Kid's Cleanup Charts

When I was a child, I have to admit I wasn't very neat with my things. It took me a long time (say, college!) to realize the importance and convenience of maintaining a clean, organized environment--it's more relaxing and less stressful to be in a clean room than a messy one, and ever so much more
convenient when you know exactly where everything is. 

As an adult with several different hobbies (reading, sewing and scrapbooking, to name a few) and a tendency toward packrat-ism, it has become even more important to me to keep my things organized and in a specific home so that I always know where to find what I need. 

Passing these ideals on to my kids has become equally important--after all, their mess impacts our home environment, too--but getting them to pick up their toys and put them away regularly is not always easy! I know every parent out there knows exactly what I'm talking about!

You know how it is when you're a kid--it's easy to get everything out when you're playing, and then when your parents tell you to put it all away, it just seems overwhelming--you don't know where to start! I would tell my kids to clean their rooms, and then become exasperated because they would just stand there looking at the mess they had made with no clear idea of where to begin. I would fuss at them: "Get to work!" and the inevitable reply would come back to haunt me: "I don't know what to do first!" 

That's when I realized that just as I had to teach my kids how to feed and dress themselves by walking them through the process when they were toddlers, so I also needed to teach them the most efficient process to put their things away now that they are older. 

When I want to be efficient and productive, I make a chart or a list to help me keep track of what I've done so far and what I still have to do. With that in mind, I created this chart with pictures of the different categories of things they own--dolls, books, clothes, etc--so that even a non-reader can tell what needs to done next.

I printed it out, laminated it and then used stick-on velcro and these cute little wooden stars I had lying around to make an easy way for them to check off what they've completed. 

I posted their charts on their bedroom doors next to their morning routine charts for easy access and viewing.

Now when I tell them to clean their rooms, they have learned to refer to the charts to keep track of where they are in the cleaning process, and they love moving the stars from the bottom of the page into the finished category to show that they are done with that task! 

Over time, I have noticed the older two not even needing the charts anymore as they have learned to organize their things by category and put each group away one at a time. In fact, when they put their minds to it, my kids can clean their rooms better than I ever did at their age! I'm so proud of them!

(Notice I said "when they put their minds to it"; they still leave plenty of messes around the house! 😆 Baby steps!)

If you would like a copy of this chart for your own child or children, you can download it at the end of this post. The download includes a chart for a playroom, a boy's room and a girl's room, and you can just print out whichever one(s) you need. Please note this download is available only for personal use; please do not copy or share the file with others. Refer them to my blog instead for access to their own copy! 😉 

If you have access to a laminator, I highly recommend using it as it will dramatically extend the life of the chart, but if you don't, you can slip it into a plastic page protector and attach that to the wall or wherever you plan to display it. Once it's laminated or in the plastic protector, you can use a dry erase marker to check off the completed jobs or create some kind of stick-on marker like I did with whatever you can find around the house. 

Be creative and have fun with it! Remember, the whole point of this chart is to make cleaning up less stressful and overwhelming for our kids! Training them now to be neat and organized will pay off for them for the rest of their lives, and I believe it's never too early to start!

Cleanup Checklist