How to Motivate an Adolescent to Pick up Their Own Belongings

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By Coach4U
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Does your adolescent's bedroom look like this?

Trying to get an adolescent to pick up their belongings (clothing, books, backpacks, etc) can often result in major frustration and anger for both parent and adolescent. Clothing and other belongings are very expensive and we want to see them maintained properly. I finally found a solution to motivate my adolescent to keep her belongings picked up.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Persistence
Motivation

Step 1

My daughter's closet looked like this

My adolescent daughter and I had a major problem when it came to keeping her clothing and belongings picked up and taken care of. I was growing weary of nagging her and picking her things up myself. When I had to pick up her things I would put them up for a couple of weeks and she would have to make do without them.
Step 2

Finally, I decided to try and motivate my daughter with money, since she gets an allowance each week. I sat my daughter down and told her that I would be charging her 25 cents out of her allowance for any clothing item found on the floor, or stuffed into a drawer. Also she would be charged the same amount for items left out in other areas of the house, (such as leaving her sweatshirt draped across the chair). At first I was charging her, and it wasn't making the impact I hoped for on her behavior. We continued to have the same old problems.
Step 3

Find ways to motivate your adolescent

I sat down with my daughter and we had a second talk about being responsible for her belongings. I told her my expectations again. I also told her I would be increasing her "fine" to 50 cents an item.
Step 4

Happy parents mean a happy household

Finally, the light went on and my daughter realized she would quickly lose her entire allowance if she didn't change her ways. She started keeping her clothing picked up and her other belongings.

This may not work for every parent of an adolescent, but it sure worked for us and made our lives much easier and happier.