What Is Your Clean Up Routine?

[ABCDaycareMN]

How and when do you clean up. What age do you start making kids responsible for cleaning up their messes? Do you help at all? Do you encourage like race to get done?

I have started my own kids as soon as they were getting toys out on their own. We clean up several times day and night. All toys get put away before bed.
Daycare kids think I'm crazy to clean up as much as I do. I see a big mess and I say time to clean up then you can play some more. It works. Always before an activity the house is cleaned... Lunch, nap, art, outside, before they go home....

I would love to do the one container eventually as finances see fit. Now I just have a toy box. And many tubs that are brought out for the group to play with. Like Thomas. Too many pieces to have more than one group out at a time.

Sorry for the ramble... ::

[Lianne]

We use my living room and the bedroom attached to the living room for playing but the toys are kept in the bedroom/playroom. I sit on the floor where I can reach the shelves, the toy kitchen and a couple other bins. The kids bring me the toys and I fire them into the right place. My kids are young, 18m-2y. The 2y old can now put most of the toys in the right place but it's hit amd miss with the 18m olds,

[AngiesCareXYZ]

I do the same thing. If there are toys on the floor that are not being played with or part of a play experience, then I ask who took the toy out. My older kids always tell who took it out. Then I tell the child that when we are done playing with a toy we need to put it back where we found it or put it back in it's home. And then there are those days where I just don't have the energy to remind everyone to clean up so I do a five minute cleaning to save on time and explaining energy. My playroom is made up of containers, bins and shelving units. All the kids, even my younger toddlers know where the toys go for the most part. Of course we do the clean up song or we do a choo choo train. 1 child pushes a bin on wheels while all the other children put the toys in the bin. Then we take that bin to the playroom and put them all away.

[Cat Herder]

I simplified. ::

I organized toys, by classification, into their own bins (Nature, Science, Automobiles, Community, Music, Blocks, Manipulative's, Dress Up, etc) and store out of reach.

I bring down the bins in a series of free play times (between meals, nap, crafts and circle times). Typically 4 bins cycled a day.

At the end of free play the kids run around like crazy putting the toys back into their respective bin in anticipation of the next activity.

I then dump the contents in the tub with a disinfectant solution for a quick soak/air dry before returning to storage shelves for another day.

I currently have 14 bins. But it keeps them from ever being bored with the selection, keeps down illnesses AND keeps my playroom tidy without having to do monthly "deep cleans" on my off time ever again. happyface

[bunnyslippers]

I have a devoted daycare space, separate from my home. Everything - every toy, pillow, book - has it's own spot. I do not clean up any toys for any children old enough to take them out on their own (pretty much, any child over 12 months). When it is clean up time, every child helps. I always go back over it at the end to check for thoroughness and accuracy, but if they took it out, then they clean it up!

I clean up the tables, counters, bathrooms, floors, trash, etc. right before naptime every day, and then again at the end of the day if needed (My kids usually leave right when nap is over, or shortly after).

[dEHmom]

i start teaching them to clean up as soon as they are able to go and make a mess! it's a long, repetitive process and you will often feel like a broken record, but it works. my 1 yr olds are great mess makers, but they are also great cleaners. They also like to help wash things down, i give them a wet cloth and they will wipe the floor and tables and toys of course i clean them properly after but they like to copy what i am doing, and what better way to have them learn and think they are having fun.

We are the same as you, and we clean up before transitions, and before home time. All the kids help. There is always one or two things i have to pick up later, but i can handle that.

i do bigger cleans and floor dishes etc while they are napping.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

We have center time twice a day (in the morning and in the afternoon). We talk about putting our toys away when we are done playing with them and that's a lesson that hasn't been fully mastered. If I see it, I ask them to please go put their toy away since they are done playing with it. If I don't see it and don't know who played with it, it gets picked up by them when the clean up song comes on at the end of center time.

I don't pick up any toys. I reorganize during naptime and at the end of the day if anything is put in a peculiar place (not in the correct center), but for the most part things are in the right spot.

[Scout]

I simplified. ::

I organized toys, by classification, into their own bins (Nature, Science, Automobiles, Community, Music, Blocks, Manipulative's, Dress Up, etc) and store out of reach.

I bring down the bins in a series of free play times (between meals, nap, crafts and circle times). Typically 4 bins cycled a day.

At the end of free play the kids run around like crazy putting the toys back into their respective bin in anticipation of the next activity.

I then dump the contents in the tub with a disinfectant solution for a quick soak/air dry before returning to storage shelves for another day.

I currently have 14 bins. But it keeps them from ever being bored with the selection, keeps down illnesses AND keeps my playroom tidy without having to do monthly "deep cleans" on my off time ever again. happyface

I like this idea!! I think I will implement it as soon as I am fully set up downstairs!

[Scout]

I do much like you. I clean up several times a day as I see toys all over the floor. The kids help me sometimes but, I am not too strict about it. I just don't want them to trip on them so I clean up a lot! And I make sure all toys are put away before nap and night also!

[Evansmom]

We clean up a lot too I guess. We have 2 regular clean up times one at 12:45, after lunch before nap/quiet time. And one at 4:20 before we go outside for the afternoon before parents come. When we come in if there are kids waiting to be picked up they can watch a short (quiet) show like Litttle Bear or read. That way no toys are drug back out.

We also clean up as needed during the day when there are too many toys out that are not being played with. It's a tripping hazard and not safe and the kids know that. Everyone who can walk in my house picks up, but I only work with ages 2 and up so that's all the kids. And I don't care if they didn't take that specific toy out, everyone picks up everything. We are a community together and we play/work/learn together