check in a bin and check out a new bin. The hour makes sure that it gets picked up throughout the day AND it keeps them from playing with one thing for 5 minutes then needing you to come in for something else.

 

You may need to experiment. If your kids do play well for long periods, then an hour will work. If not, you may need to start with 30 minute increments.

 

I think, with time, you can leave a little more out. But, at this point, you need to get all of you trained. :D

Edited July 26, 2011 by snickelfritz

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I use masking tape to "lock" my plastic drawers and containers. I have to "unlock" the bin for them to get into them. It's re-useable, at least for a while, depending on how popular the toy is.

[ChristusG]

I finally got really tired of cleaning the playroom all the time. Our playroom kept looking like Toys R Us threw up in there. :tongue_smilie:

 

Here's what I did....I did a major purge....when the kids were asleep for the night. I threw away all junky Happy Meal toys, packed away all babyish toys, listed things on Craigslist that I thought would sell, and for everything else they didn't regularly play with, I put in a box to take to Goodwill. My kids had HUNDREDS of stuffed animals. I probably got rid of 200 of them....and they still have like 200 left. :001_huh: People seem to always give kids stuffed animals.

 

For all other things left in the playroom, I made sure that everything had a home. I had a Rubbermaid box for My Little Ponies. I put all the girls favorite ponies in there....if they wouldn't all fit, the rest went into the Goodwill box. Same went for Little People, dress up clothes, Disney figures, animal figures, Trio blocks, dishes, Zhu Zhu pets, Playmobil, doll house figures and furniture, and any other imaginable sets that would fit into Rubbermaid bins. All of these bins are kept in the playroom closet and are only allowed out when the kids ask. They can have two at a time. If they want another, the other boxes must be cleaned up.

 

In one corner of the playroom I have the "stuffed animal corner." There are three very large laundry hampers set up and the stuffed animals fill those (and overflow them....but with them arranged in a triangle, the overflow just sits on the top).

 

I put bookcases (from Wal-Mart....like $20 each) around the playroom. On those sit the "bigger" toys.....Little People houses, a princess castle, a pirate ship, etc. In another corner of the room, I have another laundry bin. Into that goes all purses and backpacks (after I purged them).

 

In the third corner of the room there's the "movie square". I arranged the kids miniature red couch and two shelves to form an area that's sort of blocked off from the rest of the room. Their TV sits on a shelf and beside it is a multimedia shelf filled with kids movies.

 

Each night, before bedtime, I have the kids do a clean sweep of the playroom. Whatever is not in its place after they are in bed, becomes mine. Sometimes I get a little too lax with the bedtime cleaning (like for the past week) and there's some items that get left on the floor. Right now the dress up clothes are strewn about. So I'll have to crack down on that again.

 

But seriously, this is the most sane I've been with the playroom. It literally used to look like a destruction zone before I implemented all of this stuff. I just got really tired of it. Once it gets too bad, it overwhelms the kids to clean it so I had to do it. I haven't had to do that in months.

[kalanamak]

Get rid of half. Don't organize so much. Make "putting away easy, getting out hard". Police the area daily or twice a day. If something is left out with a warning, it gets taken away. I have a hungry son, so I tell him I'm making dinner and it will be on the table WHEN his room is cleared.

[misidawnrn]

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned but I would

#1...purge! Get rid of stuff that is broken, missing pieces (although when you throw it away you will find the piece!)

#2...get some big rubber maid type bins or the round bushel basket type barrels and lose the "organized" bit. With 3 kids 5 and under it will only be organized if you do it and you don't have time. Let the kids pick up the toys and throw them in the big bins. They will just dump the toys all over the next time so it doesn't matter if they are all in a big bin.

#3...If you don't want to do #2 then rotate bins and limit it to a few things at a time, not access to the entire toy collection.

 

Good luck. :grouphug:

[kristinannie]

First of all, I have a huge playroom that is almost always a mess. The one way that I have found to really get the job done is to put different jobs on ping pong balls. The kids pick one and do that job. They say, "books, puzzles, trains, tracks, cars, etc." It gives them direction. Whoever has the most balls after 30 minutes, wins a prize. It works really well for us. I have found that if we clean up the playroom twice a day, it stays pretty good. It is so hard for me to keep that up though because life gets crazy, especially in the summer!

[PentecostalMom]

Thanks for all the replies ladies!

 

For the record, it IS purged. The "organized" I mean sounds like a pp that has a movie corner, etc. We have very few stuffed animals.

 

I think the best bet is to lock the closet with the bins and make the kiddos check them out with me. That will still leave the kitchen and kitchen items, books, doll furniture, and "movie corner" accesible without me having to open the closet.

 

I do plan to do another sort-and-purge over the next couple of weeks. I am trying to get it done before our vacation in September. I want to have a yard sale when we get back & before the baby comes. I plan to purge the entire house, room by room. I am quick and not very attached to "stuff" so it should not be difficult.

 

I will buy a knob with a lock for the closet door tomorrow! :)