It is amazing how quickly a mess can be made at home.  There are days when I work hard to clean up the house only to have it explode into a mess of toys, crafts, and random stuff within minutes.  Our children truly are a blessing in our lives and we love them dearly, however, they are known to make a mess.

How do we teach our children to be considerate of others by picking up their toys, papers, clothes, crafts, and whatever else they have gotten out?  We want our kids to have fun, play hard, and be creative, but does it need to end in a big mess?

• Simplify Life – over the last few months it has occurred to me that we just have too much stuff.  I am thankful for the many blessings we have been given but the more we have the greater responsibility.  This is an area I am continuing to work on in our home.
• Organization – by creating an organized system the kids will have a better idea of what is it be expected and where to put away their items.  For example, having a shoe basket inside the front door for them to put their shoes into when they walk in the door is a visual reminder for them to take off their shoes.  When they have a place or specific bins for the variety of toys it helps them know where to go both to play with an item and to put it away.  The expectation is clear and organization helps tremendously, although the Spontaneous Tornadoes will continue to happen from time to time putting these into place will cut down on the frequency of the tornadoes.
• Communication – talking with the kids about why we need to pick up our toys, clothes and home.  Most of the time they will gladly pitch in and help pick up if you just ask nicely.  Setting a timer or making it into a game (see how much we can pick up in 10 minutes) will help get them motivated to do it too.
• Actions Speak Louder – be an example to your kids…..this one can be a hard one.  Somehow my stuff gets spread out too!  If you have all your items all over the place then why should they be expected to pick up their toys, clothes, and miscellaneous items.  I realize that it’s impossible to keep everything perfect especially during a busy week and in a well loved home, but by setting aside a few minutes everyday and trying your best to maintain the home (and the items you are responsible for) shows the children what is expected of them.
• Set Some Ground Rules – they want to do a craft?  Okay, that it fine with me, however, prior to moving onto the next craft or another avenue of play they must first pick up their current mess.  This helps them tidy up along the way so at the end of the day there are only a few items to put away instead of an massive explosion of toys, crafts, and other goodies (plus the glue gets put away instead spending hours drying out).  I try to always let them do crafts and creative play whenever possible, although I do occasionally need to remind them to go back and pick up something if they switch to another activity without cleaning up the previous one.   Thankfully, the kids are getting better at doing this and are needing less reminders, plus they know where items go so they can put everything away on their own without the help of the whole family (although we pitch in many times because that’s what families do for each other)!

I know Spontaneous Tornadoes will continue to invade our home via our children (and their parents) but with a little preparation and daily maintenance we should be able to keep them to a minimum.  There are days when we all take 15 minutes and pick up the house together.  When we are work together as a team it can go by quickly and shows the importance of everyone participating in the activity to get the work done.

Do you have Spontaneous Tornadoes in your home?  How do you help prevent from having too many?