Toys.  If you have little ones, you know how the toys can seem to take over.  Blink, and Hot Wheels are parked all over the couch.  Turn around and doll house furniture litters the floor.

Just how can you get preschoolers to help clean up?

1. First, make sure to have kid-friendly storage.  Clear plastic bins or storage drawers make it easy for kids to see what’s in them.  Labeling them (use pictures for non-readers) allows children to know which toys go back in each container quickly and easily.
2. DON’T tell them they need to pick up ALL the toys.  (Even if they need to eventually)  That can be overwhelming to a small child.  Instead, start with one type of toy.  “Put all the dinosaurs in the dinosaur drawer.”  Once that set of toys is picked up, you can move on to the next set.
3. Turn clean up time into a game!  Grab the timer, set it for 5 minutes and race to see how many toys you can put away before it goes off.  (You can sweeten the deal with a mini reward for successfully getting the toys put away before the timer goes off.)
4. Have a princess of your own?  Tell her you are going to play Cinderella!  Jump into the role of “evil step-mother” and tell her what toys to pick up and where they need to go.  As a reward for cleaning up, play the Fairy Godmother later on and let her go to the ball, where she can dance with you as the prince!
5. Got a car-lover on your hands?  Have him race the cars to their correct location.  Ready, set, go!
6. Have some music lovers?  Turn on the music!  See how many toys you can put away before the song is over.  Or, find fun ways to dance the toys to their correct location.
7. Ignore the desire to “fix it” if something isn’t put away just right.  Think about how you would feel if you cleaned up and then someone came by and “fixed” it.

Have a tip that works for you when it comes to getting the toys cleaned up?  Leave it in the comments!

The post How to Get Preschoolers to Pick up Toys first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

First, I want to thank each and every one of you who helped me start off my spring cleaning by giving me that push to get rid of some items that have been lurking in my closet for way too long.  (Things from high school, over 20 years ago…Wow!)  (Thanks especially to The Dose of Reality, A Happier Girl, Chris Carter of the Mom Cafe, Jacklynn of the MamaMama, Cathi, Susie of Homemaker-Mom, Ginny Marie of Lemon Drop Pie, and Single Mom in the South for your comment help!)

I took the advice from those who commented on that post, and it all got donated.

Not only that, but you helped jump start a HUGE clean out of the closet.  I tried on over 20 pair of dress pants that I haven’t worn since teaching, pulled out sweaters that have seen better days, and even found a blue velvet dress in the way back of the closet that, let’s face it, is never getting worn again.

Well, maybe it will be worn again…  Just not by me!My daughter found the dress, and fell in love with it.  It’s the perfect length for dress up, so it is actually going to stick around, just not on a hanger in my closet.

I also found a black poncho.  Are those things still popular?

When I put it on my daughter, she asked, “What is this, Mommy?  A lampshade?”Got to love it!

All said and done, A LOT of stuff left my closet.  Nine pair of pants, 5 sweaters, various shirts, all the items from my last post, and a couple pair of shorts that were in a storage bag in there.Yes, that is a pair of elastic waist pants there and some plaid ones that my sister said I should only wear if I play golf.  (Another reason I’m thankful to talk to my sister on the phone, she has better fashion sense than I do!)  Oh, and don’t you just love the black and white, silky, paisley blouse?  Yeah….

The final result?  A more organized closet with clothes I might actually wear!

Notice that box on the shelf in the corner?  That has my wedding dress…  Maybe it will be worn again in another 20 or so years….

When’s the last time you went through your closet?

The post Cleaning out the Closet — What Got Donated? first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

The 7 inches of snow that fell this past Wednesday was gone by Friday.  And as much as I like snow, I am definitely ready for spring!  Time to open up those windows, air out the house, and get some serious decluttering going on!

Are you with me?

Please say yes, because I’m actually asking for your help with this first round.

It’s my closet.

Several times a year I go through and try to get rid of things.  But, honestly, there are items that linger in those back corners that haven’t seen the light of day for a loooooong time that i just can’t seem to get rid of.

Some of them are things I wore back in my days in the classroom, and I keep them in case I go back to teaching one day.  (Hey, I don’t want to have to spend a bunch of money on a whole new wardrobe just for work!)

Here are a few pieces that I pull out every time I go through the closet, and they still linger…  I’m asking you to help me decide, do they stay or do they go?

Ready????

Our first contestant is this floral dress with one of those Mandarin collars.  It used to have these huge shoulder pads (if that tells you anything) that I cut out of it.

The next two are denim dresses.

I have quite a few long skirts and dress pants…probably half of them need to go.  But here’s one skirt that keeps sticking around for some reason…. It is red and blue plaid with a super high waist and I’ve had it since high school.  (Did I mention I have the top that goes to it somewhere still?)Finally there are the suit jackets.

Yes, suit jackets.

When I decided I was going to teach, my mom went crazy and bought half a dozen different suit jackets for me.  I guess she thought they’d make me look more mature.  One of them was blue velvet.  Yes, you read that right.  I passed that along the last time I cleaned out the closet.  We’re down to just these two…

Okay, so there you have it.

Do I keep any of it?  Or does it all get donated somewhere?

The post Cleaning out the Closet first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

It’s that time of the month.

No, not THAT time… I mean the time where I am overwhelmed by…

TOYS.

They have taken over 1/2 my kitchen table with newly acquired Legos.  (Okay, I admit, I am the one who told them Legos had to be played with at the table…but I didn’t think they’d take up residence there and never leave.)  Strawberry Shortcake and friends have another corner of the table.  Their craft/school table is cluttered with various cars, books, and dress-up jewelry.

The living room looks like every boy’s dream:  monster trucks, Hot Wheels, superheroes…. pretty much everywhere.

And then I entered my daughter’s room…

Wow is all I can say.

Why is it that little girl toys always have so many itty-bitty parts????  And how do you organize all the princess castles, Barbie cars, Littlest Pet Shop play sets?

I’s love to store some of the stuff under her bed, but it seems My Little Pony has already claimed that spot.  I am pretty sure there is a village-worth of ponies in the under the bed drawer.

About once a month the toy-chaos gets to me, and I find myself looking around for anything they haven’t played with recently that might “disappear.”  The problem is, they play with it all.

At one point today I called my sister, knowing as a mom she’d understand.  I was actually hoping that her 21 years of parenting and dealing with toys would give her some wisdom to share with me.

After ranting to her about how I had just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out a better way to organize all the Barbie paraphernalia, and telling her that I just wanted to show my Peanut where all her stuff was now, my sister started laughing….  She knew before I even said it that my little girl didn’t care how it was organized.  There was no, “Oh, thank you, Mommy” moment.  In fact, I almost had to drag the child in to show her the Barbie box and the drawer that now held all the dolls.

My mind is still churning, trying to find a solution (other than just pitching it all out, which was sounding pretty good to me earlier today)….

Thankfully this usually only hits me once a month, and tomorrow I won’t be driven nearly as crazy by the mess.

But, since I know it will hit me again eventually, how do you contain the toys?  I’d love to hear your suggestions!  In fact, I’m thinking of sharing all the wonderful ideas you leave in the comments section in a future post.

The post S.O.S. — Save Me from the Toys! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Water.

You don’t really think about it too often, that is, until you turn on the faucet and nothing comes out.

Drinking, bathing, washing hands… Cleaning clothes and dishes, flushing toilets, making stinky dogs less stinky…

Without running water in the house, all of those tasks get A LOT harder.

Monday we woke up and had no water.

We’ve had boil advisories before, but water still ran from the tap — you could still do laundry and dishes, you could still get a bath; you just had to boil the water before drinking it, or better yet, have some bottled water on hand for such emergencies.

But on Monday, we had zip.

Of course the dishwasher was completely full, a bit stinky, and definitely needed run.  There were dishes in the sink.  And Mt. Laundry was towering in the utility room — seriously, it was stacked almost as tall as I am.

And there was no water.

No big deal.  I mean, certainly the water would be back soon.  Right?

I brought up the gallon of water we had downstairs.  (We had more, but over the summer I discovered one had sprung a leak, and another was yellowish — eww!  And I had forgotten to replace them.)  I poured some in my coffee mug, and made my mandatory morning cocoa.

A few hours later we got a couple more gallons of water, and I took out some of the frozen water from the big freezer downstairs so it could thaw.  Word was that a water main had broken, and it would be at least until Wednesday evening before we could drink the water.

We still had nothing coming from the tap.

Since we all had plenty of clean clothes (Yeah!), I wasn’t too worried about Mt. Laundry, but the dishes?  They were starting to make me concerned.  I couldn’t have dirty dishes laying all over the place.  Definitely a health hazard.  (Okay, maybe I was over thinking it a bit.  But thoughts of upcoming stomach viruses loomed in my head.)

Then my prince in camouflage came to my rescue.  The husband grabbed a couple 5 gallon buckets with lids and hiked to the neighbors who still have their well water hooked up.  I decided to put the soap in the dishwasher and close the door, figuring that way when we did get water back I could just hit the button, and if it took a few days, I wouldn’t have to open and smell the contents just to put soap in.  I put a little soap in a sippy cup, added a little of the water from the bucket, and shook it until it was good and foamy, and then poured it and some of the water on the dishes in the sink and got to scrubbing.

Okay, I felt a little better.  Plus, now we had plenty of water to flush the toilets, should we need to.  (A plus when you have a little boy who can really stink up a bathroom.)

We went most of the day without running water.  A minor thing really, in light of how many people in the world live that way on a daily basis.

And that’s why running water is high on my list of things to be thankful for this week.

***

You’re turn!  What are you thankful for this Thankful Thursday?  Leave a comment, or link up your own THANKFUL post below.  I’d love it if you linked back to There’s Just One Mommy!

linked up with Black Tag Diaries, Lovely Little Whimsy, The Fontenot Four

The post Thankful for Good Old H2O first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

On. Her. Own.

There was no fighting, no whining, and no, “I’m too tired….”

I’m sorry, but this is HUGE.  While little brother is generally willing to help clean up,  my Peanut usually finds some excuse not to.

But, ever so slowly that has been changing.  And last night she actually started picking up all on her own.

Why?

I’m thinking it has to do with these awesome chore charts I picked up at… (drum roll, please) good old Target.

I’d been wanting to start something like this for a while.  After all, helping with chores around the house is so beneficial to kids.  Doing chores helps them feel like a contributing member in the family, allows them to learn some basic house-keeping skills, and can increase their self-esteem.  Chores can also help them respect their home and belongings more and give them a sense of pride in a job well-done.  All of this, while teaching them responsibility.

Of course, I wasn’t thinking of assigning big chores like washing dishes (although my daughter loves to give that a try sometimes!) or cleaning toilets, but I did have a few preschool appropriate chores in mind.

When I pulled out the charts the kids got super excited.  (They love anything new!)

I quickly explained what the charts were for, letting them know that each time they completed a chore they would get a check mark on the chart.  We agreed that they would earn a penny for each check mark they earned during the week, and if they completed ALL the chores, they would get a quarter.  (That’s big money here when you are 3 and 4.5!)

I had one chore planned ahead of time for each of them.  For my little girl it was “pick up toys in room.”  Seriously, is it just me or do all little girl toys seem to have numerous itty-bitty parts?  Littlest Pet Shop, Polly Pocket, My Little Pony…  When they are all out at once it is complete chaos!  Usually I just toss things back where they belong myself throughout the day, but I want her to start learning to pick up one before getting a new item out.  I even added a goal for this of doing it at least 1 time a week.

For little guy I wrote “sleep in own bed all night” on his chore chart.  His goal is 3 times a week.

After that I asked them to help come up with chores to add to the charts.

Each of them is responsible for feeding one of the family pets each day.  Peanut feeds the cat and Monkey feeds the dog.  They also have “play with pets” on their charts — Fluffball (A.K.A. the cat) often gets forgotten out in the garage, so I wanted to encourage them to play with her more often.

My daughter recently started helping me put away laundry (just the socks and underwear), so we decided to add that to her chore chart.

Remembering how she used to help get the dishes out of the dishwasher for me when she was younger, I put that chore on little brother’s chart.

They also both have “pick up toys in living room” on their charts.  (Which is what she started doing last night, before the kids went to brush their teeth and get ready for bed.)

It was priceless.

We have had our charts up on the washing machine for a month now, and they still WANT to earn their check marks.  (By the way, Little guy is so proud of himself when he sleeps in his own bed all night now.  I’ve even had him ask me to tuck him back into his bed when he woke up at night, rather than wanting to sleep in our room, which is his usual routine.)

Yes, I know there will still be battles over picking up toys.  But I also know that with every check mark they are gaining much more than just pennies.  Pride, respect, and responsibility are qualities that will last them a lifetime and help them as they grow into adulthood.

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