Do you have messy kids?

How old is he? It took me along time to realize that those little knockers don't see a messy room. When we walk in a room and see where the 'childfront' has moved through. We see a mess, disorder, disaster and ourselves having to pick up the same junk for the umpteenth time. I think we have to just teach them along and along to pick up after themselves and realize this is going to be a process that we will have to resign ourselves too. We will have to do it over and over again everyday. One thing you could do if he's old enough to understand, is with hold something from him until he gets his chore done. 'If you want a popsicle, put all that stuff back in the box' Here is something I did with my last child. First I went through all his toys and threw away everything that was broke or missing parts. I didn't care how fond he was of the old tire off the tonka truck, I tossed it out. Then I divided what was left into three different boxes. I gave him one box of toys. After a week, I put that box away and gave him the next box, the next week I did it all over again. His interest was renewed each time he got back a another set of toys he hadn't seen in a while. He enjoyed the toys better, and I had less to make him pick up. Also, I would pick up different stuff at the Dollar Store and throw in the different boxes. I would also toss out something old when I did that. He would instantly spy the something new and play with it for a longer period of time.

Depends on age, I guess. To get toys around the house cleaned up, it just needs to be a nightly part of the bedtime routine to do a 5-minute pick up. Even if they don't get them all picked up at least the idea is being instilled in their mind. Set the timer, kids get a kick out of racing against the timer, and also pick up a few yourself so he doesn't feel like he is doing it all by himself. When my boys were younger, I would say "clean your room" and they wouldn't know where to start. It was too overwhelming. So, like you, I tried the games...pick up five things, pick up all the red things, etc. And it works for a short time...not usually long enough to get the toys all picked up. Until I started doing a modified version. I would say (and not in a play voice) to pick up all the cars. Then they would have to pick up all the dinosaurs. On and on. At first, I would have them pick up one set of things while I picked up a different category (and I always picked up stuff they had fewer of...lol). When they were around 6 I no longer had to help. But I still did the categories- pick up cars, dinosaurs. Now, at 7, they clean their rooms all by themselves. And they tend do still do it by category. (Though I have also noticed they have started putting things away as they're done playing with it. I also noticed they have always preferred to have sorted bins to put their toys in. We had bins when they were younger, but they weren't labeled and the only one they did well was the cars...because it was special car shaped bin...but the rest were unlabeled. So, I would have to say "put the dinosaurs in this one", etc. Their bins now are all labeled. I think they would have done much better on their own long ago had I labeled bins- using pictures before they could read. So, you could try that, too...label them and then show him (if he can't read) for a few days what goes into each one. One of my boys is a bit of a neat-freak...the other one, not so much. They share a room and sort of each have their own side...so one half is almost always military-inspection ready...and then theres the other half...lol- even when he does clean it up he does it sloppily...lol I made them go through their toys every three months or so, too, and get rid of ones they'd outgrown, didn't play with anymore, or were broken. They would do a "keep, sell, toss" thing like on Clean Sweep, lol. It kept the amount of toys down to a reasonable level and it made a huge difference after I started doing that. Good luck.

My kids are terribly messy! As I clean-up they seem to go back and make the same messes! I can't figure out how to stop them!

I guess this all depends on the age really - kids are always going to be messy & i've found that it's usually around 4 that they come to realise they have to tidy up when you tell them to. My daughter is 2 & her next closest cousins are 3 & none of them can do it on their own when asked - my daughter will help if she sees you doing it, which is a good thing but i am not expecting her to be able to tidy on command for another 1 or 2 years. Mum always said she had a basket of toys in the lounge & she'd just tidy up after us when we were in bed but by that stage i guess i helped some since i was almost 4 before my sister came along. My 5 year old niece will tidy up but it takes a lot of effort to get her to start, whereas my 4 year old niece will only need to be asked once so it will also depend on the child & maybe how stubborn or how they behave (the 5 year old never listens to anyone anyway). It shouldn't take too long but if your child is too young then it might just take a little longer to get them in to the tidying habit - good luck though!