Teaching kids to clean up after themselves can be challenging. Often, parents find that it’s like pulling teeth, and reluctantly give in and do the job themselves. But there are ways to encourage children to do the job independently.
Organizing Toys and Games
Create a system that makes it easy for kids to clean up after themselves. Use colorful boxes, bins, and shelves, and have a specific place for each toy. If kids know that all the books belong on the shelf, all the stuffed animals go in the toy box, and all the dress up clothes get hung up on pegs, for example, they are much more likely to be successful at clean up time. This also gives kids much needed practice at sorting and categorizing.
Give Kids Small Tasks
Have kids do what they can do and then build on their successes. Being instructed to simply, “Clean up,” may be too general. Instead, be specific. “Please put your clothes in the hamper.” “Please put these cars in the bucket.” “Please put your dishes in the sink.” Once they complete a task, give them another. As they grow older, they will be able to handle less specific instructions, as well as manage more than one task at a time. But for starters, keep it simple.
Clean up Games
If a boring task can be made into a fun activity, it’s more enjoyable for everyone. Kids love games. And they love trying to do things fast. Try having a race to see who can put 5 items away first. Or count down from 20 and see if kids can finish putting away a certain number of things before zero is reached. Or play “musical clean up”: play some music, dance, and then when the music stops, everyone grabs one thing and puts it away as fast as they can. Don’t start the music up again until everyone does so.
Motivating Kids to Clean Up
Insist that kids put one toy or activity away before getting something else out. Use a sticker chart to serve as a visual reminder that certain clean up tasks (such as putting toys away, cleaning up clothes, ) need to be done each day. Provide a small reward at the end of the week for a job well done. Use lots of praise, and introduce words like “responsibility” and “helpful.” to the child’s growing vocabulary.
With a little praise and practice, kids can learn to clean up after themselves, and be proud of the results.
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