Every educator struggles to embrace the mess of loose parts play when they are first starting out and anxious about how cleanup will go.  I did too by micromanaging the heck out of the children’s exploration.  Talk about helicopter parenting, well I was in high anxiety and ready to pounce mode the first time I brought out the tiny glass stones.

We get stuck wondering things like, “Who is going to put all of that back?” or “I love the idea of loose parts but I can’t handle the mess!”

When you’re feeling all of this worry and hesitation, it’s hard to move forward. 

The good news is, you can easily bring order to the chaos by first and foremost shifting your mindset about the “mess” and creating a system to find balance in the cleaning of loose parts play.

In this post, I’ll support you with cleaning up loose parts play and provide simple mindset shifts and strategies.  I hope that this will give you a roadmap so you can confidently embrace cleanup of loose parts play and create a process that works for you and the children.

Valuing The Mess of Loose Parts Play

You might be asking why do I have to value the mess, won’t that make cleanup harder?

This is a crucial component because loose parts play is about the active, dynamic and exploration using the natural variables of the world.  So things need to move, be collected, modified and transported.

Many people who are new to loose parts play start out on the right track but then get stuck because they want the items to stay in one area, put limits on how many items a child can take out or just get completely overwhelmed with all of it. 

And then they wind up putting more rules in place that limit children’s play or completely stop trying to embrace loose parts play altogether.

The key to embracing loose parts play and not getting stuck on the “mess and cleanup” is to shift your mindset about the piles of rocks, dumped buckets of sand on the floor from “a mess” to valuing the children’s play. 

Children make sense of their world through play, the transporting, dumping and collecting is their active way of figuring out the world.  Play is not organized and simple.  It is active, dynamic and complex.  This mindset shift will help you to embrace loose parts play and the “mess” that comes with it.

Another fav podcast is Strategies for Cleaning up with Loose Parts Play by Dr. Carla Gull. Make sure to check out my guest episode too!

Plan for Yes to make Cleanup Easier

If you’ve said countless times, “the {insert name of material} stays {insert place you set it up} but feel like you’re stuck on repeat – your possibly getting stuck on what you planned and losing sight of following the children’s lead as their ideas rapidly change and this is likely the piece that’s missing. ​​ 

What can you do?

A really useful strategy for embracing the cleaning up of loose parts play is planning for yes.

A picture I shared of a provocation provoked a comment of “Who’s going to clean that up?’

I get this.

I too was worried about “mess” and cleanup at points in my practice.

But this changed over the years as I reflected on my values and images of the protagonists.

Here is my response.

“The picture here is an example of a provocation that I intentionally set up from multiple observations of the children engaging in mark making and wanting to write letters. This is a child led play experience.

If the children had instead engaged in the schema play of dumping , transporting and collecting I would have responded with adding a deeper and larger tray/bins along with materials that encourage these actions. Possibly putting it on the floor and could add a tarp/cloth underneath to aid with cleanup after.

I expect the salt/sand/water to get on the table/floor. This is developmentally appropriate and part of their play.

I create a plan for yes environment. Where I have towels, brooms, mops, hand held vacuum handy. And this is done by both the children and myself.

Planning for yes allows you to be, in the moment, more prepared and open to the ever changing interests children have.

​Check out this blog post on, Plan For Yes and reflect on how this approach could impact your everyday role and the children’s engagement.

Cleanup and Loose Parts Play is a Community Practice

To me, cleanup is done as a collective, an ongoing process and not a single version.  There are many steps involved in cleaning up, expectations and skill levels to consider.  

I see cleanup as part of my role.  Whether that is helping delegate tasks, deep cleaning or physically helping with picking up, sorting and putting away their collections of variables.

For the children, cleanup may include helping putting the items in the bins, sweeping/vacuuming up sand or wiping up water off the floor.

Consider Your Expectations For Cleanup

Cleanup is a skill that involves executive functioning skills.  The ability to sort objects, know when the bin is full, putting the bin away and recognizing what area to do next.  [As adults we have challenges with this in our homes…]. So this is where expectations of the child are important to consider.

What can help is very specific directions, such as “Can you put away all the cars.” Instead of a general statement of its time to cleanup.  This helps take away many decisions for the child and easily focus on completing the task.

I think it’s also imperative to ask yourself, “Does this need to be cleaned up right now.”  Your learning environment isn’t meant to look Pinterest worthy all day long.  This can also help the task from not becoming as overwhelming and taking a length of time that is too long for the children.  So when the whole space does need to be cleaned, it’s hopefully only once or twice a day.

Of course you will have your own guidelines that have to be followed, but working on your mindset around cleanup and loose parts play can really help with getting overwhelmed with the amount and display of materials as children play. 

Reflective Practice and Cleanup

Consider reflecting on how much mess/cleanup is hindering us as educators from responding to children’s interests with engaging play experiences that are holistic, engaging sensory development and all the learning domains is needed.

Here are some reflective practice questions and aspects to consider:

• Ask yourself if that area has to be cleaned up immediately or can it stay out?
• Then consider the accessibility of tools such as child size friendly brooms, towels, vacuums to create independence, accountability and agency
• Then, in order to reduce overwhelm with cleanup and loose parts play, match expectations with children’s abilities and curate a community practice.

Once you’re done,  you’ll be well on your way to finding the beauty in loose parts play and cleanup.

Putting it All Together to Create Your Cleanup Practice

There you have it! The 3 aspects to reflect on for loose parts play cleanup.

It may sound like a lot, but just as John Dewey says, “Learing does not come from experience alone but rather from reflecting on experience.”  So focus on your mindset first about loose parts play and valuing the mess to discover what the children are trying to make sense of.  This will help you to embrace the essence if loose parts play and create a community practice for cleanup and loose parts play.

What’s next? Download Loose Parts Play Guide

If you need help getting started with loose parts play, my FREE guide on Getting Started With Loose Parts Play will help you to begin your collection and be able to connect children’s play to learning.  Plus you’ll get parent resources to advocate for play!