Once, I entered my living room and everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING, was in its place. Stuffed animals in their basket, legos in their box, puzzles on the shelf.. even the play kitchen was all tidy. I was so happy I was about to cry.
Then my husband snored and I woke up, I felt like crying even more! Why can’t this be a reality??
Actually, it can! (Surprise!)
Toddlers love to put things in baskets, bags, boxes, you name it. One of the best ways to get your toddler to (help) tidy up, is making it a game. But you really need to set an example. I’m sure you have noticed your kid doing exactly as you do, so when it comes to tidying up, if they see you do it (no cheating and doing it after they go to bed!), chances are, they will do it with you.
Singing a tidy up song and giving them a heads up that play time is over is another good strategy that I found works really well, both at school and at home. Children are often in their zone and can be a little thrown off by the sudden stop of play time. One other useful thing to do, is to play or sing a specific song 5 minutes before children need to tidy up, that gives them time to finish their play and get in the tidying up “zone”.
What also works really well is labeling where every item goes. You can take a picture of the toy and stick it where it belongs, or have your children (older siblings or dad!) do a drawing of every item. This really helps them remember where things belong and it develops their cognitive skills as they need to make the object correspond to the right place (no more spending money on match the picture games!)
Create a routine and start small: Decide together when is tidy up time, do it at least twice a day to create the habit and avoid having too big of a mess to tidy up in the evening. Make it simple, at first the task can be to put some toys in a basket and later, put the puzzles and the books on the shelf.
Be patient, they are still learning how the world works and they don’t really care that things are a mess. It is a process and it will take time. Encourage and give positive feedback for a job well done!