How to Teach Your Child to Clean Their Room (and Have Fun Doing It!)
Getting your kids to clean their rooms can be easy with the right approach. Make cleaning time fun by getting organized and teaching your kids how to clean their rooms. Here are some great tips for how to teach your child to clean their room and have fun doing it!
9 Tips for How to Teach Your Child to Clean Their Room
1. Develop Realistic Expectations
Children often view their room as the space they can control. (This is especially true for tweens and teens who are often seeking privacy.) Give them some basic guidelines and set a standard that they can achieve.
Don’t expect your child’s room to always be as clean and tidy as you would have cleaned it. Unless you’re willing to clean the room for them, it probably won’t measure up to your level of clean.
It’s more important for them to learn how to clean their room (and to do it regularly) than to have a pristine space.
P.S. Don’t worry – most kids who throw their clothes on the floor still grow up to be responsible adults!
2. 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.
Related: 5 Secrets of an Organized Mom
3. Ban Food in the Bedroom
Except for a fresh water bottle, keeping food out the bedroom will prevent many messes from ever happening. Plus, you don’t have to worry about wrappers and dishes being left for days on end.
Eating in the kitchen and dining room also encourages more family time and less mindless snacking.
4. Clear the Clutter
It may be difficult to clean if you’ve got too many possessions. Minimizing your child’s belongings can make it easier for them to keep their room clean.
Make a family tradition of regularly getting rid of unused or worn-out items. Let kids help pick a charity where they want to donate their old toys. Or you could have a garage sale and share the profits with your kids.
We frequently purge our belongings, donating gently used items to a resale shop in town that benefits several local charities.
Related: 6 Easy Steps to a Clutter Free Home
5. Invest in Storage Solutions
When you make it easy for kids to keep everything in its proper place, you can 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.
We use cloth bins in our main living areas (to hide the contents) and clear storage totes in our closets (for easy identification). You can also use photos or a label maker to identify what belongs in each storage container.
6. Show Your Kids How to Clean
Kids will be less resistant to cleaning if they feel confident about basic tasks. Demonstrating each cleaning task you want them to complete is key.
Praise them for helping you dust or make the beds so they’ll learn by observing and imitating. And don’t expect perfection every time.
I find that my kids are much more likely to put forth good effort when I compliment instead of critique.
Related: Teaching Kids to Clean the Bathroom
7. Clean with a Timer
Children have limited attention spans. And cleaning can be overwhelming.
Cleaning for 10 or 15 minutes at a time will often get better results than marathon sessions. We frequently set a timer and make it a game to see how much cleaning or picking up we can get done.
It’s amazing how little time most cleaning tasks take!
8. Do 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 Saturday outings.
Our kids have to “pick up” their rooms each night before bed, and we don’t leave the house for fun outings with messy rooms.
9. 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.
But don’t be playing on your phone while the kids are cleaning. If you’re not cleaning with them, be working elsewhere in the home.
Related: Teach Kids to Work
Kids Can Clean Their Rooms
Most children have messy rooms from time to time. Instead of getting upset, set reasonable standards and teach your child to clean their room to make cleaning fun and efficient.
When you use these tips to teach your child to clean their room, you’ll be rewarded with a better relationship with your kids and a cleaner home!
