Two birds with one stone.

Getting Chloe to clean her room is a never ending battle - as it is with all six year old little girls with too many toys. Andrew made an exceptional point (that should have been obvious) - she gets overwhelmed when I just say "clean your room" because she doesn't know where to start.

I've devised a solution. I've used it now two days with reasonably good results and so thought I'd share, for those of you who also have six year old little girls with too many toys. The best part is that it's educational too - gets writing/spelling out of the way for the day.

Step 1: Get a sheet of paper, number it 1-10. Give the sheet to the child, along with a pencil.
Step 2: Instruct child to pick up 10 toys and to write each toy she picks up on the list.
Step 3: Cheer and do a little dance when you discover your child has actually picked up 10 toys.
Step 4: Go through the list, gently correct spelling, and suggest your child re-write the words that were spelled wrong.
Step 5: Go have some cookies and milk and congratulate your kid. She deserves it.

For whatever reason, Chloe thinks listing the items she picks up is far more fun than just picking up. And to say "10 things" instead of "clean your room" seems less overwhelming. She's picked up 20 things in two days and her room does look a bit cleaner. I figure a week of this and we should be all caught up in there. :o)

Hope this works for someone else too!