The second I feel like I’ve got a category of motherhood down, I get thrown through a loop. Either our schedule changes or my daughter hits a new phase. Motherhood is an ever-changing journey.
However, I do feel like I’ve consistently had the cleanup category just short of mastered.
I realized early on that how my house looks has a huge impact on my mood and patience. I care about my home feeling like a refuge, not a place where I see a huge to-do list the second I walk in the door. On the same note, I want to spend more time being home, not cleaning my home. We’ve gotten pretty good with efficiency around here. Here’s how:
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Toy Rotation
I made a small play area in the middle of our house. I keep a handful of toys there and change out what is there every day or two. Sometimes, I change it out twice a day on the weekends, when we’re home more. This eliminates the possibility of having our living room floor turn into a sea of toys because there is only a small amount available. I usually rotate out the following:
- One set of blocks or building toy set (something “dump-able”)
- Puzzle
- One or two miscellaneous toys
- A few interactive books
Numerous studies have been done to prove that toddlers play better when they only have a handful of options. They are less like to get overstimulated, treasure the toys they are playing with more, and spend more time playing and less choosing when they have a limited number of choices.
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Pick-up habits
We pick up toys anytime we’re about to leave the house, take a nap, go to bed, go play outside, or play with a different set of toys. I never believed in the power of habits more than the first time I tried to leave the house without cleaning up. I told my daughter we needed to get in Mommy’s car, then she started singing the clean up song.
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Learning to clean
Toddlers are plenty capable of learning to throw away their own trash and put their dishes in the sink. More importantly, I feel teaching my daughter how to do these things shows her that the trash and dirty dishes on the table don’t disappear on their own.
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Loosen up
For a while, I would watch my daughter make a mess without thinking about anything more than what cleanup was going to entail. I’ve had to throttle back and learn to let her make her messes. However, I always get her to help with cleaning up.
For example, I let her splash as much water out of the bathtub as she wants, but I hand her a towel to help me dry it all up when bath time is over.
