Do you ever despair and think your child will never get the hang of helping out and tidying up? Be assured this is perfectly normal! At the end of a long day the last thing you want to do is be on their case about putting everything away, as you both end up feeling cross and tired.

So here are a few ideas to make the whole thing into more of a game. It’s good if you can start this before the dinner preparation gets underway because as usual, things tend to go more smoothly if you’re not rushed and stressed.

• bthe tidy up will take and set the kitchen timer and see if you can tidy up before it goes off – a great one for children who love the idea of racing the clock.
• Cut a two litre plastic milk bottle in half (keeping the handle section) to make a scoop for small toys like Lego, cars and animals.
• Tell your child you’re going to put away three things. When you have finished, see if they can work out what you put away. Then let your child have a turn and see if you can spot what they put away.
• Put pictures of toys on boxes or containers to show what lives where. Get the kids to match the item to the box.
• Sing your favourite song together as you tidy up. Guess how many times you will have to sing it before you’re finished – will it be a four song day or a ten song day?
• For tidying soft toys try putting the box in the middle of the room then each time someone throws a toy into the box they score a ‘goal’. Move the box further away over time to make it harder.
• Get your children to find all the red toys and put them away, then work though the different colours. Alternatively do this with types of toys, like all the cards, blocks, dolls etc. Or if there are clothes everywhere or clean washing that needs to be put away, find all the socks first and so on.
• Give your child a job like picking up all their cars and challenge them to do it faster than you can do something like empty the dishwasher or put away the washing.
• Get a box for yourself and your child. Walk around the mess and tell them what you want to ‘buy’ and then put it in your box. Let your child have a turn and see what they want to ‘buy’.
• Pretend to be a digger with your child and scoop up toys to put them away.
• Show your child how to stack books with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top.  You can make some great towers!
• Tell your child how hard ants or bees work. Pretend to be ants or bees with them, working fast to get the place tidied up.
• Star charts can be effective. For every day you have a quick and trouble free tidy up, they get a sticker and work towards a suitable reward.

To make life easier try to have large containers for groups of toys. For example a box for all Lego, another one for cars, another one for dolls and soft toys, one for the trainset, a big one for dress-ups, another one for puzzles (and miscellaneous puzzle pieces!) and a smaller one for pens and pencils. If you’re stuck for space, stackable containers or ones on wheels that roll under beds make life a lot easier.

If it become part of your daily routine, tidying up becomes less of an issue. Most kindies and childcare centres have ‘tidy up time’ and the tasks are often rotated between different children. So by making ‘tidy up time’ around the same time every day at home it becomes just one of those things you do, instead of a big deal.

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