How to Encourage Teens to Clean Rooms

Video Transcript

"Hello. Have you ever wondered how to help your teen encourage to clean their rooms? Well every parent wants it done, so let me help you with that. I'm Dr. Felicia, and I have a few important tips for you. First thing you want to do of course is start as early as possible, in childhood, where they start to picking up their toys and they know they're responsible to do that. You want to set that clean precedence for child's taking care of their room as early as possible. Now if necessary you may go in there, in the room with them, one or two times, show them how it's done. The best way to help them keep it organized is to have the proper facilities for them, so that they have storage bins, they have little cubbies. And if you need to, financially I mean, you can certainly use milk crates, that helps, so that each one's identified for a different item. You want to help them sort things out, and then teach them how to use the cleaning supplies, etc., when necessary. By teen years they should be able to follow that direction. They would usually want to keep their clothes in pretty good order. Although, many of them like to drop them on the floor, you want to make sure you have the right hangers in their closets, and a lot of closet space. This is especially important when you have teens who share a room with another sibling. If that's the case, it gets a little more difficult to keep it clean. And one usually has better cleanliness habits than the other. So you want to get in there and kind of mediate between the two. But make sure that they have the appropriate storage bins, that they see how you clean, by setting example. And as long as they know that that's an expectation, that they should clean their room, whether it's once a week, or once a month, and they learn how to maintain the cleanliness, or at least some point of organization so that they can find what they're looking for. So as a parent, it's up to you to set the example, and then also teach the method. Once you teach the method, you want to encourage them to maintain that method. And if necessary, in some cases you may have to take chores away, etc., things like that. But for the most part, they will follow if you teach them young. Alright, good luck with that. Happy cleaning. Dr. Felicia."