Kid clutter....

Tea-and-Cake_3

I am so sick of the mess and clutter associated with my children. My 5yo loves arts and crafts so her carpet and bed is constantly covered in pens, pencil, pencil sharpenings!!:eek: little bits of paper she has cut out, stickers etc etc despite me sorting it out nearly every day. It is horrendous but she can happily do that for hours. Yesterday though, in addition to all of that mess was tipped out dressing up clothes, the contents of a board game and fuzzy felt. I could have screamed. She is very messy and "cannot" (apparently) tidy up as it is "too difficult". I have another child who is naturally tidy and will put things away without being asked.

I am so tempted to get rid of 90% of their playthings and leave them with about 10 toys each. We don't have enough storage space to rotate things via the loft so stuff would have to go. Mostly it is the little arty bits that is driving my nuts.

Most of the time I try to tell myself that this sort of mess will only be for a few short years while they're young but the time I spend tidying is time I could spend actually playing with them. Any ideas? How do you handle kid clutter?

sassyblue

Urgh! I have a 6yo who also 'cannot' tidy up, although I'm told he's very tidy at school. :cool:

I set my kitchen timer for a '10 minute tidy' - anything left on the floor when the bell goes is confiscated for the next day.

As for storage l got some lidded see through tubs from wilkinsons and it all gets chucked in there. Although l have a boy and its cars, tractors or Lego, definitely easier to tidy than paper bits, fuzzy felt is a pain to clear up.

All his pens are in a tub together, apart from those little kits you get, everything else gets hoovered once its tidied up and if he doesn't want to lose it tough. (Seeing the hoover appear will get him scrambling to pick it up)

moneysavingmumofone

Does she have a little table she can do crafts at? Then it wont really matter if its all left out, at least its not on the floor. My DS is the same with Lego so Im going to get him a small table he can do it at rather than every other space going lol.

sunshinetours

At 5 they can do some tidying it depends on how much you want to stick with it. Reinforcing behaviour takes time and we have same issues at home but they know now that they will be tidying at weekends rather than playing when it gets too bad.

Being creative and playing with art stuff and tiny pieces of paper is nice so don't discourage it and in a few years time when they have their heads in computer games, phones, ipods, TV you will wanting these days back!

Just remember they more you do for them the less they have to do

shortdog

In our house, the craft stuff lives downstairs, and must be done at the table. It means it's much easier to clean up, and there's no risk of pen on bedsheets, or, even worse, scissors through bedsheets!
My daughter found it difficult to tidy up, but it seemed to be not knowing where to start. We sorted her room, and gave her labelled boxes for things to go in. I then used to go up and say, for instance, "Put all the barbies and clothes away first, then the dressing up stuff". Doing it bit by bit meant that she knew where to start, and it made it loads easier for her, and much less stressful for me.
However, she's still a messy mare, but her room needs to be tidied once a week so that I can hoover. If it's not tidy for me to hoover on a Friday, she isn't allowed out at the weekend until it is tidied. The rest of the week, I just shut the door and ignore it.

barbiedoll

Get an old bedsheet or duvet cover, if you don't have one that you're happy to sacrifice, get one from a charity shop. Put it on the floor and tell the kids that all of their craft stuff, paper, pens etc etc, must be kept on the sheet. If anything is outside the sheet (i.e. on the rest of the floor) then it goes straight in the bin. And be strict...anything outside the sheet is gone!
If your DD understands that clearing up is "too hard" (I know it's wrong but I can't help laughing at that, she's going to make a terrible wife but a great feminist lol!) then she is old enough to understand the sheet idea.

At the end of the day, just pick up the corners of the sheet and tie a loose knot. All of the stuff is stashed away, you can stick it under a bed or behind the sofa, and the rest of your place is relatively clear.

It's hard, trying to keep a nice place when you have kids so if they have stuff that they don't play with, sell it, recycle it (charity shops) or bin it. Be ruthless, they have years of Christmases and birthdays with new toys to come yet so don't feel guilty about having a clear-out.

moomoomama27

I'm the same as a previous poster in that all arts and crafts has to be done at the table!

My children went through a phase of not tidying up after themselves, well two of themmy daughter is like me a bit OCD! I remedied that by buying a 4 drawer plastic unit for about £20 it's tall but not that wide and slots in well in the corner of the living room!


I've put paper and stickers in 1 drawer, paints, pens and pencils in another, beads and art supplies like glue, felt, fake fur patches, google eyes etc in another and all louring books in the last! It works really well.

FBaby

Good luck!!! My daughter was the same at 5. At 13, she is even worse, and that despite me having a go and her, introduced punishments, incentives, rewards, encouragements, lessons and the rest all these years.

I strongly believe that you are either born tidy or messy. I was messy as a child (although not one bit close as bad as her), so was my mum, my sister, my daughter's dad....). My partner though is naturally very tidy, as is his mum and just cannot understand that she can be like this, even less that no teaching will sort her out!!!

Ironically, she is extremely neat in her school work and always cited as an exemple by her teachers. They would be in complete shock if they saw her bedroom. I have adopted a response that goes from avoiding her bedroom as long as a I can, to losing my temper, telling her off and forcing her in her bedroom until it is tidier, to reminding myself that I am extremely lucky that she is top of her class and a very high achiever and that is more important... Even when I ask her to tidy with punishment attached to it, her standards of tidyness does come close to my lower expected level... You'd think she was a 2 year old...

My son is not great at tidying either but at least is not as inclined to make the mess in the first place. It is less of an issue with him, but still I have ended up with two genetically messy kids!!!

mrcow

Seriously - I'm with you.

My children play and play and play and play. For hours with their toys and they love it so much.

But the mess is horrendous. It drives me seriously to the point of shouting.

My only solace is that one day, it's just not going to be there any more. I'm going to miss the mess and the playing. And I can't begrudge it because they always play so nicely. It just always seems to involve playing with absolutely everything in reach.

Ikea is a godsend in terms of storage ideas. For make and do, I strictly confine it to the kitchen just like Lego is strictly confined to upstairs). It helps as it's all in once place and usually up the table.

fluffnutter

Sorry, but I'm not really feeling it. Did people miss the memo that said 'kids = mess'. Although there are exceptions of course, the average five year old's just not going to volunteer to put all their toys away, nor be very good at it when they do. You've got to help them. Make it a game, make it part of their play, have one room in the house that's just for you, i.e. don't let them make a mess in the sitting room.

But seriously? Clutter comes with kids. You're just winding yourself up if you don't accept that.

themull1

my kids are still terrible at 10 and 13!