Help Your Kids Have Fun Cleaning Their Rooms
Getting your kids to clean their rooms can be easy with the right approach. Make cleaning time fun by getting organized and talking to your kids in a way that engages them.
Organizing Techniques:
Develop realistic expectations. Children often view their room as the space they can control. This is especially true for pre-teens and teens, who are often seeking privacy. You do need to guard against any health hazards, especially if your kids have dust allergies. On the other hand, it's okay to value a happy family life over keeping every surface pristine.
Don't worry - most kids who throw their clothes on the floor still grow up to be responsible adults!
Set a good example. Kids always pay more attention to what you do than to what you say. If you put away your clothes, they're more likely to follow your lead eventually. By taking care of your belongings and creating an orderly environment, you send a message that these are good habits.
Ban food in the bedroom. Except for water, keeping food out of the bedroom will prevent many messes from ever happening. Eating in the kitchen and dining room also encourages more family time and less excessive snacking.
Clear away clutter. It may be difficult to clean if you've got too many possessions. Make a family tradition of regularly getting rid of unused or worn-out items. Let kids help pick the charity where they want to donate their old toys or ever to someone they know. My daughter loves giving her things to her cousins, it is very sweet to witness. Or you can even have a garage sale and share the profits with your kids, thus teaching them about money and repurposing them we no longer have need for.
Invest in storage solutions. Make it easy for kids to keep everything in its proper place and you can all spend a lot less time straightening up. Put frequently used items on lower shelves and hooks where small children can reach them. Get big bins for large items and small bins to keep items with multiple parts organized. You can have fun with this and multi-color things, or what we do if we label collapsible bins which we have on cube shelves.
In our home we have shelving and bins and baskets that match our décor to keep things looking pretty. This helps my daughter and I pick up and store what isn’t put away in a way that is organized and easy to find while feeling good about what our home surroundings look like.
Teach your kids how to clean. Kids will be less resistant to cleaning if they feel confident about basic tasks. Praise them for helping you dust or make the beds so they'll learn by observing and imitating. Starting early with little things that make them feel like they are ‘big helpers’ help keep them motivated to help out.
My daughter is 4 years old and helps me load the laundry, brings her plate to the kitchen, and helps with the dishwasher. She already knows these to be her chores and enjoys contributing.
Break cleaning sessions down into manageable chunks. Children have limited attention spans. Cleaning for 10 or 15 minutes at a time will often get better results than marathon sessions.
As it is just my daughter and I, we try to stay on top of things, when we are done playing with something- we try putting it away before we start the next project. This helps us to focus in the moment, but as a college student, an entrepreneur, and a single parent, life does keep hectic. Communicating this with my daughter helps us both take accountability and work together, while having grace as well. It is important to have balance.
Do some regular maintenance. It's easier to keep a neat room tidy. Make morning or evening pick-up times a daily ritual. Do a little dusting before your outings. There is an old saying my grandpa always said, “when you rise early and make time to pray and make your bed, the rest of the day becomes more productive because you took care of your home needs first so you can focus on the rest”.
Communication Techniques:
Invite your child's input. Help your child to value their surroundings by giving them a voice in decorating their room. They can help shop for storage systems or choose wall art they like.
We just redecorated my daughter’s room as she isn’t a toddler anymore. She wanted it still to be fancy and so we bought some functional items for her room with chic elements so her room looks like a girls room but will definitely grow with her.
Work together. Household tasks can be a time for you and your child to enjoy each other's company and conversation. Small children need plenty of guidance when cleaning. As they get older, you can back off a little on supervising and just do some spot-checking.
It can be easy to want to clean by yourself because it is quicker.. This is why we need to try to keep up on the deep cleaning so we can have the patience to have our children clean with us. Having them start early will make it that much easier as they grow older.
Develop educational games. Cleaning games are a great way to entertain and educate small children. Drill them on vocabulary by naming household items, or play counting games as you roll up socks. We even sing the “clean up” song or challenge each other to a race. When things are fun, they aren’t any longer chores.
Offer choices and rewards. Everyone likes to be given choices. Ask your child if they want to clean their room before or after soccer practice. Use positive praise and rewards to reinforce good behavior.
Most children have messy rooms from time to time. Set reasonable standards and communicate effectively to make cleaning fun and efficient. You'll be rewarded with a better relationship with your kids and a neater home.
I often remind my daughter that we have rules so people don’t get hurt and things don’t get broken. Helping her understand that we need to take care of what God has blessed us with in a sense that she understands, while also brings me back humbly to Who God is and His covenant with us as His protection for us.
Helping our children live intentionally helps us to better live intentionally as we focus on Him.
