How do you get your child to clean their room?

1. 95

   Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years ago

   How do you get your child to clean their room?
   
   What methods have you used to coerce your child into cleaning their room? How do you get them to keep their room clean?

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2. 93

   Sparrowletposted 11 years ago

   Ah, I wrote a hub on this topic!
   
   http://sparrowlet.hubpages.com/hub/mess … -solutions
   
   but, I don't have to use these strategies anymore. My youngest, who is the only one home now, is very neat!

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      Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Fantastic article sparrowlet. Just what I needed thank you!

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   2. 93

      Sparrowletposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Oops, I just read that we are not supposed to give hub links in our answers. Sorry, won't happen again.

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      Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I won't tell lol! But thank you for the link, it was exactly what I was looking for!

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3. 60

   duffsmomposted 11 years ago

   I had one neat child and one messy child.  My attitude was the room belongs to them.  They could not leave food or damp clothing in there other than that it was their sanctuary.
   
   I tried to teach them to have respect for their things, clothing and other items they had.  They started doing their own laundry about age 11 or 12 so didn't want to have to wash clean clothing so they kept clothing put away pretty well.
   
   My casual attitude comes from the fact that I moved in with my aunt and uncle when I was 15.  She had a fit if I had an extra blanket folded at the end of the bed, said it looked messy. I knew then even at 15 the problem was hers not mine.
   
   I would help them glean and clean every once in a while but for the most part I realized it was their choice and my problem if I let it bother me. 
   
   Both girls turned out to be fine housekeepers so there was no lasting effects of a messy room.

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      Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's rather encouraging!! I'm not a neat freak (unless it's my own desk) but her room looks like a hurricane just came through! lol

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4. 79

   Amy Gillieposted 11 years ago

   I wrote a hub specifically geared toward kids cleaning their rooms. These methods seem to work well. 
   http://amygillie.hubpages.com/hub/How-t … om-Quickly

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5. 76

   Lady Wordsmithposted 11 years ago

   My mum's attitude was 'if you don't like their mess, close the door and don't go in'.  And I like that, so I'm going with that one.  At this stage in my young children's lives they still need help with keeping their rooms clean and tidy (they're only 4, 6 and 8).  So we tidy up together.  My eldest has moved into his own room now and he's keeping it very tidy all by himself - he's a tidy person; not everyone is.
   
   I've never really understood why parents think it's such a big deal for their children's rooms to be tidy.  As long as they have respect for their parents' things and their parents' space, as long as they're willing to keep the rest of the house tidy with the whole family, then if they want to live in a pigsty I think that should be up to them.  It's more important for them to have a space that they can call their own, however messy it is - if you're constantly reminding them that they're under your roof and it's your rules, why would they want to keep it tidy?  My room was a wreck when I lived with my mum - because I had so much stuff in a tiny room, I had nowhere to put anything.  That's all changed now - I didn't bring that messiness with me into my own house; I have pride in my house, and I try to keep it tidy now, because I'm a grown up!  Tidiness isn't important to a child - they have other important stuff to think about, and hormones to deal with.  They don't need nagging on top of everything. 
   
   Nagging is counter-productive.  I prefer talking to my children, having two-sided conversations.
   
   Another thing my mum did was ask me if I wanted some help to tidy my room.  I think that's so much nicer than plain old 'tidy your room, because I said so'!

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      Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, actually. I think if she wants to live with a mess fine, my only problem is her floor is covered and there is no room to walk which presents a fire hazard. I cleaned with her, but her room is so horrible I had to shut the door! lol

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6. 73

   prektjr.dcposted 11 years ago

   My favorite way to get my children to clean their rooms was to set a timer for 30 minutes and crank up the stereo and make it a competition!  I would tell them that whoever did the best job of cleaning their room in the 30 minutes would get to choose dinner and movie for our Saturday night movie night at home!  It was a fun AND super productive time frame!  Most often they would be so close that we would have a clean off and whoever finished first would win.  That encouraged them to complete the job if it needed longer than the 30 minutes!  All good and all fun!

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   1. 95

      Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      What a fantastic idea! I wonder how I could adapt that technique for one child?

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      Lady Wordsmithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I like this.  I use this kind of method for getting my kids to get dressed for bed, or other things that I need them to do quickly.  They get the duration of one song, usually.  Whoever finishes first gets more dancing time!

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7. 58

   bayuajiposted 11 years ago

   Kids is always do what they are seeing because most kids are a real plagiarist. As parents we must give them easy to follow behaviors that our kids can copy. I always tell them what am I doing with simple words for any activity I want them to follow. They will record my words, voice, tone and body language as a positive impulse in their subconscious mind. I have four kids and I always love to show some activity, like cleaning the bedroom, to them that I am doing a nice and easy activity.

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      Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My daughter watches me clean everyday, and unfortunately it doesn't seem to effect her in anyway lol But it maybe because she doesn't see my hubby clean and she's following in his footsteps.

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8. 48

   breathingposted 8 years ago

   Children are always a bit of naughty in nature. They always look to do something that can irritate you. Making room dirty is just one of them. But there is a great advantage with the child. That is they like to follow the elders. If you bring up your children in such a manner right from the childhood that the child is habituated to follow you then it will become very much easy for you. If you develop the habit of cleaning the room personally and make your child take part in the cleaning process just in the form of playing, there are high chances that your child will learn cleaning the room gradually. The questioner has mentioned that her daughter doesn’t clean the room though she does everybody. The main reason according to me is that the child is not taking part in the cleaning process. Yeah child are obviously are plagiarists but only when they get the chance to do a task themselves. That’s why I strongly believe that children should be taught cleaning room in the form of playing. This will make them take part in the process enthusiastically and eventually they will develop the habit of cleaning their room automatically.

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