Our 10 Minute Clean Ups

I said I would share my little secret on how I get the kids to help clean up - without me begging, yelling and screaming to motivate them - so here you go...

Let's pretend they're in the basement and they are all finished up playing.  Before they run off and mess up another room, I call all the little children back to the toys that were left out.

I say (with pure cheer!)  :),
"Ok, let's clean up!  I will help you. (I have no problem helping, guiding and teaching!)  Whatever is left out of it's home at the end of 10 minutes is being bagged up and donated to other children who can take care of their toys."

I set the timer.  We all quickly clean up as a team.  I'm not begging and whining and fuming because they're slow pokes, and it works beautifully!  If they whine, I ignore.  If they aren't each being productive, I will stop helping.

I don't set them up to fail.  When I set the timer for 10 minutes, I know it's possible to clean up the area in 10 minutes.  If there are a few areas, I will give them 10 minutes per area.  They've never had anything donated.

If they choose not to help, it's simple - go to your room, and I'm happy to do it.  But... they know what the result of that would be (I would start bagging it up at that point), so it's never happened.

Here's my conviction, "If you can't take care of your stuff, you need to give it to someone who can."