How to help young kids tidy their rooms...and keep them tidy!

Ask any child what their least favorite chore is and they're bound to say tidying their rooms. Clothes and toys strewn across floors are not only eyesores, they're hazards too! By making cleaning a joint effort, offering rewards and making it fun, it will make life easier for everyone.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Cardboard
• Craft materials
• Stickers
• Patience
• Time

1. De-clutter your child's room before beginning as it will make the task much less daunting for both of you!
2. Explain to your child what a clean room involves. My son is 8 and he knows that for me to agree his room is tidy it means that his floor is free from toys, dirty clothes have been put in the laundry basket and his bed is made.
3. Using cardboard and craft materials, create a sticker chart with your child. It's particularly useful to theme the chart around an interest of theirs - whether it's Barbie or Pokemon. Try and get stickers around this theme. Each day they keep their room tidy, one sticker will be placed on the chart.
4. Our chart is done monthly as a calendar. For each day the room is tidy at bedtime, one sticker is earned.
5. As you're creating the chart, decide with your child what rewards are on offer. Keep rewards inexpensive by focussing on activities your child may already be doing or those which he or she doesn't get the opportunity to do often. My son is offered: time on the computer and tv, the ability to stay an extra 30 minutes on the weekend, a trip to the park or inviting friends over to play. The more consecutive days tidying happens, increase the reward. Focus on the positive. After all, this activity is about encouraging good behaviour through rewards.
6. Some children may need more guidance with cleaning. My son finds the whole thing quite daunting, so we break his tidying into tasks. To make things more fun and to keep him interesting, we have races to see who can feel up a toy tub first or put their pile of clothes away first.
7. As your child grows older, you can introduce cleaning products to their repetoire of skills. However, if your child is anything like mine, you might find that they send you to the poorhouse as they overclean surfaces!! His current favourite is polish...he's a great help, but he's got a bottle a week habit for me to support!

Tips & Warnings

• Be patient. It won't happen overnight. Like anything, it takes time.