Are you teaching your kids how to clean up and wondering why it’s not working? You’re constantly asking them to pick up their toys, put away their dishes, or hang up their coat, but it’s not working. Well, you may be making one of these 3 parenting mistakes.

3 Mistakes When Teaching Your Kids How To Clean Up

The parents are doing the cleaning up for the kids

You think they’re too busy, but you’re teaching them that you’ll always do it for them. Kids at different ages should have different expectations.

Starting around 2 or 3 years old, they can start cleaning up some of their own toys. As they get older, they can take on more and more responsibilities.

• The parents aren’t creating systems to help teach their kids how to clean up

The kids don’t know where anything should go, and neither do you. Organization, labels, and pictures all help kids learn how to clean up after themselves.

You’ll have a hard time teaching your kids how to clean up without some sort of system.

The parents collect too much stuff

I know I’m guilty of this. When our kids get obsessed with something–cars, trains, dolls–we buy them all the things.

First, we need to declutter and get rid of the excess.

Then, we need to be conscious of what we’re buying for our kids.

With too much stuff, teaching kids how to clean up will be that much more challenging.

Need help decluttering?

I’ve got you covered: