My little girl is now five years old and really into the whole playing with the toys and not putting them away thing. Since she was about two years old, she has been running (or crawling) around the house on all fours, taking her toys and clothes with her and just leaving them everywhere. I found that it was very hard to keep up with her and actually keep her space clean enough so that she could continue to enjoy it while she grew.
I consulted with some other moms about what they did to help organize their children’s space. Some moms have really great ideas. The first thing that everyone said I should do, regardless of how old my child was, if purchase the largest basket I can find and use that to hold her toys. Once mom I know purchased a basket that is literally the size of her child’s bed. Her child loves to throw her stuffed animals inside of it and play size and seek.
I found a huge wicker basket that is about half the size of a bed. It is just tall enough for my daughter to peer over the edge. Now she knows that whenever she plays with a toy, she has to put it in the basket so that mommy has help cleaning up.
A great way, by the way, to encourage your children to clean up with you is to play the color game. First, everyone in the room closes their eyes, including mommies. One by one, everyone shouts out a color. When they open their eyes, they have to run around the room as fast as they can, picking up every item that has that color and putting it where it belongs. Mostly, items belong in the big basket. We also like to play basketball with items, if its soft enough, by tossing the items across the room and into the basket.
Another fun way, if you have two children, to help them clean is to appoint one the princess and the other the pauper. The princess tells the pauper where items should go and the pauper places them there. If the pauper does everything correctly, then the princess rewards him with a special toy or something fun that he or she really loves. This encourages good work for a reward.
In addition to the large basket, I also have a bookshelf that the kids help to paint by putting their painted hand prints all over. The kids keep some of their toys, but mostly books, on the bookshelf. If you have a bookshelf in your home, make sure you bolt it to the wall so that it does not fall over on your child if he or she tries to climb on top of it (and he or she will – children love to climb).
Finally, to help organize the room, I make sure that everything I need to be a good parent is easy to find. When my daughter was younger, I always had the diaper changing area pristine so that I could reach the creams and wipes easily. Now, I always know where the books and markers are.