https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 17 Apr 2026 01:57:19 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2804424 Thu, 15 Feb 2018 12:03:51 +0000 krispi 2804424@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Pickle: My daughter is 2.5 and is the same. She's pretty good at picking up toys when asked, but I have to repeat the instructions and help her as we go along. If I don't participate, she doesn't really do it on her own. She really likes being mommy's "big helper" though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2804080 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 20:48:42 +0000 Eko 2804080@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it does depend on the kid. DS has always be a cleaner and its a part of his personality. He started picking up his toys around 12-18 months. We are not consistent with it at night because its tough then when hes tired. Plus, he helps clean in a lot of ways. At some point ill get to it haha </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2804038 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:40:21 +0000 Mama Bird 2804038@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DS was totally picking up his toys at 18 months, but it was a game to him. He was copying me. He could pick everything up, and then ten minutes later, tip the whole box back onto the floor. </p> <p>I started demanding a proper cleanup when he was two. I'm not proud of how I handled it... basically I'd threaten that if anything was on the floor at bedtime, "cleanup mommy style" would happen, and whatever I had to pick up without his help would be locked up for a few days. I'm more laid back about it now, but we're in a bigger place and the kids can make a mess in their room where no one will trip on it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2804025 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:09:22 +0000 MrsBucky 2804025@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started modeling this at a very young age (1?) by cleaning up with him/ for him / in front of him. We’d sig the clean up song. Then we started with specific tasks (put this toy in that container). We would clean up whenever it got too busy in the playroom. Recently (almost 3) we ask him to clean up, and still assist him. Lately my husband has instituted that if he does not help clean up, the toy in question will be put away (on top of our China hutch) until the following day/ the day after. This is also our rule for toys which are thrown in anger. He still can’t clean up entirely on his own, but he mostly is helpful. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2804009 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 15:27:10 +0000 2PeasinaPod 2804009@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started early with this for both of our boys. DS1 started early, and we sang the song they sing at daycare for helping to clean up. We also made it fun for him in that every toy he put in his bucket got a high five. </p> <p>For DS2, it's so much easier when there's an older brother to model behavior. He just fell right into it. He's 2 years, 5 months, and he's been cleaning up well before he was 2 years. If he says no (exerting control), we make sure he understands that he cannot take out another toy until the one he's finished using is cleaned up and put away. This is usually motivation enough to get him to clean up the old toy, or continue playing with it without making more of a mess. </p> <p>At night, everyone cleans up together. We're a big teamwork household - everyone pitches in. I don't put their plates in the dishwasher when they're finished with dinner. It's their job...and I definitely have to remind them of it, but even DS2 does it. It helps that DH is on board with helping when he sees something needs to be done. We are all one big team that helps the household stay clean and tidy. It can be a mess at some point, but we all help to clean it up! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2804000 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 15:04:42 +0000 MrsSCB 2804000@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We've kind of started at least the modeling part with our almost 18-month-old. He doesn't entirely get it, but we'll just say, "Time to clean up your toys! Can you help mama and dada clean up your toys?" And we'll start picking stuff up and putting it in his toy box. For the most part he just watches, lol. But if we hand him specific things and say, "Can you please put this in your toy box?" he'll do it. I figure even just watching helps! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803935 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 12:28:20 +0000 catgirl 2803935@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We always tidy before nap and do a full pick up before bed. We have always done it while DD is awake and part of the process. As soon as she was walking we had her "help". In the beginning she would put one or two things away while we did the rest. Somewhere between 2 and 2.5 we started making her do more of the actual picking up and she was very consistent. But now at 3 she is expected to be actively helping clean up until it is done. I obviously do more because I am faster and less distracted. If she doesn't help at night we take away one bedtime book - which is a huge motivator for her. </p> <p>We sing the clean up song from Daniel Tiger throughout the whole process. We have also made sure that all toys have a designated spot. She does much better when she knows exactly where to put things. We try to give her specific tasks while cleaning up - put all of the blocks in the box, put all of the play food away in the kitchen, put the books in the basket, etc. I can't just say clean up. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803899 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 11:04:45 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 2803899@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 2 year old will pick up her toys with a lot of help. I have to say “pick up your blocks and put them in the box,” over and over. I also have to be helping too. I give her lots of praise. Being in childcare helps this skill I think because they always clean up their classroom at the end of the day. I think it will be a while before I tell her “clean up your toys” then walk away and it happens. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803897 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 11:01:12 +0000 hellobeeboston 2803897@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 2.5 year old does well picking up toys when told.... We started asking him to help pick up right when he turned two. What helps is his older brother is great a cleaning up and will initiate the clean-up time. We have bins for most toys so it's pretty easy to just dump everything back into their respective spots easily :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803882 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 10:07:16 +0000 MrsGeePerez 2803882@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My son is about 28 months and we started picking up right around age two. Usually if he wants to move on to another activity I will tell him we have to pick up, first. And yes, be specific - put all the cars in the basket/put all of the blocks back in the bag, etc</p> <p>Usually I will help him and sit with him, but he's starting to do it on his own, now. Sometimes. </p> <p>I'd say now is the perfect time to start enforcing it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803880 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 10:03:37 +0000 petitenoisette 2803880@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My LO will be 3 next week and maybe just the last month or two we have tried to focus on picking up her toys every night before bed (previously me or DH did it). We don't have a play room and have a small house so everything gets picked up every night. We definitely have to help and cajole her to do it, I know she is much better about it at daycare. We sing or play clean up songs and that helps too. It's hard to remember to do it every night though bc it's definitely going to be a slight battle and we are so used to doing it ourselves! </p> <p>But I definitely think it's a very important skill. We need to add other cleaning up after ourselves activities too like clearing her dishes after dinner... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803869 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 09:28:42 +0000 snowjewelz 2803869@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Can't really pinpoint an age; I always clean up and she sees me cleaning all the time anyway. I also always remember singing the clean up song but was never strict about it.</p> <p>For my 3 year old, it def gets reinforced at school as they sing the clean up song, etc. At home, she's def not as good about it. I usually try to give her a specific task to do and call it a day. </p> <p>I am horrible though; I'm a neat freak so if I don't consciously stop myself, I just tend to clean up after them as we go along. So for the modeling part, I do it all day long haha! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803868 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 09:20:47 +0000 MrsADS 2803868@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My son is 2.5 and apparently does *great* at school with picking up/clean up time... not so much at home! :silly: I try to encourage him but I don't stress about it too much. Mostly because picking up the toys is after dinner, right before we are going upstairs for bed and bath. And by that point, after a day at daycare (he usually won't nap there), he is a WRECK and throwing things everywhere, crying and screaming from being so overtired so it seems like a waste of time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803860 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 08:52:58 +0000 Ajsmommy 2803860@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have DD who is 4 and DS who is 1. First let me say I am not a stickler for nightly picking up, it just doesn't happen in our house and I am ok with that. I usually "tidy" up once or twice during the week and if I am doing it while DD is up I'll enlist her help. </p> <p>1) When did you start actively teaching your LOs to pick up after themselves? I honestly don't remember, I'd guess around 2, but we noticed it bc she was doing it at daycare and then she'd kinda do it at home so we just went with it</p> <p> 2) How much modeling &amp; "partnering" was needed and for how long? dd is 4 and I still help her, however last weekend she wanted to pick up her room by herself and I have to admit she did a great job!! So I may be taking a step back now... </p> <p> 3) At what age did you LO start to do it much more consistently? (your definition of consistent) DD likes to pick up if she's in the right mood but other times she'll flat out refuse. I'd say at 4 she's just now becoming a bit more consistent. But I assume she'll get even more so as she gets older....</p> <p>ETA: DS does nothing but destroy.. soooo half the time I just laugh bc I'll put something away and literally two seconds later he is emptying it again.. it's really like those commercials or meme's.. those are funny bc they are TRUE!!! Anyway he has no concept of picking up yet.. all he gets is picking up to dump back out. :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803857 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 08:35:12 +0000 looch 2803857@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have a playroom and I decided that my son could leave his toys in play in that room. Big things like train or hotwheel tracks, I let him leave because those take a lot of effort to set up.</p> <p>Smaller things I do ask that he is aware of what he leaves on the floor. We talk a lot about game pieces and keeping them all together so you don't compromise the game.</p> <p>Lastly, I had to give up my hangups around organizing. If all the toys are in bins, that's a win. I don't worry if the play food is mixed in with the hot wheels. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803852 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 08:19:33 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2803852@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO is 22 months and has been quite the picker upper for a few months now. My bestie even noticed it during Thanksgiving. His daycare teachers have told me he’s great at helping to clean up.</p> <p>He needs prompting that it’s time to put away things in order to move onto the next activity. Once he realizes it’s time he gets in full swing, with what he is able to do. Sometimes that just means I hold a bin and he fills it up like another game. I made more room on his book cubbies and now he can easily stack them on the shelf when he takes out another. I tidy the books behind him, but not when he’s picking up after himself. </p> <p>Early on we gave a ton of praise like when he was around one and clearly mimicking the adults. Now we just say thank you and acknowledge we can now start another activity. Sometimes he’s not in the mood to pick up after himself and we don’t make a big stink out of it. If he purposely is being destructive and messy without playing we will hold firm on him cleaning up even if a tantrum is imminent. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803851 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 08:12:31 +0000 honeybear 2803851@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm ambivalent about picking up everything daily and don't require it. My son (who's 7) likes to make up stories with his Legos, blocks, and Playmobil people and he makes little scenes with them all over the floor. The "stories" are usually created/told over multiple days at this point. I remember doing this sort of thing as a child too, and I'm grateful that my mom didn't make me tidy things up every day. I feel like this sort of play is really important for the development of his ability to put thoughts in order/write coherently, so I actually don't make him clean those up, even though they tend to be in the middle of our living room floor. </p> <p>I know he knows HOW to pick up (because we do it before guests come over or when I need to mop the floor or when I notice that he's not really using certain toys), and that's good enough, I think. When he was smaller, I adhered to a similar rule: things that aren't being used/used very soon get put away when we're done with them. That "rule" still left a lot of things out on a fairly regular basis, because little kids move from one thing to the next pretty quickly! :silly: My tolerance of certain types of disorder has gone way down since becoming a parent, basically. :wink: (I'm still a maniac about actual cleanliness--as in, there are no crumbs or drops of food on my table or floor after meals, ever, and everyone washes their hands immediately before and after eating--but untidiness is MUCH less of an issue for me.) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803848 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 07:50:52 +0000 Foodnerd81 2803848@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My kids are 2 and 4 and I’m just starting to get into the habit of making them clean up. Usually like the others said, it works best if I’m doing it with them. The 2 year old wants to do anything her big sister does, somif big sis cleans she will too. </p> <p>But the other day they had made a huge mess during a play date and we flat out bribed them- if you clean everything up you can have fruit snacks. They cleaned the entire playroom- I was shocked. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803847 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 07:19:59 +0000 Adira 2803847@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it depends on the kid. Our oldest actually enjoys cleaning up - so whenever we would do a big clean of the living room, he'd then want to do a big clean of his room (with help) - that started around 2. Now at 4, he'll occasionally clean his room all by himself without any prompting. And we just started getting into the habit (at 4.5) of picking up the living room every night before bed. My 3 year old is also involved, but definitely not as consistent as my older. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803845 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 06:32:16 +0000 Pumuckl 2803845@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DesertDreams88: </p> <p><i>1) When did you start actively teaching your LOs to pick up after themselves? </i><br /> Well that is a skill they actually didn't learn at home but at daycare. Even my twins who are 1 are to help with cleaning up the toys before meals. In their case it is enough when they grasp the concept and maybe put away one or two things.<br /> <i> 2) How much modeling &amp; "partnering" was needed and for how long? </i><br /> This is difficult to answer as even with my 4 nearly 5 year old he still cleans up better when I help. I can let my 4,75 and 3 year old clean up by themselves but not the 1 year olds... If I want to them to do it without complaining, I'll help :silly:<br /> <i> 3) At what age did you LO start to do it much more consistently? (your definition of consistent) </i><br /> So consistency hasn't been reached here but we also don't focus too much on it. I guess you can say that we don't make them clean-up during the week. All the playing happens in our living room and they have maybe 30 minutes of play time all together every day. So I'd rather have them enjoy that time playing than cleaning up. So I and/or DH will usually tackle clean-up. We make it a point to have them clean-up alongside us on the weekends at least once though and we'll also usually try to limit the chaos by telling them to put away the toys/crafts before they get to change activities. </p> <p>I am not sure if this is helpful at all but it works for us for now... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803840 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 05:16:19 +0000 meadow 2803840@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH and I just were wondering this last night.... as we sat down in the livingroom surrounded by toys to clean up at 10:30 pm! HAHA. Our routine is to clean up their toys during nap and after bedtime and we were pondering when we really should be including them. </p> <p>Right now if we try to do some cleaning up mid afternoon with them - we can get a whole bunch put away then moments later DS will dump it all back out on the floor and its complete: WHOMP WHOMP.</p> <p>I get the feeling I should be doing a better job of modeling it to them at 20 months...but I'm so demotivated by the immediate dump out! haha.</p> <p>Following! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803827 Tue, 13 Feb 2018 00:18:57 +0000 jhd 2803827@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO will be 4 in April and it still works best if we work together. Ex: you pick up the trains and put them in the white tote and I will pick up all the hot wheels etc. </p> <p>I know he helps pick up at preschool and they have a special song. </p> <p>Following for more ideas! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803826 Mon, 12 Feb 2018 23:55:22 +0000 peaches1038 2803826@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DS is 27 months and has just recently started picking up his toys when asked. We actually started around 2 because our daycare provider made an off-hand comment about how he refused to pick up at school. We had much more success with starting by saying “put the red block in the bin” basically being super specific. If I just said “pick up your toys” then it wouldn’t happen. Now, I can say “pick up all your blocks” and he will do it - (most of the time 😉😉) but I usually have to do it with him or at least be right there. We also watched the Daniel tiger episode about cleaning up and sing the song every time. And we make it a huge celebration when he does it “wow! DS is such a big helper! Daddy, did you see DS pick up?!? Yay!!!” </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/encouraging-lo-to-pick-up-toys-age-appropriateness#post-2803823 Mon, 12 Feb 2018 23:24:29 +0000 DesertDreams88 2803823@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO just turned 2 and pretty much never picks up his own toys. We are very inconsistent about trying to teach that "skill" / procedure. We usually pick up after him, about 50% of the time it will be in front of him and 50% it will be during nap or bed.</p> <p>1) When did you start actively teaching your LOs to pick up after themselves?<br /> 2) How much modeling &amp; "partnering" was needed and for how long?<br /> 3) At what age did you LO start to do it much more consistently? (your definition of consistent)</p> <p>any other thoughts on this topic? </p>