Manage the Boys’ Room – Part 1

Today was the monthly cleaning of the boys’ room.

My boys are expected to clean their room once every day in order to enjoy certain privileges. They don’t always do a great job. The pictures above are what it looked like when they came and told me they were done today.

Yeah.

I don’t understand why it bothers me so much when their room is messy. It is their room; I don’t live in it. But it really bothers me. I want them to like living in a clean space, and to clean up after themselves. (I am determined that my future daughters-in-law will love me for this). And for now, I think the best way to do that is to have them regularly clean their room.

It isn’t always this bad, but the longer it has been since I supervised the bedroom clean up, the worse it gets.

It used to be that every week I was having to help them because their room had gotten SO bad! But we have developed a system that makes it easier for them to keep their room clean on their own for longer, and helps me to relax and feel like their room is under control.

The boys’ room is where we keep their toys. The toys used to be within their reach, divided up into individual bins on a book shelf in their room. All they had to do was return the toys to the correct bin. When they were little and all the toys were big they could manage it. But as they got older, and the toys became more numerous and smaller (i.e. Legos), it got harder and harder and seemed more and more overwhelming to them. They would also get more and more spread throughout the house. (Have you ever stepped on a Lego in the middle of the night?!) Having a mess in their room is one thing, but all through the house is another. So we changed things.

Now everything is in boxes high up in their closet. The toys are sorted by category: Superhero Toys (aka. boys’ dress ups), Camping Toys, Thomas Trains, Legos, Cars, Duplos, and Wood Blocks. Each boy has a small box that contains any small miscellaneous things that are important to him.

They are allowed to have one box down at a time. When they agree on the toys they would like to play with, I pull that box down for them and they can play with it for as long as they like. When they are done with those toys and would like different ones, they put them back in the box and I place it back up in their closet and pull down what they want next.

When we first changed to this system I wanted all of the toy boxes to be uniform: i.e. clear plastic bins. That way they would stack nice and look nice and be Pinterest worthy. 🙂 But they were going to be in the boys’ room. And boxes and bins are ALWAYS used for playing. The boys play rough, so bins don’t usually last very long without cracks, or just being completely shattered.

So, I let go of my Pinterest expectations, and just made it functional and easily replaceable. We use bins we already have, diaper boxes, oatmeal boxes, and boxes that are sent home from Costco. Labels printed from our computer are taped onto the outside so that we know which box contains which toys. When one box begins to no longer look like a box, or to function like a box, we replace it, and tape a new label on the outside.

I love this method! Over time, a few toys don’t make it back into the box before it goes back up in the closet and they start to pile up. That’s when it’s time for me to help.

But generally my boys don’t feel as overwhelmed when it is time to cleanup because there are not that many toys out all at once. Clean up is usually only a few minutes instead of an all day battle. It requires little work on my part. I need to be available to get down toys, but I would so much rather get them down than have to put them away all the time.

How do you keep toys under control in your house? Please share ideas in the comments below.