To introduce today’s topic, let me say this. Summer is here. Things may be getting messy at your house. Kids have a way of making messes and of taking your time and attention away from taking care of your own projects. This too will pass in the fall. But, for now …
Look around your office and your home and note how many projects of yours are “in progress.”
Have you been working on bills? Are recipes laid out for dinners this week – or when you actually get to them? Does your desktop have half-written notes on it?  What would it be like for you if someone came along and cleaned everything up?  Keep this in mind as you adapt to your children’s summer messes.

• Before a project or playtime starts tell your children your expectation about when clean-up needs to be done and agree on who will be doing it. Expect them to take at least part of the clean-up responsibility – or all of it if they are old enough. You can include yourself in the clean-up team if that is appropriate.
• Make sure there are containers or places where they can put things and that they know what all is included in the “clean-up.”
• Don’t just dive-in to the clean-up. Give a warning that it is almost time. When the time has arrived, ask whether there is anything that should not be disturbed.
• With younger children you can play games to make it easier for them to stay on task (put things away one color at a time, divide the clean-up into parts and time each part or each person doing their part, make up a song about the cleanup, etc.).