Is your house a mess.....

Carang I definitely think the 'if you don't clean up, all the toys will be in the rubbish bin' idea works! I clearly remember when I was 9 years old being led out to the big garbage bin outside and my dad throwing my barbies in the bin!! I never disobeyed him again! The power of following up your words with actions is amazing hehe. I didn't think he would actually do it so I got lazy. Learnt my lesson! I'll definitely be using that one on the kids.
 
my kids are 4 and 6. we keep most of the toys in the family room, some will migrate out during the day, but the family room is the main place. Bedroom has only books an stuffed things. I try to make them clean it every day once, if not in 2 or 3 days everything is out.If they refuse to clean, or are taking forever to do it I threaten with a garbage bag, take everything left away and leave it in the basement for a long time. They know they won't see it agianfor quit awhile.

AT School both manage to do one thing, put it away before getting out the next, but it doen't happen at home. I'm not sure how to make it happen, unless I stay on them all day long.
 
I think boys are generally messier than girls. I find that when my son (who's 2 yrs old) has his friends over, it's usually the girls who are more responsive to tidying up. At this age, threats to "throw away his toys" will probably not work. (He enjoys helping me throw rubbish away in our big trash can in the kitchen, so no doubt he will consider it a game if i start throwing his toys in there!)

To answer the poster's question, we've managed to keep the living room tidy by having our son keep all his toys in his playroom. The playroom's not very large (about 150 sq feet) so I generally have to tidy up around him when he starts bringing his bigger toys (carparks, train tracks etc) out. Recently I've noticed he's become tidier - maybe b/c i'm making such an example of tidying up while he's playing!
 
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