Joe and I have had it with Aidan and Colin's complete refusal to clean up after themselves. Although I want perfection :awink: I surely don't demand it - I just want a half-decent effort to put toys away after they are done playing. Heck, I'm even okay if they wait until the end of the day to do it. They clean at school, so I know they possess this skill.

We've tried lots of tricks so far, but today I went to a new extreme. I put away EVERY SINGLE TOY. Our playroom & family room doesn't have a single toy in it, save the train table in the playroom. But there are no bins under it. Other than Jack's little toys, I've cleared the entire house of toys and movies. I did leave out books. But I am also banning art stuff.

A&C didn't seem to care. :dunno: In fact, they welcomed the extra room to run around and try somersaults. :rolleyes: While I admire their resiliancy, it's not going to prove my point or the lesson about being a responsible person in this house. I had 2 talks with them tonight about responsibility and earning back their toys. So far, I'm getting a lot of nods; but we get that when they promise to clean as they do every day. They just never follow through. I think the real test will come tomorrow after school when they figure out there is none of their "stuff" to entertain them.

My plan is to see how they react tomorrow w/out their stuff. And then let them pick one toy at a time that I'll get from the back of the basement/closet and make them play with that and put it back where it normally goes before I give them another. And slowly repeating that process to get the stuff back out.

Anyone have any brilliant ideas on how I can maximize this lesson? Or about how to go about re-introducing toys?

PS - my playroom looks great! Nice to see it without the clutter! :lol:

Well, I hope your boys aren't like Cole. He'd likely never miss their toys. All day today he played with some tool thing Brad bought for the van (brand new and clean), a broken flashlight, a scarf and a rock. I'm not lying. I don't know if he touched a toy all day. :rolleyes: Now, Maia would not be able to handle all her toys being gone.

If Aidan and Colin don't seem to care about the toys being gone... Congratulations! You now have a clean house. :supergrin OK, I'm mostly kidding. If they don't seem to care, what I would likely do is get something you know they really like and play with it in front of them. When they ask to play too, you can remind them why they lost their toy privileges and go from there. Even if they don't seem to miss their toys when they're out of sight, I'm sure they won't be able to resist them when they see you playing and having fun.

Good luck. We haven't ever gone as far as you did today, but we have gone through the playroom with a trash bag to prove a point.

I just thought of something else. If they like the room to do somersaults now, you could incorporate that into future clean-up lectures (if you don't already). One of the ways I can sometimes get Maia to clean up is to tell her that we need room on the floor to dance... and that if we don't clean up, we'll hurt our feet and break the toys if we dance on them. We need to take care of our things... blah, blah, blah. Do you think that's what the kids hear when we talk? The blah, blah, blah, I mean. Maybe we sound like the Peanuts teacher to them? :lol:

I hope it works.
How about introducing a token system? They earn tokens by doing ABC (clean up toys, brush teeth, whatever you want to encourage) and with the earned tokens they can "buy" the privileges or toys back.

we are getting ready to sell and i cleaned out the kid's playroom last weekend while they were overnighting at my mom's. like you i literally removed a boatload (most, but not all) of the stuff in the playroom.

tony didn't even notice!!!! i was all prepared with an explanation and he never asked. i mean i removed large toys, those bin things? empty!

taking away toys never works for him either. maybe it's a boy thing?

Nope, I don't think its a boy thing. My girls don't really care when their toys go missing.

I think a big part of it for them (and probably for A&C as well) is that there is no way I could take away their favorite thing to play with-- each other.

I think a big part of it for them (and probably for A&C as well) is that there is no way I could take away their favorite thing to play with-- each other.Excellent point, Sheila. :heart: and :rolleyes:

:lol:

We did try a token-like system before, but I think this could be a good time to try it again to earn stuff back. I talk to both of their teachers this morning, both of whom confirmed they are great picker uppers there. :angry2:

Like Stacey said about Cole, A&C generally don't care all that much about specific toys. They play with their stuff to be sure. But they mostly like to run around and play with their sports stuff. So I am banking on them missing that first. :nod:

we are getting ready to sell Wow - I didn't know that! Are you staying local?

Wow - I didn't know that! Are you staying local?

yes. we're downsizing so i can stay home :heee:

David actually taught me a great idea. He came home from school one day and was looking for a toy. I went to help him and we just couldn't find it. He looked at me and said "Oh no! I think a pig came in and ate it." I was like what??:scratch: I asked him what pig. He said, "The pigs that come in your room and eat toys that are not where they belong." I was like:idea: !!!! So I took that idea. When it was time to clean up(before bedtime or before he pulled out a new toy) I would tell him hey we need to put these toys back in their home. He would nod his head and pick them up while saying "yeah, so the pigs don't eat them." I also told him that if a pig came in and ate his toys that I would not buy him another one. He would have to save his money and buy his own. He looked confused and was like "I dont have a job." :biggrin: I said your job is to make sure your toys are put away before you 1)go to bed or 2)pull out a new one. I started giving him a dollar every week when he does this. So far so good. Also, I told him that I would take away a quarter for every day that he didn't pick up the toys. So far it's worked and the most I have had to do is gently remind him. Good luck! I can't imagine how hard it must be with 2 boys.

Wow thats great that you have a nice clean house! Very envious :) I think that it just goes to show that kids truly dont need a house full of toys to stay occupied :) Removing every single toy, and not having it phase the boys a bit, is proving that they have just learned that "Mom will clean up our toys if we make the mess big enough." I used to go around behind the daycare kids and Kaitlyn and clean up whatever they did not put away properly - but that did not teach them anything. So, I incorporated a timer. Once the bell rings - they know that playtime is done and they need to tidy up. I let go of my perfection feelings that would cause my skin to crawl if the kids did not put things *right back where they belonged*. Now, as long as everything is off the floor and *pretty much* where it belongs - I am cool with that :) To get them to clean, I explain that lunch time will happen only after the room is cleaned up... and then I put on some Polka music (yes, Polka :rolleyes: :lol: ) and they are great about getting the playroom cleaned right up :) Letting go of my feelings of needing perfection also helped a great deal too.

what would they do if you took away all their dressup crap, their hockey stuff (like the stuff they wear on an everyday basis, etc) and those kind of things? Make them earn THAT back? Just a thought :lol:

what would they do if you took away all their dressup crap, their hockey stuff (like the stuff they wear on an everyday basis, etc) and those kind of things? Make them earn THAT back? Just a thought :lol:Oh believe me, it's all away. The one thing I didn't take away if their outside toys. And so far, they've been at school, came home and had lunch then I let them go outside. I'm working from home today with no one else home, so I'm about to resort to a movie. Sucks because it's not helping the lesson, but well - Joe's away and I don't have anyone to watch them today. :sad:

And I am absolutely planning to make them earn their crap back. I just haven't thought of the best approach yet.

It wouldn't work for the girls either. They'd just play with each other and not care. Kind of annoying since I know how much $$ we have wrapped up in all those toys. :lol:

Anyway, I'm sorry that they aren't cleaning up and not getting the hint. The girls are good about cleaning up so I don't have that problem (yet :lol: ).

Must say I'm surprised they did okay with you taking away their dress up clothes. I would have thought that would have made a difference to them.

What about a different threat? Instead of taking away the toys, you take away a special treat or something of theirs?

Must say I'm surprised they did okay with you taking away their dress up clothes. I would have thought that would have made a difference to them.I am still hoping/thinking it will. I did this about an hour before bed last night, then they got up and went to school today before playing outside. So there hasn't been much time for it to sink in yet.
What about a different threat? Instead of taking away the toys, you take away a special treat or something of theirs?Computer time is the best I can come up with. I don't want to take away reading books. And I can't figure what else to take away that would mean something. I thought their dress up/sports stuff would be it. :shuffle: And like I said, I'm hopeful with a little more time, it will.

I mean really - they can do it at school and even at friends houses...why not here! :angry2:

I dont think my kids would care about the toys, either. They'd much rather be obnoxious and chase each other and drive me insane. Frankly, I'd rather live in a mess than deal with that :lol: But thankfully, for some reason, they cooperate. Right now, what works for us at the end of the night is the treat of playing Hide & Seek. All 3 love love love it. And if they dont clean up, they dont get to play. If they poke around and clean up too slow and suddenly its bedtime....no H&S. So they know & they dont fool around. Eventually, I am sure the thrill of the game will wear off and we'll have to find some new currency.

The only other thing I can think of is that we have toy shelving, so it never gets to be a disaster. They *have* to clean up throughout the day in order to get other toys down (that only mommy can reach).

I dont think my kids would care about the toys, either. They'd much rather be obnoxious and chase each other and drive me insane. Frankly, I'd rather live in a mess than deal with that :lol: But thankfully, for some reason, they cooperate. Right now, what works for us at the end of the night is the treat of playing Hide & Seek. All 3 love love love it. And if they dont clean up, they dont get to play. If they poke around and clean up too slow and suddenly its bedtime....no H&S. So they know & they dont fool around. Eventually, I am sure the thrill of the game will wear off and we'll have to find some new currency.

The only other thing I can think of is that we have toy shelving, so it never gets to be a disaster. They *have* to clean up throughout the day in order to get other toys down (that only mommy can reach).When I bring the toys back out (still thinking on that) I think I might tie in computer time. That way they could clean and then go on the computer and that also gives me time to get Shea settled and into the crib. (haha)

We have shelving too, but not enough high stuff, I guess. I do have a toy closet they can't get into, but that is where I store toys; I try to not have everything out at once.

Plus, they play alone in the basement so things often get out of control without us monitoring it. Yeah, I guess technically we could make sure we're watching them at all times, but... Well, do I really need to explain why that's just a crazy idea? :devil:

When I did this with Sean, he didn't care at all. I even unplugged the TV (sucked for me!) I think it took about 5 days for him to start caving in. I believe he was around 5 at the time. He just asked very nicely if he could watch a movie. I then gave him the speech.

Hmmm...this is day 2, Joan. I had to cave on the movie for work reasons and they're going with my mom tomorrow. So we're probably looking at next week before they notice if they're like Sean!! Well, we'll see what happens I guess!

Yeah, I guess technically we could make sure we're watching them at all times, but... Well, do I really need to explain why that's just a crazy idea?

Seriously! :lol: Do you know I actually know people who dont let their children out of their sight? :heee: You should have seen my jaw hit the floor when one of my friends told me that.