Tidy up, tidy up, tidy up,.... does it EVER stop?

[pupuce]

That is how I feel.... and it is driving me insane.
Warning - do not post : It doesn't matter... IT DOES ! (to me )

So any good tip on how to keep house tidy? I have already moved the kids toys OUT of the living room... except puzzles.... I think these are going under lock and key as they are now systematically thrown on the floor for the sake of it (or making more mess).

I can clean and don't mind cleaning when tidy but I really spend my time putting toys and clothes back into cupboards, baskets,.... I am going mad.

HELP!

P.S. Again - no need to tell me that it doesn't matter... I tried and I end up depressed with the state of my house.

Those cupboards that you put the clothes and toys into, have they got locks on them????

No???? Why????

Because then you can lock your children in them??

Maybe not

I know what you mean though, I seem to be constantly tidying up toys and SB34 can testify that it makes not a blind bit of difference!

you could just lock everything up and have like a lending library system.

I don't have cupboards, but my DD knows that if she wants something she has to put the previous thing away. If she doesn't than she gets to play with nothing....it was hard at first but now she often does it without asking

Its never bloody ending! my dd has just licked the glass back door and rubbed the mess in with her hands for good measure, 5 mins after i cleaned it, aarrgghh.
Can totally sympathise!

I could try - it will require being firm... last night was a major battle of will between DS (3) and me... he was NOT having his bath (which he loves) until puzzle was picked up....
Pie - how old is DD?

DD is 4, I only started this about 6 months and we are getting there bit my bit.

I had a friend who used to tell her DS (I think he was about 6) that if he didn't pick up his toys she would throw them away. Then she would put them in a bin bag in the shed. At Xmas or when she had promised him a treat she would delve into the bin bag, and DS never realised that he was being duped.

Glad to hear it is not just me... I like the x-mas idea. I will speak to DH about it... I definitely need to sort this out. I work from home too so the fact that I can have unexpected guest/clients in a messy house REALLY anoys me !

Breathe.... keep calm.....

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If there's one thing I could change about childrens it's MESS ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH
Will now retreat to yurt for a dose of inner calmness.

The living room was a bombsite this afternoon so I refused to let the kids watch a video until they'd tidied up. I had to help, of course, but it was an effective bribe.

Pupuce, sorry no tips as I am in same predicament. You have my sympathies

Pupuce, what about making it into a game or timing it with a kitchen pinger thing? Might that work? (for your ds, not you) No other advice I'm afraid since I'm perfectly capable of living in a tip.

I threaten to throw ds's puzzles into the bin if he doesn't start picking the pieces up himself - ds no longer thinks I am bluffing, I have carried out this threat!

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I switched kids TV off last week (Thursday cleaning day) as DS1 (four) had promised me prior to me switching the TV on that he had tidied up his toys in the diningroom, when I went to clean the diningroom low and behold everything was still there, switched TV off and told him it wouldn't go back on until he had tidied and he did it in record time.

Don't you just hate it when you think everything has been tidied away, you go to the loo in the middle of the night and you stand on a car. It bloody hurts when it gets right in your insole.

Hmmm, my tip is to make it into a game like www suggested. Out of the blue sometimes I ask ds to think of a number between 1 and 10 and that's the number of things he has to pick up and put away - he's beginning to catch onto that now though! The other one is putting on some music and dancing while we tidy. If it's fun it's not such a big issue, and doesn't become such a sticking point.

The toys don't bother me so much. Like Beetroot it's the paper - where does it all come from? Actually I know where it comes from - both ds and dd love drawing and help themselves to copious amounts of paper, which then gets left lying round; ds has an obsession with leaflets which he picks up from everywhere (frequently filling in the forms as well); then there's the free papers; the junk mail...arghhhhhh. I sometimes feel like we're drowning under a sea of papers.