Adjustments: Clean Up Time

One of the lessons I've been trying to teach my children is the value of cleaning up.  It's a challenge, of course.  Who really wants to clean up?  It's not fun.  It means you've got to stop having fun to do it, but it's necessary.  A clean home is a happy home, or so I'm told.

The hardest part of teaching my children to clean up after themselves is my three-year old.  He wants to spend all his time playing and doesn't particularly care if his room is a mess.  He seems to like it better that way.  His sister fights so much on cleaning that he doesn't seem to think it's of any value.  After all, aren't making messes where all the fun is?  It's hard to explain to a three-year-old that cleaning up means there's more room to play, and that he'll know exactly where everything is when he wants to play with it.

It's also more of a challenge because there isn't really a place set up for my oldest son's toys right now.  The toys in his room right now are all girl's toys.  We've got to search through where his toys are packed up in the garage and see which ones will make it to his room, which ones will be saved for the youngest when he gets older, and which ones are ready to move on.  It often means he gets into everyone else's toys for a lack of his own, which means the whole house can quickly become a mess.

Where the oldest is concerned, I understand her point.  With two other girls in the house that she plays with all the time, it's hard to tell which mess belongs to who.  They all complain that they didn't make the mess, and they all complain they're the ones doing all the work.  It can easily get frustrating, so it's almost easier not to make anyone clean at all.  Of course, in the end the girls usually work it out, but it's something that's going to take getting used to.

For me, there are a lot of lessons in the new dynamics of clean up time.  These new challenges have pointed out the flaws in my organizational system.  It's been a chance to realize that it's taking me much longer to settle in than I realized.  I've got a lot to work on.  It's also been a reminder that I need to lead by example with my children.  I need to get organized in my own room, get it clean and orderly.  My children have more reason to do it if they see me doing it.  On top of that, I won't constantly be looking for things I've misplaced just like they do!

We're making progress when it comes to cleaning up.  It's so much more of a challenge it used to be.  When we lived on our own I always knew who was responsible for what mess and always had things organized they way I liked it.  It takes time to get used to a larger family, more shared space, and all the complications that come with it.  Overall, I'm enjoying the changes, but there's just so much left to work on.