Mom of five here (they’re all grown now) but one thing I tried: take a plastic kids rake and rake everything on the floor into one pile. Then in order for them to do anything, go anywhere, the pile had to be gone. My instructions also included, “touch it, put it away, no matter what it is.” I never actually did this, but you could also include “whatever is left, is given away.”
Thanks for the reply Cindy. We've found some success with the rake-into-one-pile idea. I think it makes cleaning feel less overwhelming for the kids. It also helps them focus on actually cleaning instead of "looking" for the mess in the room, which in my experience becomes another distraction.
Did your approach change as your kids got older? We’ve got a 2, 4, and 9-year-old all contributing to the chaos 😄
Mom of five here (they’re all grown now) but one thing I tried: take a plastic kids rake and rake everything on the floor into one pile. Then in order for them to do anything, go anywhere, the pile had to be gone. My instructions also included, “touch it, put it away, no matter what it is.” I never actually did this, but you could also include “whatever is left, is given away.”
Thanks for the reply Cindy. We've found some success with the rake-into-one-pile idea. I think it makes cleaning feel less overwhelming for the kids. It also helps them focus on actually cleaning instead of "looking" for the mess in the room, which in my experience becomes another distraction.
Did your approach change as your kids got older? We’ve got a 2, 4, and 9-year-old all contributing to the chaos 😄