How to Teach Your Child to Clean His or Her Room

Picking up after your child doesn't have to be a hassle for either of you - a positive attitude and a reliable routine can keep your child's room clean.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Laundry Baskets
• Plastic Storage Drawers
• Bulletin Boards
• Toy Chests

1. Establish a firm room-cleaning schedule for your child, such as cleaning at the end of each day before bed.

2. Put him or her in charge of putting away toys after playing with them. Provide a toy chest, wicker baskets or plastic containers for this purpose - the more colorful, the better.

3. Try to make cleaning fun - play music from his or her favorite movie or band while sorting toys, for example.

4. Put up a bulletin board on which your child can keep and display his or her art and other creations.

5. Show your child that his or her desk is for writing and drawing, as well as keeping papers, books and writing utensils.

6. Go through your child's possessions together once a year, pick out games and toys that he or she no longer uses and donate them to charity.

7. Provide separate storage and play areas within a room if two or more children share it.

Tips & Warnings

• Be firm and consistent.
• Explain that you will temporarily take away any toys left out, and follow through on this.

[smartz]

on 6/24/2009 Great article really enjoyed it!!

[cvoller]

on 6/9/2008 1. Make sure they have a place to put away their stuff.
2. Purge stuff that is broke or that they don't play with. (Just because you spent a lot of money on it doesn't mean they have gotten your money's worth out of it...sometimes, it is you that needs to let go.)
3. Make a routine out of maintenance items, like all clothes go in the hamper when you take them off.

So, our nine year old son seems to always get distracted in his cleaning process by finding something and playing with it. What has seemed to work lately is to set a timer and say he needs to clean his room for a half an hour. In a half an hour, I am going to inspect it and see if it is clean. If it is not, he needs to clean for another half an hour. It has really shown him that he can get a lot done if he just sets his mind to it. Of course, his father's fear is that everything is just getting thrown into his bin

on 1/9/2006 My mom always had me clean up one type of thing at a time, such as just the clothing, shoes, toys, papers, etc. She told me to ignore everything except for whatever I was working on at the moment, and when I finished that thing, she would give me another thing to pick up. By focusing on just one thing, it divided a large chore into manageable bits. To this day I continue to clean my room this way (I'm about to graduate from college).

on 11/22/2005 The rolling under-bed storage bins without the tops are great for storing Barbie dolls or race cars with tracks. Of course use your imagination for items to be placed there. Also clear shoe boxes are great for building blocks, ello sets, puzzles, etc. This makes all containers the same size for a visually appealing look and ease in stacking when cleaning up.

on 11/22/2005 Here are a few ideas on storing toys, arts, and crafts, etc.
1. Buy storage bends and label on outside of container. Use all sizes and keep groups of things together: Barbie Accessories, things to use for crafts, baby dolls, etc.
2. Use empty oatmeal containers both large and small.
3. Use all sizes of pringles cans.
4. Use snack size zip lock bags for small pieces.