Toy Control

I've done a few posts about how we control toy levels in the house and the criteria for toys comming into the house - but there is another part of toy wrangling that needs a little tweaking here.

I walked into the bedroom last night to put the kids to bed after they "cleaned" there room. Notice those little "" marks? They mean that they weren't cleaning. They were pretending they were cleaning, but they weren't. Billy was sitting on a pile of books reading a book, Erin was standing in the middle of the room with a toy in her hand "deciding" where to put it - apparently she'd been doing that for the whole twenty minutes she'd been in there. The toy actually has a place where it lives, but apparently she forgot that. I had specifically told her to pick up the tea set that was strewn accross the rug, but she forgot that too. Yes, she is that vague, she inherited it from me!

So in the interests of Mummy's sanity, there is a new rule. Anything on the floor when I put everyone to bed, gets put in THE BOX (cue appropriate scary music). If I go in and there is nothing on the floor, they each get to choose something from the box.

I figure if they end up with NO toys in their room, they won't be able to make a mess! Obviously, we have not been consistant with tidying up and now we are reaping the consequences. We will do a big tidy up today to remind them what tidy looks like, then they will be responsible for their own stuff. I don't do nagging, I forget to do it and it all falls apart anyway. I can do consequences!

I'll let you know how it goes.