How to Encourage Teens to Clean Their Rooms

By eHow Parenting Editor

Rate: (11 Ratings)

Quit nagging and get better results through encouragement and motivation.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Cleaning Cloths
CD Stack Organizers
Feather Dusters
Laundry Baskets
Plastic Storage Drawers
Storage Organizers
Vacuum Cleaners

Step1

Provide plenty of shelves and drawers so that your teen has a place for everything.

Step2

Teach your teen how to vacuum, sweep, fold clothes, dust and wipe down walls. Let him or her know that these skills need to be exercised in the bedroom.

Step3

Help tackle a big job once. Maintenance is easier with a clean start.

Step4

Work out a "clean plan," creating an actual map of where things go. Put trophies, stuffed animals, Barbie collections, CDs, shoes, pens and pencils and the laundry basket on the map. Tape the map on the inside of a closet door.

Step5

Work out a reward plan. For a month of cleaning, add a little extra allowance or buy the sneakers or CD your teen has been wanting.

Step6

Encourage teens to throw out the unused, unwanted and unloved.

Tips & Warnings

Neat and tidy is often copied from big sisters and brothers and moms and dads.
New bedclothes, curtains and painted walls can make a teen proud of a room and more likely to keep it picked up.
Fun storage items such as CD stacks, color-coded plastic bins and hampers can help organize.
No matter how bad the room gets, sometimes you have to bite your tongue to respect your teenager's privacy and sense of who he or she is.
Dirty laundry, wet towels or old food can end up being a health hazard. Keep an eye on things.

Comments

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I'm 15, and they way I clean my room is very simple. I start with the floor and the old fashioned Grab'n Put method. Get some empty boxes. Kneel on the floor, grab random handfuls of stuff, and put them in the box, when the box is full, put it in a corner, and fill another box, when the floor is cleaned up (or when you run out of boxes) go through the boxes; Trash trash, put books on shelves, deal with clothes clean or dirty, but papers in a small box, etc. Then once the floor is cleared up, move on to other parts of the room to clean. You can also try moving furniture around to make more room, and to avoid problems when moving furniture you should remember, The measuring tape is your friend.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Every couple of days my daughter and I speed clean. We crank up two songs we both like and try to clean as much as we can before the songs end.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I have no problems cleaning my room, and once I finally get into it; it's kinda fun. But when I look at the mess it's like "Where do i start?" My advice for parents is don't nag. Suggest they clean the room, but then leave it at that. You can joke about the room being messy, for example my dad put a bio hazard sign on my door! Don't push it too far though, you don't want to offend them, just make them feel embarrassed about their room. My advice to teens is to get it done. There's a nice sense of achievement when your room is clean and looks nice. You could make it fun and be creative by changing your furniture around and giving your room new look. I find it really hard to keep my room clean, but if you can spend ten minutes a day putting stuff away it helps. You can put rubbish in the bin or sort your clothes while you're listening to music or talking on the phone. It saves a huge job later.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 If you have a pile of items, start with just one item. If you want to keep it, find a home for a it - a place where it will be kept when not in use. If you have no use for it, get rid of it. If you just take care of one item at a time, you can make steady progress.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I highly disagree with the person who said that simply 'telling' a teen to clean their room will either clean the room or make them feel more secure. I hate it when my mom says 'Clean it!' If she wants it clean, she should either set up a date to help me clean it (and stick with it), or clean it herself. Also, I feel more secure when my mom helps me around problems, not tells me to do it myself. How secure is a parent who doesn't do double-duty as a safety net? Anyway, to encourage a teen to clean their room, make their lives easier when they're older. When you're furnishing their rooms, put in organizational furniture! I love to read, and I didn't get bookcases until 6 months ago. My books were stuck in cardboard boxes. Keep this in mind - you (the parent) may have caused half the problem.

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