Reading how everyone hates kid messes online made me shrug

Under a mom's Instagram post, every single comment was about keeping homes spotless for sanity. I think a bit of clutter shows kids are playing and learning, not just sitting still. Our living room floor is often covered in blocks, and it sparks way more creativity than a tidy space ever could.

3 comments

3 Comments

ninaramirez1mo ago

Consider how a bit of clutter teaches kids early organization skills. My five year old now sorts her own blocks back into bins by color because she learned where everything goes from the "mess". That lived in floor system worked better for us than a perfectly tidy shelf she never touched.

betty_butler731mo agoTop Commenter

Oh man, I completely get this! My sister has two little ones, and she lets them keep toys out sometimes. They learned to put things away because they knew where everything belonged from playing with it. It's like the mess becomes a map for them. Forcing a perfect shelf might look nice, but it doesn't help kids learn. Have you found other ways that messy play helps with learning?

nora_walker1mo ago

But that "lived in floor system" sounds like a tripping hazard to me.