Developing the Habit of Picking Up Behind Yourself

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool


One key to my ability to do my Weekly Home Blessings quickly is that my house is picked up when I start. Picking up begins with you. You need to model picking up behind yourself. Then you need to ask your children to pick behind themselves. Add it to your routines.
If you use something, put it away when you are done. If you work on a project, put things away. Don’t leave them out for days or months. If your children do craft projects, have them clean up afterwards. Don’t let them move to the next thing until they pick up the area.
If you are spending an hour picking up the floors before you can vacuum or sweep, you need to declutter and find a home for each of the things you are moving.
If you have small children, I understand that they play and have toys out a lot. Have a toy pick up times in the morning, afternoon, and evening. You can play a quick game with them to motivate them to pick up. If they have bins to put their toys in, teach them to use them. If they have too many toys for you to store, you need to declutter.
Limit how many toys they have out at once. If they play with toys with small pieces, have them play in certain areas of the house.
When we go on vacation, we take very few toys, and my children are always fine. Remember this for your own home. They can be just as happy and creative with fewer toys.
My house stays in much better shape since we instituted regular pick up times and have fewer toys.

Your Zone Mission today is to declutter and wipe the bathroom counters and shine the sink.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash sheets.
My menu plan for Monday is chicken and salad. (I will be working through my freezer this month. It will be interesting!)
Have a great day!

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About Tami

Tami Fox is a homeschool mom of 6, who in age from 26 to 11. She and her husband have homeschooled for 17 years and have graduated three of their children from their homeschool. They are currently homeschooling 3 boys who are in grades 11, 9, and 6. They use hands-on learning and unit studies to ignite the fire of learning in their children. Tami is a homeschool author and conference speaker. You can contact her by email at Tami@TamiFox.com. Buy her book, Giving Your Children Wings at https://tamifox.net/giving-your-children-wings/.

Comments

Developing the Habit of Picking Up Behind Yourself — 1 Comment

  1. Thank you for that wise reminder! This has been on my mind lately as I fight to not let this house drive me crazy! My kids play with about 10% of their toys right now, if that. The baby toy box is relatively untouched. All the Christmas presents that were “needed” are now dusty and forgotten. Toys of choice are rocks, sticks and whatever bug can be found and caught:) Oh and art supplies. I’m on a decluttering mission and this year’s Christmas toys are going to look a little different! :) The hard part is helping kids part with toys…but I think I’m going to just set them aside in a bin and if no one asks about them for a couple months then they go. Maybe I’ll add the “go” date to my calendar for some accountability, so my basement doesn’t become toy storage.

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