How to Get Your Kids to Tidy Up

Seven ways to encourage your kids to pick up after themselves

Whether you have convinced your children to practice the joyful minimalism of the KonMari Method or if your house is just overrun with toys, tidying up is a skill that every child needs. Like most lessons we teach our children, getting kids to help tidy up is easier said than done. We talked to some local moms and asked them for their tried and tested tips. So, before you pull out the black trash bag or threaten to take away electronics, try these techniques to get your kids to tidy up.

1 – Everything Has a Place

If you want your child to be able to clean up, they need to understand what that means. When everything has a place, it’s easier for a child to respond when you ask them to put it away. They know that “clean up” means to put the toys back in their places. Labeled baskets, a catch-all toy chest, open shelving, even upcycled diaper boxes are all great options for toy storage. End the constant flood of questions like, “Where does this go? What should I do with this?”

2 – Sing a Song

Never underestimate the power of music. Younger children love to sing what they’re doing. Daniel Tiger has a cleanup song that Robin C.’s toddler responds to. Katelyn B.’s kids learned the Barney clean up song in preschool and sing, “Clean up, clean up. Everybody, everywhere. Clean up, clean up. Everybody do your share!” Mary S.’s family is slightly less traditional and plays “Colonel Hathi’s March” from Disney’s animated “Jungle Book” while her children march their toys back to their places. If your kids are too old for cleanup songs, just playing their favorite songs can get them into a good mood to clean.

3 – Speed Clean

This is a great tip for those active kiddos who never stop moving! Set a timer and see how many toys you can clean up before it rings. Or start a stopwatch and see how long it takes to clean up all the train pieces. Sam M. suggests racing a clock, rather than each other, to discourage sibling rivalry. Older kids can write down and save their time and try to set a new clean-up record.

4 – Go on a Roll

Grab some dice and add an educational spin to clean up time. Use a traditional six-sided cube die to work on one-to-one correspondence and count the dots and pick up that number of toys. You can use numerical gaming dice to practice number recognition (they can go up to 20 sides). For older kids, use two dice at a time to practice addition or multiplication facts.

5 – Make it Fun

Mary Poppins said it best: “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun and snap! The job’s a game.” Send your children with their toy bins to pretend that they’re recycling trucks that need to collect all of their special items to take back to the recycling center. Help your children get into character and send them on a mission to rescue the toys on the floor (maybe they’re lost in the forest or deep in the ocean or have fallen in lava!) and bring them back home. See what games you can come up with to make clean up an extension of playtime.

6 – Get creative.

Gretchen B. took cleaning up to a whole new level. “I wrote daily chores on colorful popsicle craft sticks and they drew them out of a little cup,” she says. “I included fun things too like ‘turn on music’ and ‘five-minute race outside’… it’s a mystery what chore will be next and they love the surprise!”

7 – Help

When my kids ask me to help them tidy up and I say no, I only teach them to respond the same way when I ask them to help me clean. A cleanroom is something that I need because I find the mess overwhelming, but it’s also something that my kids need, too. When it’s messy, they have nowhere to play and tend to pick fights with each other out of boredom. When the playroom is clean, my kids are newly inspired to play. I try to model a helpful attitude and show them that I am happy to help them get right back to playing.

Think outside of the box to help your kids get everything back into the toy box. Your creative clean-up techniques could become new family traditions and memories in the making.

As seen in Parent Map.