Thursday, September 24, 2009

I can't believe I didn't think of this before

My house is usually messy. Toys everywhere. I get so sick of picking up and begging people to pick up after themselves. I started having to be more scheduled with my days and Monday is now my cleaning/laundry day (actually always was) and it is the only day to get it done. If it doesn't get done that day, it most likely won't get done at all.

Last Monday, the first day of my new schedule, I told the kids to pick up all their toys while I was in the shower. It happened to be at the end of the day since I was busy cleaning. I let them know if I came down after my shower and it was still a mess there would be NO TV the next day. This is something that is actually kind of a punishment for me too and I really didn't want to do it. Since my kids don't nap, it gives me a little break in the afternoon. Well, I came downstairs after my shower and although it was picked up some it was not completely clean. As much as I hated to do it I had to enforce what I said. I even wrote "NO TV TUESDAY" on my marker board so I wouldn't forget (not that I'm forgetful or anything).

Let me tell you, since then, my house has had the cleanest week that it has ever seen in over 5 years. If I tell them to clean up, it gets done! Sometimes I don't even have to tell them, they just do it. They actually have conversations in the morning about what they are going to play with because they don't want too big of a mess to clean up.

I'm hoping I never have to pick up another toy again!

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