We can create positive associations with cleaning up so our family will enjoy doing it
Everyone’s home, which means that everyone’s making a mess. Food is being prepared and eaten. People are working and playing all day in a place that used to be, for the most part, empty until evening. In order for the environment to remain orderly and livable, everybody has to get good at cleaning up.
Some kids like to keep things tidy. They may regularly organize their rooms, making sure that there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Interestingly, the ultra-tidy room of one child may be right next to the cluttered catastrophe belonging to a sibling.
Untidy kids like to take things out and use them ⸺ clothes, toys, papers, books ⸺ but have less interest in putting them back. Objects stay wherever they last were: on the floor, on the bed, on the desk or dresser. To an onlooker, these rooms look chaotic, but to the child, it is “home,” a place where “I have my things” (and no one is allowed to move them!).
Then there are the shared spaces ⸺ the rooms where family members congregate. These areas need to be kept clean and functional. When they’re not, the home can feel overwhelming and chaotic to its inhabitants and visitors alike.
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