How to Help Your Child Keep His Room Clean

Children have a way of making a neat room messy in a matter of minutes... or if they’re especially good at what they’re doing, mere seconds! They are creative and uninhibited, which makes it possible for them to need to use the playdoh, the legos, the blocks, the Barbies, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figurines all at the same time. Then, unless they are particularly conscientious, they are likely to wander away from their mayhem, leaving it to languish on the floor until the playdoh dries up and an unsuspecting parent steps on a lego.

Does this sound like what goes on in your house? If so, you’re not alone! Here are some tips on helping your kids keep their rooms clean and neat:

If all of the toys are tossed in a toybox, then the Law of Scattered Toys dictates that the one item your child wants is at the very bottom. Nip this in the bud by getting rid of the toy-box (or at least making it into a bed for stuffed animals only) and giving your child labeled bins instead. This way, all of the toys can be separated by type and they can live in the bins. If your child cannot read yet, put pictures of each bin’s contents on the outside of the box. Finally, make sure that there are enough bins and enough shelving space for your child’s belongings. If toys are spilling out of the bins, then get more bins or get rid of some toys.

Different families have different expectations and rules when it comes to how toys can be played with and put away. For example, if mess makes you want to tear your hair out, you might do better with rules such as, “Take out only two bins at a time, then put them away as soon as your finished.” If you don’t mind some mess as long as it’s all put away by the time bedtime rolls around, your rule for this might be, “All messes need to be cleaned up before lunch and then again before bathtime.” And if you really want your kids to be able to play unhindered but still want to keep some semblance of tidiness, you might have a “every Saturday, this entire room must be spotless” rule. Remember, though, that the more often they clean up the mess, the less overwhelming it will be, and the less likely that you’ll have to do the bulk of it!

Letting little ones keep paint, crayons and playdoh (and for some kids, legos) in their bedrooms is just a recipe for disaster. If there are items that have the potential to make a huge mess, these are better kept out of the kids’ reach until you are available to supervise. This is also a consideration to keep in mind if you have toddlers as well as older kids; the toys that your school-aged children play with may very well be choking hazards for your littler ones. If this is the case, then the Polly Pockets and marbles should be kept up high and out of everyone’s reach unless the baby is in another room or you are able to watch carefully.

Instead of losing your cool, try to keep calm and simply help your child clean up when the inevitable mess occurs. Play upbeat music and have a race to see who can clean up his or her pile first. By making cleaning a fun thing to do, there’s less of a chance that your child will have a meltdown over being expected to put the matchbox cars away.

It can be frustrating to teach your children how to keep things clean, but the benefit is that all of this hard work will pay off in the end and you’ll have kids who know what to do and take good care of their belongings. Of course, once they’re teenagers, all bets are off, but hopefully they will grow up into adults who know how to keep their houses neat and tidy!