Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!

I have been battling with Emma all week about picking up her toys. She USED to be pretty good about cleaning up. She sings "Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!" But the past few weeks have been awful. She comes up with a ton of excuses on why she can't clean up. Some of her "gems":

"I'm tired, I need to take a nap"
"It's not flair (fair) that I have to clean up my toys"
"I don't wanna clean up, Mommy"
"I can't pick up my toys"

and her favorite...

"I NEED HAY- ELP!" (help)
Lord, if I hear that ONE more time....

I've instituted a clean up time everyday, I've threatened to throw everything not cleaned up in the trash, I've actually thrown toys away, put her in time-out...what do I do? How do you get your toddler to clean up their room? What tips do you have?

Today, I'd had enough and just decided to do it myself, while Em was a MDO.

This is AFTER I'd worked on it for a little while...

While cleaning, I realized that there was one thing about Em's room that had been bothering me. Her kitchen. Even when the rest of her toys are put away, the kitchen toys are just thrown on the kitchen and messy looking. Then a light bulb when off!

I had a couple of fabric storage boxes left over from my craft closet project. So I put them to use!

Now the play food and dishes have their own home! And everything can be hidden out of sight!

I'm telling you, once you get started organizing, you see places to organize everywhere!
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