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Keeping a tidy and clean home can be tedious at best and with young children, a bit of a nightmare. Not only do you need eyes at the back of your head, but the front ones have this strange desire to want to close all the time, making it hard to keep the home tidy when the kids are throwing all their stuff every which way.
Toys, learning activities, clothes, and food. They’re all common items that are often found in the immediate vicinity of the children and any mom knows the dangers of leaving these unattended. Slips, trips, and falls are a very real danger as you skate across the kitchen floor on a meatball and toes are being stumped on video games all over the nation.
As trying as keeping the house tidy with children actually is, there are some proactive approaches you can try, and some of the best include:
Pick up as they go
Utilize storage
Make the kids do it
Although not always viable, actively monitoring what is going where and then tidying it up ad-hoc is an efficient way to reduce child mess while using any storage you might have to place toys and games in will make the home a little safer and it's never too early to instill some responsibility in the children by making them tidy up after themselves.
Prevent It Before It Happens
Understandably, parents are busy doing chores such as bed making, prepping meals for lunch and dinner, or going insane on the phone trying to get hold of a 24 Hour AC Repair company because one of the kids has dropped a toy into the fan. You may also be currently working from home which is all the more reason to stay on top of any messes and eventually hazards that the children are in the process of making.
While it might not be practical to hover over the children, just keeping an eye out for what they have been doing can go a long way in ensuring a tidy play area. It is a good idea to put away one activity when they are done with it since children can very quickly move from one thing to the next and before you know it there are toys everywhere.
There is Space Everywhere
A great way to reduce the disaster of a mess made by the kids’ toys and games is to find storage solutions that benefit your home. Many online retailers offer amazing storage solutions at reasonable prices and spaces in the home can accommodate shelving, boxes, and cupboards.
Cubby holes and hideaways, unused space, and under the stairs are great examples of unused space as well closets and even under the beds, which are usually just the right height to be able to slide a box full of toys underneath. You could also check out specially made toy boxes that are available in most toy stores.
Responsibility Now, Responsibility Then
As they develop the ability to walk and recognize commands, it isn’t unreasonable to presume to ask the kids to tidy up after themselves. This can be difficult since they probably just don’t want to do it but it will instill in them a sense of responsibility that can last a lifetime.
Teaching them to do this can also help them understand the value of an item and why they should look after possessions as well as respecting boundaries and their environment. More than 40,000 child accidents per year are caused by toys so having the kids pick up after themselves can also reduce potential injury since they generally don’t watch where they are going.
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