How long would it take you to clean up this room? (If it sways your answer there are legos and knex pieces mixed together all over the floor...)
It would take:
- Under 1 hour to clean it
- 1-3 hours to clean it
- All day and I’d cry
- Nope. Just no...I can’t even imagine cleaning that
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And my answer is:
Time stamp to time stamp: 1 hour, 40 minutes. With some distractions (made a coffee, chatted with a friend, got lost on Facebook, hubby/child came back inside and wanted snacks, etc). Total actual cleaning time, under 1 hour, with some help from a 6 year old for second half.
How?!? You may ask...
Every toy in our house has a spot. Most toys have buckets, baskets, or bins. We pick the “big"/easy items up first (stuffed animals, clothes, pillows, chairs, etc). Then everything else gets pushed to the middle of the room. The bins get lined up along the wall. Everything gets sorted into its bin or into a separate pile if it doesn’t have an easily moveable bin. Then the bins get put away and the remaining piles get raced to their proper spots.
It is not developmentally appropriate for young children to clean this level of mess up alone. Even older children (and adults!) will likely need significant support or cues to successfully manage cleaning this mess.
How do the children help?
Children can be given chunked tasks one at a time. (Find all the dolls and put them in this bin. Put all the clothes in this basket. Find all the red blocks.)
Children can race piles you've sorted to the right basket.
TA DAH!
How do you store your toys? How do you clean?