Like I said before, children inhabit my house. My kids have more than enough to play with at any given moment, as they not only have their own toys but the daycare toys at their disposal. And then Christmas came along and they got even more stuff! Because they have SO much stuff at their disposal to play with all day long, they tend to play with one toy/group of toys and then move on without ever completely picking up the first toy. For instance they may play with the legos for a while and then want to play with the kitchen toys. They get most of the legos put away but the remaining 10 legos scatter around the room. Then when they want to quit the kitchen toys and move on to Little People, you can put money on the fact that there will be random plates of toy food around the house where they had started feeding a babydoll or teddy bear. My point is that no matter how many clean up times we have during the day there will always be random toys pushed to the edges of the rooms, under the couches, on the table, and in the wrong bins. I feel like I'm cleaning up after them all the time, even when they pitch in and help, there is so much to clean up all the time! Thankfully because there are babies in the house I'm much more picky about the littlest toys getting picked up, so the kids do a pretty good job about those.
I need to organize this madness, I need to get more bins (with lids) or something and put pictures of the toys back on the bins I have (many have been picked off of the bins over the last couple years), and figure out something better to do with the kids art supplies. The art supplies are stored in no less than 5 different places.... efficient? NO! Does this make it easy for them to find what they want and put it away in the correct place? No.
I also need to get these kids some jobs around the house. We try to do chore charts and things like that from time to time but it never sticks, my fault more than it is the kids fault. Maybe someone can be in charge of sweeping for the day (*cringe*), someone else in charge of clearing the lunch table after lunch (they all scrape their own plates though and put them in the sink). But then what? Can I have someone be in charge of warming up my coffee? changing the poopy diapers? probably not, but I could use some ideas. I made "getting organized" a New Years resolution a few years ago, giving myself a whole year to do it.... didn't happen, and I haven't made a New Years resolution since, but I need to change some things around here none the less. Some serious organizing needs doing in my life, my brain will feel so much more relaxed when it happens.
Ideas are greatly appreciated!!
My Mother’s House
3 years ago
2 comments:
Oooo I think it's working! And C is squeeling with delight as well!!
Hi! Welcome to the blogging world! I discovered your site from the comment you left on Pioneer Woman's site. I work with Severely Handicapped high school students. Our class looks more like a home setting than a classroom, with a full kitchen, laundry facilities, etc. One of the things we do, is that certain things happen in certain places. For example, we ONLY eat sitting down at the kitchen table, with a place mat and appropriate plates, cups, and silverware. If we have a student that tends to throw, they will get a paper plate and plastic cup, but other wise, everybody gets the real thing. The library/chillout spot is where the kids read, watch a reward movie, or listen to music or books on tape. It is a somewhat enclosed area (using waist high bookcases) with a recliner, bean bags, blankies, pillows, etc. It seems to work well for us, and keeps the mess confined to a certain area. At the end of the day, kids and staff all clean up before it's time to go home. The kids have simple jobs such as emptying the garbage, picking up rugs, vacuuming, etc. They do the same job every afternoon. Oh, and they have morning jobs, too. Hope this helps!
~~Lori at beyonddirtmycreativejourney.blogspot.com/
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