9 Genius Tactics to Stop Your Toddler Destroying the House

Stop your toddler destroying the house. But how?

I finish up fluffing the couch pillows and glance around the spotless living room in satisfaction. The floor has been freshly mopped. Everything is exactly in place. It’s hard to contain my glee.

I hurry off to the next room to grab my phone. This historic moment must be captured on my camera.

I return to the living room 15 minutes later (my 6 year old wanted some help in painting a traffic light).

I stop dead in my tracks. Blocks, stuffed animals and dolls cover every inch of the floor. The couch is smeared with peanut butter. A storybook lies on the floor in tatters with pages shredded to bits. The side table (and all the knick knacks on it) has been knocked down.

My toddler looks up at me, a mischievous grin pasted across her otherwise angelic face. It’s hard to decide whether to be angry or to simply throw my hands up in exasperation and go collapse on my bed.

Cleaning up after a toddler destroying the house can be SO exhausting.

It’s similar to trying to brush your teeth while simultaneously stuffing Oreo biscuits in your mouth.

By the time you’ve managed to clean one area of the house, your child has quickly trashed that area and swiftly moved to another area to conquer.

This post is about how to stop your toddler destroying the house

After years of struggling with this on a daily basis, I’ve learned that by implementing some simple strategies, you can easily minimize the destruction in the house at the hands of your little one.

9 Simple Ways to Stop Your Toddler Destroying the House

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1. Get Protective Covers

If you don’t want things in your house to get damaged at the hands of your child, it’s best to take measures to protect them.

Are you tired of buying an expensive couch every year? Protect it with a sofa slipcover.

We bought this one recently in light grey for our 3 seater. I was unsure how it would end up looking but was SO pleasantly surprised at the material, quality and fit and couldn’t have been happier with the purchase.

Now every time my toddler smears food (and other stuff) on it I just toss it in the washing machine without having to fret about stains.

Does your toddler love to hurl your phone as hard as he can to see how far it goes? Get a protective cover for your phone.

It’s always better to prevent disasters from taking place rather than dealing with the consequences later on.

2. Put Items Away

It sounds simple enough but most of us don’t actually go through with this. Look around your house and see which items can easily be torn, broken or damaged. Then put them out of your toddler’s reach.

It doesn’t matter what you do with them. Either box them or put them somewhere high up. Just make sure those tiny, destructive hands can’t get to them.

Yes that might mean your house will have fewer decorative items. And yes, that might mean that you’ll have to strip your living room until there’s nothing left except the bare necessities.

But you know what the good news is? Your kids can be kids. They can explore their environment without you having a nervous breakdown every five minutes.

Plus before you know it they’ll be out of the toddler years. You can go back to having your house exactly the way you wanted. In the meantime, your sanity is more important than having a Pinterest worthy house.

3. Buy Machine Washable Things

This is a hack that will save you so much time, hassle and stress. Every time your toddler spills on or colors on an item, you just pop it in the washing machine and you’re good to go.

Items that should definitely be machine washable include toys, sofa covers and especially rugs.

I made the mistake of buying a shag rug that could only be spot cleaned. Within a few months, it had food stains, milk stains and pee stains that no amount of scrubbing with baking soda could resolve.

Needless to say, I had to toss it out. ALWAYS have machine washable rugs in a house with toddlers.

4. Toddler Proof

You might have deluded yourself into thinking you’ve done a good job of removing breakable things from your toddler’s sight.

You’re wrong.

Toddlers have a knack of doing dangerous things ALL DAY with little regard for the safety implications. Like not holding hands while crossing the road, plugging and unplugging wires, jumping on sofas and slamming doors.

So even if you’ve baby proofed your house, you need to now toddler proof. Your toddler can walk, jump and climb and reach places he couldn’t previously.

Here are some steps you should definitely take:

• Get down to your child’s level. Put away or out of reach, every item they could possibly destroy or harm themselves with

• Get electrical outlet covers to guard against shocks

• Keep scribbling objects like pens, markers and paint out of reach

• Get child safety locks for drawers, cabinets, the fridge and toilet seat

• Put pots and pans at the back of the stove when cooking, with the handles turned inwards

• Keep household cleaners, medicines and sharp objects such as knives well out of reach

• Remove hanging table covers. Your child could tug on it, resulting in all the items on the table tumbling down on him

• Never leave hot beverages where your toddler’s hand can reach

• Remove furniture near windows. Your child might climb on top and fall out.

RELATED:

The Ultimate Guide to Toddler Proofing Your Home – Safety Hacks That Work

5 Helpful Tips to Stop Toddler Unplugging Things

5. Teach About Consequences

Every time you find your toddler destroying the house, make it a point to remind him that it’s his job to clean it up. Even if you’re doing most of the cleaning, be sure to involve him in the process of cleaning up.

Kids soon learn that each time they make a mess, they need to clean it up too.

Related Post: 5 Insanely Creative Ways To Teach a Toddler to Clean Up | Cleaning With Kids

6. Praise Good Behavior

When you catch your toddler playing nicely, be sure to give her positive attention and praise her behavior. Point out to her what you specifically like about what she’s doing. “I’m so glad to see you’re reading your storybook without tearing it”.

Many times toddlers act destructively in order to get your attention. When they see that playing nicely gets them lots of attention, they’re more likely to engage in such behavior.

7. Use Up Their Energy Outdoors

One of the reasons toddlers get so destructive is because they have a lot of pent up energy and they don’t know what to do with it.

Take them outdoors where they can run, ride a bike or scooter and expend some of that energy. By the time they come indoors they’ll be too tired to wreck havoc.

Related Post: 25 Ridiculously Cool Gifts for Toddlers Who Love Outdoors

8. Distract

Toddlers have a very short attention span so use it to your advantage.

If she’s ripping up her storybooks, gently take away the books and briefly explain why she can’t tear them up. “We won’t have any stories left to read at bed time”.

Then distract her by giving a stack of old newspapers which she can tear up to her hearts content.

RELATED:

12 Easy Toddler Activities to Keep your Toddler Out of Trouble | No Prep Indoor Activities

9. Give Opportunities to Get Destructive

Children learn a lot from messy play. So if you have a toddler destroying the house then it’s important that you give them opportunities to engage in constructive “destructive” behavior.

• Give them blocks and let them build and destroy as much as they’d like

• Toddler’s love dumping things out. So fill up one of the kitchen drawers with interesting, safe ‘adult’ items. Such as wooden spoons, plastic bowls and different colored containers. Then let them dump away

• Take them outdoors and let them throw things (like a Frisbee or ball)

•  Spread old newspapers all over the floor and let them use finger paint to make handprints

• Fill up an old carton with some sand and leaves and put it in your backyard. Give them plastic cups and spoons and let them play away and make a mess (making sure they don’t eat any of it).

You’ll have to supervise them closely during all of these activities. Toddlers haven’t yet developed the skills to play safely by themselves.

Why do toddlers like to destroy things?

As parents we want to know how to stop our toddler from destroying things. But perhaps more important is trying to understand the reasons why toddlers are so destructive.

Toddlers are at a stage of exploring their environment, understanding cause and effect and developing their gross motor skills. They’re curious to see what happens when they splatter ketchup all over the table. They’re interested to know what noise the alarm clock makes if they smash it against the wall.

And while we may call this ‘destruction’ or ‘mess’ at the hands of our little one, its actually experimentation on their behalf. They are trying to figure out how this world works .

The truth hence is that toddlers learn a lot from the messes they make.

So the key is to prevent toddler destruction while at the same time giving them room to explore their environment.

I hope these tips help you in saving your house from destruction at the hands of your little one.

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5 Insanely Creative Ways To Teach a Toddler to Clean Up | Cleaning With Kids