Today, while reading posts at “I’m An Organizing Junkie“, I found a great post about getting your kids to help with cleaning up around the house! You can read it here: “We Are Not Our Childrens’ Slaves“.
I was a stay-at-home-Mom for 10 years, up until last August. And, I did everything for my kids. In fact, even now that I’m working part-time outside of the home, I still do basically everything for my kids. They don’t have assigned chores, and I even clean their rooms for them!
But, it’s got to stop! I am not their slave! LOL.
I’ve racked my brain, over and over, trying to come up with a proper way to get my children to help me clean up, especially in their own rooms. It takes me at least 2 hours, usually, to do ONE of their bedrooms! And, that’s ridiculous. They’re 11 and 8.5 years old, so they should be able to do it themselves.
I’ve bought bins, and labelled them… thinking this would make it so simple for things to be put away. Nope. They say, “I don’t know where anything goes, Mom!” Ha! Yeah right!
And, I’ve told them, over and over again, that if they would put their toys away right after they are done playing with them — and before getting out something new to play with — their rooms would end up looking like they do, and cleaning would be SO much easier! But, this is a waste of my breath, as they never do it.
Lastly, I’ve tried sitting in their rooms and “directing” them where to put things, but my daughter (the 8.5 yr old) just sits on the floor and cries, saying she “can’t” do it.
The one smart thing I did do, recently, was to buy some of those plastic drawer units — one for my daughter’s crafts, and one for my son’s legos & such. These have been a HUGE help! No more lost scissors, or cluttered dresser-tops!
But, I’m still at a loss for how to get my kids to cooperate in cleaning up their rooms. I’ve tried FLYLady’s tactics, of creating a chore chart, and labelling “zones”. That worked for a bit, but the kids got tired of that quickly and stopped doing it. And, I can’t really do “rewards” of stuff, as we just don’t have the money for that sort of thing. Yes, rewards of “time with Mom” kind of work… but only to an extent, as I have work and other obligations, too. So, what to do?
If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear ‘em! My kids need to learn to do these things themselves, so that when they are out on their own, they’ll be able to keep things tidy and organized better than their mom does. 
I'm a married, Christian mother of 2, working part-time as a cashier.
Getting our kids on board the organizing train is a tough one for sure and can definitely be frustrating. Don’t give up though, even if you aren’t seeing results now one day down the line you just might. Here is another post I wrote for the Tip Junkie site that might be helpful:
http://tipjunkie.blogspot.com/2009/01/organizing-your-childs-room-is-process.html
Hang in there!