When is to early to start bagging up their toys?

[PrettyMeerkat]

I have read the suggestion on here that if children make huge amounts of mess and won't clear up after themselves then an idea is to bag it all up and stick it in the loft/garage etc.

What age do you think is old enough for this? At the end of my tether about the mess!

I have no idea what the "right " age is, but we are currently trying something similar out on DD, who is nearly six. The rule basically is that she has 15 mins or so at the end of the day to clear her things up (in her room in particular) before we inspect and remove anything which is not where is should be (in particular, on the floor!). We do give her a bit of help with the tidying up, mainly so that she learns how to go about it methodically rather than in headless chicken mode, but it's up to her to do the lion's share.

It's worked so far - but partly, I think, because she knows that I REALLY WOULD remove stuff, the old witch that I am!