How to De-Clutter Your Child's Room

If you have a child who is a pack-rat and has a difficult time keeping his room neat or throwing things away, it's time to help him get rid of the clutter.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Large trashbags
• storage bins
• a good portion of an afternoon

1. Set aside the good portion of an afternoon so that the job can be done thoroughly and not stopped in the middle of the cleaning.

2. Go through every item that is in view, including all pieces of paper and all knick-knacks, and ask the child to explain why whatever it is is so important to her. It may be helpful to give small incentives. If your child can part with a good number of her knick-knacks, perhaps you can give her tokens for some time with you or a nickel per knick-knack she gives up.

3. If things are broken or not in good working order but your child is still trying to hold on to them, try explaining to him that they don't work properly because they're broken and they're just taking up space in his room.

4. The main idea of this (besides getting rid of the clutter) is showing your child that everything in her room has a place. If she keeps it in that place, she'll always know where it is. There will be a restored sense of calm when the room is de-cluttered.

5. At the end of this cleaning/de-cluttering expedition, do something fun with your child to reward all of his hard work.

Tips & Warnings

• Your child will feel a sense of calm and structure once the room is clutter free.
• If you have another room in your house where toys are kept, perhaps you could take some of the "clutter" your child can't bear to part with and put it in a large bin in that room.
• Try not to get into arguments over what to throw away. For reasons you may not be able to understand, your child has an attachment to it.

[chava812]

on 3/28/2008 Got any ideas on how to deal with this is you're the one with this tendency and the child just doesn't care? It's overwhelming to look at these things and I could use his help in cleaning up his room, but it seems to fall on me to do. My boys are 12 and 14 and live with their Dad, who hired a housekeeper to take care of their house, so they aren't getting any lessons at home there. They are also more apt to refuse to come over if the situation here is not to their liking (rules, regulations, work). Any suggestions for dealing with this?

[CrazyAce]

on 3/21/2008 Like Mother Like Daughter.
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