Cleaning out the Kids Rooms - Continued

One example is where a ten or eleven year old refuses to give up her little EZ bake oven. Tell her it is time she started using the real oven (with your help) of course, and she will gladly give it up. If your son has too many cars in the playroom, you can always say that you want to put some away and let him play with his favorites to get him to give some up. Let him take them outside, once they are outside so long he won’t play with them and you can get rid of them.

Every child has their own incentive for cleaning old items and items that they have outgrown from their playroom or bedroom. One could be, you are at the store and they are begging you for a new toy. Firmly tell them that they will have to give you two other toys they don’t want to play with any more if you buy one new one. In addition, when you get home, be sure to follow through with it. It might be two stuffed animals, two toy cars, anything that is going to make them realize that they have to put limits on what they have in their rooms.

Another thing that you can easily do is when you child leaves for school or is napping in another room, you can go through the toy boxes and throw any toys that are broken or out of date into a box where your child won’t see them go. When you do this you may only be able to take one or two at a time, but it is better than having all of the items pile up as the toys seem to grow on their own!