2. Time Yourselves. Keep track of the amount of time it takes from day to day. See if you can beat your record.
3. Make the clean playroom a surprise for Daddy when he gets home from work. Say things like, "Won't he be happy?" "He's going to LOVE seeing this clean floor!"
4. Delegate and celebrate very small tasks. "Jessie, the books are ALL picked up. WONDERFUL!"
5. Play dramatic, classical music. Walz and pirouette around the room while you clean. Try the music from Carmen or Tales from Vienna Woods.
6. Set a timer. At the end of five or ten minutes all toys on the floor will be food for the Garbage Monster (set in a basket, and not to be played with for the rest of the week) But keep the game positive. "Let's hurry; so he'll have NOTHING to eat!"
7. Sing the Clean up song, or A Spoon Full of Sugar, or Whistle while You Work.
8. Take a before and after picture.
9. Plan clean-up for a time right before an activity you know your children will enjoy. "Let's hurry and clean-up so we can do play-doh!" Clean-up time right before naps has never worked well at our house. :-)
10. Dress up like proper maids and butlers, and pretend you are cleaning up after the messy children who live at this house. "Can you believe they left their crayons all over the floor? Tut, tut!" I really think it would be fun to keep aprons, maids' caps, and bow ties in a special place for this purpose.
What do you find effective and fun for cleaning up with children around your home?
9 comments:
Such fun and motivating ideas!
These are great! I use music and rewards...I have a playlist of about 10 cleaning songs on YouTube and then everyone who cleaned happily the whole time gets a sticker on their Prize Chart. 4 stickers = a trip to the Prize Bucket...oooh!! :)
I like the qualification that they have to "clean happily." It does seem that if a person stays happy the whole time they were likely doing good work too. :-)
hank you! I should print these so I remember before I get grouchy!
haha! me too!
My kids have to pick up and put away enough things to match their age (ie if they are 5, they have to put away 5 things, if they are 3, then 3 things). I don't follow the same rule for myself, or I'll be there all day...
Great tips! The one that works best for me is talking, in detail, about how much happier and calmer I feel in the tidy room. "Oh, I just love coming downstairs when I see a big, beautiful, shiny floor; a couch that is ready to sit on; and shoes neatly lined up by the door! And I see that the dolls are enjoying their nice clean dollhouse, too!"
I really like that. I DO want them to feel that way!
Thanks for sharing these tips! Tidy up time is always stressful around here! Will put these in place. My favorite is the before/after photo idea!
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