Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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!
This posts is linked to... Clean Mama blog

5 comments:

  1. oh my gosh...you are one of the only blogs I read really often and I've NEVER noticed that we have the same layout. lol Did you change it or am I just that out of it???

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    1. Ha! I hadn't noticed either! I just changed mine recently! I change it with the seasons/ holidays.

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  2. I love her little kitchen. We have to get Haley a bigger one and I love the old fashion pink kitchens. :) I have the same issue in my house. Toys all over make me CRAZY!!!! I love my daughter, but her messes make me want to scream sometimes. It feels like I'm always picking up the same toys 50 times a day. I get so frustrated. So when you figure out how to get them to clean and stay clean....let me know! Nice post. I enjoy reading your blog. I asked you one but I'm not sure if I missed it...what state are you from? sometimes I read them and it sounds like you may be from the south but I'm not sure if I'm way off.

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  3. I was born in Texas and grew up there until I was 9. We moved to SD and I lived there until I was 18, but I went back and forth to Texas all the time. Still do! My parents are in Texas along with my oldest sister and her husband. I have lots of family still there. My parents and sister live in Killeen.

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