Clean-up in Montessori Spaces

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How do you get him to clean up after playing with things? How do you keep him from just taking out everything? I get asked this all the time so I thought I’d share a few of my tips. This is a question I see asked about Montessori environments a lot in general. In Montessori classrooms children generally return their materials to a shelf after using with them. We do the same at home, though of course it is far more flexible at home.

However, whenever possible I do try to limit the number of toys out at a time and encourage clean-up after he uses something, as long as I am not interrupting his concentration, but more on that later!

Limit the Number of Toys

This is number one for me. A giant box of something is asking to be dumped (dumping is fun!). He has under 10 toys available at any time and they are divided between two different rooms. 

I also limit the number of things. He doesn’t have access to all our blocks yet, for example. I will increase the number as he gets older and is more interested in building with them.

By limiting the number of toys we make whatever potential mess smaller, and cleanup easier. I store other toys away but also try to severely limit the number of toys we buy.

Have a Place for Everything

This is something I am very serious about in my son’s space but wish I had taken care of more in my own spaces. Cleanup is so much easier when there is a place to put everything. At this point Yitzchak knows where each material goes on his shelf and it makes clean up far easier. 

A low shelf is a great way to display toys and provide a place for everything. Another simple alternative is just to line a few toys up against a wall.

Model, Model, Model

I have been modeling clean-up since early infancy. I would bring him toys in the beginning then return them to the shelf when he was done. As he got older he would take toys out and I would model putting them back when done. Still today I model this.

As with most things in Montessori modeling is an essential ingredient!

Prompt and Help

Does he put things away independently every time?

Absolutely not. It happens but much of time time I still prompt and help. 

Here’s what that looks like:

When my son is done playing with something and there is a natural pause* I ask “are you all done playing with [whatever toy]?” Sometimes he signs “all done.” Other times he goes back to playing with it. 

If he signs or says all done I say “let’s put [whatever toy] back on the shelf” or something else similar. I then give specific one step instructions as needed and help as needed. This might look like handing him one disk and saying, “please put this on the base of the stacker” or handing him one coin and saying “please put this in the cup.”

*If he finishes with one material and just moves on to concentrating on another material, however, I do not do this. I don’t want to interrupt independent play. In those situations I will either put away the material myself, modeling how (this is what I did throughout infancy) or wait and we put it away together at the end. It depends on the situation but I lean more towards the latter as he ages. Also, this doesn’t necessarily apply to more open-ended toys as a child ages. Mixing blocks with Magnatiles with figurines is incredibly valuable and in those cases I’d also definitely wait to initiate any cleanup. 

I started prompting at some point after a year. At this point he was showing interest in returning things to the shelf and his receptive language was very good. We keep it light and fun and I don’t push if he really isn’t in the mood.

But is This Necessary?

Does your child need to do this? No! It’s totally up to you if it’s a priority AND every child is different. I am sharing this because I got asked a lot how I get him to clean up after playing. 

For us it is a priority for a number of reasons. 

First, I find he plays better when the space is less cluttered (I work better this way too!). When he has one material out at a time he is more focused rather than cycling through materials and just dumping.

For us also we do not have a playroom where we can just leave all the toys. They’re either in the room where he sleeps or in our living room. In a small space I find cleaning up even more essential. 

Working on this now also lays the groundwork for more independent cleanup in the future. 

One final note: the Sensitive Period for order tends to really appear during the second year of life. In this period children are drawn to order both in their environments and routines. I have seen this really appearing in Yitzchak in the last couple months and it has made him far more likely to clean up.