Hi R.!
Being a first-time is so fun, isn't it? :o) Yikes!
First of all, I think your daughter is too young to begin potty training. Your "clue" is when she wants to go, then go through the "motions" of going potty on the toilet. My 16 month old nephew is "fooling" his mom right now :o) He wants to use the potty, too, so she takes him through the motions and 30% of the time he is using the potty. But this small percentage is only the times that he ASKS to go. He is doing it because he is one of the youngest of 4 boys and see's everyone else doing it :o) Your daughter isn't following an example, so I don't think you should worry about it until you "see the signs".....you will know when it's time :O)
Bottles- First, I said that bottles were only for sleeping. This limited the bottles to twice daily. Then, I started to say that "Bottles are only for at night"........This eliminated the daytime bottles, and eased the use of sippy cups more often. There was only 1 day of trying this, and because my boys were not giving up bottles completely, they went with it!
Keeping the house and bedrooms clean is a WHOLE other issue! I have my boys toys mostly organized, even a LABELED Library so they can put back their books in the right place :o) It's no use, really.........one thing that has been working, though............I go in to the room that they are playing in and see "how bad" it is, and depending, I say, "ok, it's time to clean up one thing, then go back to what you are doing". Sometimes I say, "let's see if you can do it by the time I count to 20". They have to know what they are going to clean up before i start counting, otherwise, they feel too overwhelmed. But it does work after lots of practice. Your daughter is at the perfect age to begin this. You check on her, and say "oh my! You have 6 different toys out, it's time to choose one to clean up"......she'll say NO of course, but that's another issue :o)
But really, no matter what their age, you will have this problem. As she gets older, it will be more difficult to simply keep it in her room. She will want to bring it out into the home!
I am truly not one to talk, nor a good example, but a few suggestions that I have been given are:
* Get rid of toys immediately. Someone said if you get 1 toy from the store, then you MUST be able to find another old one in the room to get rid of.
* Rotate them in and out of the room every few months. This way she will always have "new" toys. (This was suggested to you already)
* Clear bins with photos on the front. The photo should be a picture of the toy/game that's in the clear bin. This way even a non-reader can cleanup. (This was also suggested to you, and we have done this)
I'm only good about using the clear bins :o) But when i DID make the effort to rotate toys, it does work. And, I can never seem to remember to "get rid of" old toys for new one's (now that my kids are older). When they were younger they didn't like this because they couldn't fully understand WHY they had to give something away. So, now that Christmas is over, I think I will begin to try to use it :o)
Good Luck, R.!
~N. :o)