So I've posted before about how my kids all constantly dump EVERYTHING. They do play with it, but its always a matter of pulling everything out for the game they've made up. Today its the trash game. They work for the trash company & dumped all the toys in the floor & are pretending to wash them in the toy kitchen sink. Wouldn't be an issue except that every day it is literally 45 minutes of me saying, "Help clean up...Nothing else comes out until its clean...etc" And everything is neatly organized on shelves, but they can't ever remember where it goes w/o asking me. And so we waste much of our day & i end up doing most of the work anyway. Today I decided to try a new strategy.
I took out the shelving units & moved in a toy box. I took out the toys that have many pieces like blocks & moved them into a shelving unit in the living room. The living room will be our space to sit and play with activities. The playroom will be a dump & play room. All toys can be picked up & dumped back into the no when they're done. Exceptions will be the play food for the kitchen set, trains for train table, & dress up clothes that hang on the wall. They actually cleaned up their mess on their own & in record time today. I guess I can compromise with the toy box for now. When they get better about clean up we may try the orderly shelves again. In the meantime we will practice our orderly skills during living room play. Wish us luck!

Reply