How to help your kids keep their rooms tidy
There'll come a time where you can hopefully stop picking up toys and clothes all day long, and shift some responsibility to your children!
You'll have to remain involved if your children are small but instilling them with appropriate jobs, and a grown-up sense of responsibility, is a step in the right direction.
The mantra "a place for everything, and everything in its place" is important - there must be places for all the toys, clothes, and books to live. Storage, storage, storage and more storage won't go astray so start by ensuring they have adequate cupboard space, shelving, rubbish bins, and laundry hampers.
Using songs or games can help make cleaning up fun, there are plenty of cleaning up lyrics online which can be used with the rhymes of Twinkle Twinkle or Happy Birthday. Another neat idea is to write down six tasks, get your kids to roll the dice and be assigned a job according to the number on the die. Playing freeze or beat the clock are also good ways to challenge kids to clean their rooms.
Tips
- A cutlery-drawer insert is a great way to store a myriad pieces of small toys or small resealable bags are handy too.
- In a room-share situation, allot each child a space that they can make entirely their own.
- Under bed storage boxes are godsend!
- Hanging storage such as IKEA's PS Fangst or Korall Storja are great for soft toys and fun to use (and only $5!).
- Don't ask your kids to clean up their rooms if yours looks like a bomb site. If you consider floor space storage, chances are your kids will too.
- Encourage a regular tidy up at the end of the day, or set aside some tidy-up time on the weekend
- Use positive re-enforcement and give your child praise for successfully cleaning their room.
- De-clutter. Regularly get rid of broken toys, or toys your child no longer uses. Give unwanted toys to charity.
