Teaching good cleaning habits?

[Emerald Orchid]

When Z plays, a tornado hits our small house, there are toys scattered in every room. How can I teach him to pick up after himself? Right now, at the end of the day, I ask him to help me pick up the toys and take them to his room and this has been pretty successful. But I'd like to teach picking up as he is done playing with a toy throughout the day. Ideas?

[Proverbs31]

You could do a 5-minute cleanup morning, afternoon, and night. But he'll need you working with him and small specific tasks (for example, please put this pile of Legos into the red bin).

You could have him put away what he's done with before getting out the next thing throughout the day (although not too strictly; I think it's important to allow combining toys too). For example, when ds asks me to read him a book, I have him put the one we just finished away before reading the next one he brings.

I think 2 is a really good age to be working on this and making it a habit. :hug Ds enjoys helping pick up, and I'm a lot more relaxed about the "quality" of the pickup and time involved (much faster to do it myself) than I used to be. With dd it is still such a struggle; some of that might be personality or stage, but I suspect a good part of the difficulty is how we didn't expect much picking up till she was older.

[Aerynne]

I think you just have to stay on top of it and remind him when it looks like he's done playing with something to put it away. I try and sometimes do better than others. If I miss it a bunch, we also clean up before we go anywhere, before we eat anything, before their Dad gets home, before naps, before we start a project, or whenever else I notice the room needs it. Also I try not to have too many toys available at a time so it doesn't get too crazy, especially with a two-year-old. Ds has only 2 stuffed animals in his room (no other toys). Dd keeps her legos in her room (in a neat box) and a few stuffed animals. Otherwise all toys go in the playroom. And they stay in the playroom at all times- at least that's the idea. We are working on it. Our playroom is centrally-located, though, so when they're in there, they can hear and see me working in the kitchen, doing laundry, etc.

[2Cor1:8-10]

I try to say things like "your truck lives in this basket, we need to put him back in his home". DS (2.5) is getting the idea that we get things out to play with but at some point they have to go back to their 'home'.

[Barefoot Bookworm]

I sit on the floor with them and direct them on which tub to put the toys into. My 15 month old easily picks the toys up as long as I'm there to help.

[joy]

I try to do some clean-up before moving on to another fun thing. "Before we XYZ, we need to get this stuff put away. Come on." and then prod him to help tidy up. If he has a sense that something good is going to happen next, even if it is just a really good snack, then he will help put things away in order to get to it. I do need to help and give instructions along the way still.