How to Teach Your Kids to Help Pick Up Their Toys

Tidying your house can be a drag. Add a few kids into the mix, and you have a tiresome endless cycle. Sound familiar? No matter how hard you try, kids can always find a way to skillfully disorganize the room that you just finished cleaning.

Getting your kids to lend a hand by picking up their toys can be a great help. This is something that my wife and I feel is very important to teach our son. The trick is teaching them to pick up after themselves. Here are some helpful tips to teach your kids to help pick up their toys.

Start Early and be Consistent. The most important thing is to start enforcing good habits when your kids are young. Between the ages of one and two is the perfect age to start. By then, they are old enough to get around on their own and they begin to do what they see other people doing. If they see you picking up the house, they will likely want to help too.

Consistency is also important. Designate a certain time for toys to be picked up. For example, you can have your kids help pick up toys before they go to bed every night or put bath toys away after bathing. That way, your kids will know what to expect and will be less likely to resist when they are told to begin cleaning up.

Designate a Place for Everything. While you are teaching your kids to pick up after themselves, you might as well teach organization. You can assign specific locations for each type of toy. You can start by labeling the shelves and bins where your children store their toys to let them know where to put specific items (Use pictures if they are not old enough to read).This will help to eliminate having all of your child's toys aimlessly piled into one toy chest. They will also be able to locate their toys quickly without tearing the entire play area apart looking for Mr. Snuggles.

Remove Distractions. This is one of the biggest hindrances to getting kids to pick up. My son finds it very difficult to focus on straightening up his play area if his favorites SpongeBob or Finding Nemo are on TV. Whether it is television, a game system, or that irresistible bowl of snacks, remove any distractions before the time comes to pick up toys.

Reward Them. Most parents assume that there is no need to reward a child because they did something that they were expected to do. No matter what we do in life, there is some sort of reward for tending to our obligations and priorities. We go to work so that we can have money, perform maintenance on our car so that it will run well, or exercise so that we can fit into a smaller pant size. Regardless of the task, there is always some sort of incentive for completing it. So, why should picking up toys be any different? There is nothing wrong with teaching your kids to work hard for something. My son will quickly pick up his toys when he is anxious to get a piece of chocolate or a handful of pocket change for his piggy bank. Also, remember to say thank you. Your kids will enjoy helping when they know it is appreciated.

Don't Stop There. Once you have established the habit of picking up toys, it is easy to add on other tasks. Our son knows that he has to put his clothes in the laundry hamper before he is allowed to take his morning bath. He also helps by putting empty soda cans and plastic bottles in the recycling bin under the kitchen sink.

Teaching kids to clean up their toys can be the first step to turning them into responsible helpers. Taking care of kids can be a lot of work. Fortunately if everyone helps, the task seems much smaller.