Getting a Child to Clean their Room
I have had a lot of experience with getting a child to clean their room. Each child is different and what works with one will not work with another. Some children don’t need help in this area, this article is written for the ones that do. Rewards and punishments work for some children, but not for others. Some children look at a messy room and have no idea how to begin cleaning it. For kids that are just completely overwhelmed, here are some ideas for helping them.
Break down the job into different areas. For example, have your child pick up all the books in the room. When that is done, have them put all the clothes in a pile. Breaking down the mess into small messes helps make the job more manageable.
Make a game out of cleaning. Set a time limit for different items and see what they can clean up the fastest. Write down the times and find out which items was the easiest to clean.
Pull everything together in one big pile. Have your child pick out the biggest item from the pile and put that away first. Or find everything that is the color red and put that away. Sometimes just cleaning up in a different way is all it takes to get the job done.
Setting rewards and punishments can work sometimes, but helping your child learn how to manage the mess and get it cleaned timely is the key to success every time. Teaching them how to clean their room saves you from harassing them every day to get it cleaned. And it can give your child a great sense of accomplishment once they are done.
These are great tips. My son is just getting to the point where he’s ready to start understanding cleaning up…well, the time is flying so much that it seems he will be. I’m actually nervous for those days where I’ll need to lay down the law seeing as how I was a messy kid myself
I think with some kids its impossible to make a child clean his room. My mom had lots of problem with me…
Getting my son to clean his room is a hassle and a half! I appreciate this advice, and I am thankful for it!
This is probably one of the posts I have read all day. I read tons and tons of blogs and this post was just fabulous! It is short yet gives good advice that I had honestly never thought of before. Thank you for giving me a little more insight into how children must be feeling. Loved it! Thank you!
When I was younger my mother would reward us spontaneously. If she found our room clean then she would leave a note from the clean room fairy and little toy, a dollar or two or some candy. It was fun for us because we never knew when the clean room fairy was coming so we wanted to keep our rooms clean so we didn’t miss her.
The game seems to work pretty well with us. Usually we can get the twins to race each other, but then the closet and toy box get filled up with laundry, bedding, toys etc…
But the floor ends up clean, so we just have to chose our battles.
Great tips indeed. And very needed in some occasions. It is hard to learn children to clean their rooms. That process can be very hassling, but when you put your efforts and explain importance to you children, then they will get a habit and clean normally.
Solid, common sense advice. Thanks! It is so crucial to get kids into the cleaning habit while they are small. If they grow up knowing that somebody always cleans up after them, this bad habit will continue into adulthood. It is well worth the hassle and time.