How to I Get My Kids to Pick Up!?!?

I baged up the stuff and took it out for the trash (or so they thouht). They now pick up when told not off there own backs , and if they still don't I use that threat and they soon move.

I hear ya! What I finally had to do and it does seem to work is tell my kids that if I have to pick up the toys, I am doing it with a garbage bag. Nothing really happened until I got a garbage bag and started throwing the toys in. It's amazing how fast they are willing to pick up their toys when they think they will go into the garbage. I also tried taking toys away and offering to help and that didn't work either. Anytime they don't pick up now after I have asked them more than enough times to do so, I get the garbage bag and they are pretty quick to pick up all their toys.

I agree with making it fun and a game and doing it with them until it becomes routine. This way, you're teaching them. Punishing them still doesn't give them the skills to do it. To twist a saying, teach a man to fish, don't throw away his boat.

One idea is to have one person be the "director" and he leads in what tasks need to be done. (trade off) To start, you can break down the cleanup into individual and identified tasks. Okay, everyone pick up the blocks. Use an announcer voice, do it while dancing, spice it up to get it done.

Now your kids will remember mom joking with them while they all pitched in to clean up instead of a frustrated nagging mom that they tormented by not helping.

Sometimes I do the X doesn't happen until the toys are cleaned. It's not a punishment, but rather a set chain of events. Also, I do my part by keeping the toys to a manageable amount and don't let the cleanup become an overwhelming thing.

I put 90% of their stuff into the basement, until I can go through it to give as donations. They can mess what they want downstairs. As for their toyroom, this is a new thing that's working for us. (age 6 & 4). We give out tickets (like the carnival ride ones- from the $1 store). Each toy is 1 ticket. My kids run and see who can pick up the most. Then they have them turn in the tickets for a piece of candy, gum, money something they don't get everyday. You can increase the ticket # over time. Such as a piece of gum is worth 10 tickets. In the beginning, get them really fired up. Also, it's great with counting. Good luck.

ok I have a couple of things I do:
1. I tell them to pick up 10 toys and put them away I never say clean the whole room they are SO overwhelmed by it, after they clean 10 then I say pick up 7 more, then 5 more then 4 more and so on and so on until it it clean.
2. Simon sayes pick up the ball and put it in the purple basket in your closet
3. If they refuse the games then I tell them to pick up each item and tell them where to put it, yes I realize at this point I might as well do it my self but they will never learn where things go.
4. I also have a chart with stars on it that earn towards stuff (1 on 1 time with parent of choice, $ towards them going to store and shop, ect)
5. If all else fails I go in w/ garbage bag and pick up everything. I do not actually throw it out I hid it so they think it did, and watch how they keep the room clean from that point on if the have earned it I slowly replace those in the back back into the toy box slowly and with out them seeing it.

Good Luck

Don't give them the option.

There are several different ways depending on their age. Ours are 2 & 4. I am VERY particular about keeping things organized, so I recognize that either my husband or I need to be there to help. I'm OK with that, but they have to help. My son (4) is MUCH better than our daughter (2).

So, if they're not helping, we take away what they have and repeat that they need to clean up "Barbies" (insert the name of the toy in the quotes). They are not allowed to move onto the next thing (outside, shows, dinner, etc). They have no option - house rules.

I'm admittedly more authoritative than most parents. I am their mother first, their friend/playmate second. But, when I asked my 4 year-old about how I mother the other day, he said it was "perfect", so for our family, I guess it is. I get greeted home every evening with huge hugs and big smiles.

Make it fun and a game and do it with them until it becomes routine. Let's see who can be the first to put your toys in the bin - 1,2,3 let's go. Depending on the age of your children, it goes from one ear to the other with small children and you just have to keep repeating and continue doing what you do, provide rewards/consequences as appropriate.

I tell my 2 yr old and 4 yr old if they don't pick up their toys then the toys will go to the trash man or I will vacuum them up(they are both afraid of my vacuum). Within minutes they are cleaning up their mess.

At my house the toys have to be picked up before anyone eats lunch, snack, or supper. If there are toys on the floor there is no food on the table.

Set a timer for a reasonable amount of time... whatever is not picked up when the timer goes off gets taken away for X number of days. If everything is picked up when it goes off, do something special (park, treat, tv show, board game, etc.) It's been a constant battle in my house too and this seemed to work best. "Beating" the timer was like a game!

How old are they....? If they are very young, you put toys in their hands and make them put them where you want them...........if they are old enough to know what to do, you stand them in the corner, take away privileges, or something they like until they do what you ask.

You need to show them that when you speak, it's for a reason....and they need to listen..........do they listen if you tell them a car is coming and to stop? Same thing, sort of.........

Be consistent, and make your point. They will figure it out.

Maybe you need to let them sit.....if they can't do what they are told, then you don't let them do anything.......until they can do as they are told........don't make it so hard.......this applies to everything you tell them..........

Hang in there.

I'm going to follow your responses. I have the same problem. Told my daughter yesterday that she worse than a boy!!! At 13 you'd think she be better!!!

My grandson, now 4.5, has a household rule that the previous activity must be picked up before a new one comes out. It works pretty well.

Also, be aware that attitude is everything. If picking up is made to sound like a nasty chore, or worse yet, a punishment, or if it leads to punishment, or if there's a great deal of parental irritation or impatience about it, kids will not ever WANT to do it. And will probably become more resistant over time.

But if it's handled cheerfully, as the final step in a game or project, if parental directions are made with a kind tone of voice, if the job is broken up into "achievable bits" for younger children, if parents pitch in as if that's the most natural thing in the world to do, if you sing the pick-up song, or make up your own silly song or dance while doing the job, if you turn the task into a race or a game, and if you stop to admire how great the space looks afterward, kids will GRADUALLY come to see it as a positive experience. My grandson already simply picks up his own things, once in awhile, without being asked.

Get a big plastic garbage bag and tell them that everything that isn't picked up within 15 minutes is going in the bag and getting hidden until they've earned it back. And then FOLLOW THROUGH!! Put the bag somewhere that they can see it but can't reach it. Let them earn their toys back with extra chores.

K.,

I am not sure how old your kids are, but I have a few ideas that might work for different ages.

one, put on a fast paced fun song, like twist and shout, by the beatles, and tell everyone they need to pick up and put away while the song is still playing and lets see how much we can put away while the song is playing.

two, ask one of them to put away only red toys and the other blue toys

three, get a laundry basket and keep putting toys in it that they don't put away and say anything that is not picked up and I pick up I will put in the laundry basket. At the end of the day you can show them all the toys that were are in the laundry basket and say isn't this sad that this toys didn't get put back where they are suppose to go? Maybe we(yes, we, this is how you teach children) could take just a few minutes and put them away. Have them pick a few and have them put them away.

four, have them pick out three to five toys that our their favorites and put everything else in a rubbermaid container or in garbage sacks and let me earn their toys back by putting away the toys they picked out to keep.

Of course, most of these will not work over night and one trick of the trade may work in one household by not another. Just pick one thing you want to do and try not to let the mess drive you crazy, because that is what they are trying to do. Sometimes there are just too many toys and it is overwhelming for adults and children. I rotate toys in and out all the time because if I put them all out our house would be a big mess all the time. You could even assign them plastic boxes and put toys in and say you need to put those toys back before you, get something else out, watch tv, eat, whatever is coming next. Picking up toys in never fun or easy, we moms now that because we feel the same about housework, laundry, etc, it never ends.

You could always just go back to only one thing out at a time rule.

Good luck! Let us know what worked for you.

Reward charts lose novelty fast (mine last only about a week!)

Try getting a cute little basket or bucket and put each person's name on theirs. Set them on a bench by the door or wherever. Then, when it's clean-up time, they all grab their buckets and fill them up with their things. Make it like a game like Easter egg hunting or something. Use the idea below and give them their ticket when they are done:

A friend suggested this reward idea to me and she said it really works and comes suggested from a childhood psychologist:

"We purchased a roll of tickets (big old roll of raffle tickets) and a clear jar for each kiddo. The k...ids get tickets for completing chores and for anything we want to reinforce such as good behavior without being asked. We try very hard to use the tickets to reinforce behavior and very rarely take tickets away. In our house, tickets = .25 each so they save them up for video games, candy, toys, special toys, etc. It's taught the kids about money management and making good choices also so that's been an added bonus. "

Also, here are some good reward chart ideas:
http://busylizzybows.blogspot.com/2010/06/rewardbehavior-...