Making it Easy: Helping a Child Clean Their Room

Like every Mother on in the modern world we wonder just how will we get our child to clean his room. There is the age old force method, "CLEAN YOUR ROOM OR ELSE." There's the permissive method" Its Your Room, keep the Way You'd Like, just keep the door closed when we have company." I don't subscribe to either types of parenting, although I have tried both approaches, to no avail the results either way are not positive.

I thought early on in my son's life, I'd make cleaning just as much a part of our day as watching TV, Sleeping, Making Crafts, or Driving to Play dates. There was a time when he was eager to pick up and clean with out much prodding. All I had to do was so "Its time to pick up your room." and off he went. Yet, the words, "Clean your Room" can turn my son into a stubborn donkey. LOL. I have to laugh as I rarely ever label my DS's behavior but this is one that perplexes me to no end. He will help me scrub the toilets, and bath tub, and can keep things reasonably neat in our public living areas, but his room can cause a battle of wills.

Part of me is on the side of being permissive, it is his space, free from the rest of the house. Yet, with that space comes a responsibility to keep it free of dangerous clutter, and pests. What's a parent to do.

I LOVE The Fly Lady , and discovered she has a plan that helps kids. She has a cleaning plan for big Fly babies like myself, that has revolutionized how I keep my home and stay organized. She also has a small plan for helping children become Fly babies too. The Fly Lady uses a method of "Zone" cleaning to help maintain a home and I highly suggest if you are reading this you go over to her site...even if you are NEAT FREAK, you will find something that will help you. I Digressed. For my DS, the matter of his room is one that overwhelms him. Yes, he knows to put things back, his room is also his play room, TV room, and sleeping space. In the past I have done a 5 minute room rescue, in which I set a timer for 5 minutes and we pick up and put away as much stuff as possible. That was enough to keep the floor clean and safe for walking across in the middle of the night, yet his toys and shelves would end up disorganized, which usually left me reorganizing everything when I had a spare afternoon.

I have looked at the Fly Lady plan for kids, and the Zones didn't really meet the needs of my DS's room. So I have devised my own. There are five areas or zones Bed, Tool Bench and Toy Box, TV Cabinet, Closet/Dresser, Book Shelf. That's 5 days a week in which I go in his room with him and help him reorganize his things in each area.

Today I started with the "BED" area. In this area we cleaned off the bed and made it. I don't require that he make his bed just yet, as he doesn't know how to do it. We put any books on the bed back onto the Book Shelf, and all of his special animals on the bed neatly. Then we cleaned from underneath the bed. He had a lot of fun with this part as he was trying to see how far his hand would reach. We put all of things underneath the bed back where they belonged and we cleaned the corner at the end of his bed, where his Tools tend to fall from his tool bench. In about 10 minutes he was finished and he was RELIEVED it wasn't an all afternoon marathon of cleaning.

Tomorrow will be the "Tool Bench and Toy Box Area". I don't have a big toy box, but instead I have a few small boxes that miscellaneous toys get thrown. Sometimes during the 5 Minute room rescues LOTS of other items end up in the boxes. So this is a time to sort those items. The tool bench in his room is the equivalent of a Play Kitchen. It has tons of little items that go with it, and they each have a specific home. Again this is a time to clean it off, and wipe it down with a damp cloth and return those items to their correct home.

Thursday is TV Cabinet day. Now this is one that DRIVES me nuts and I am not sure if its going to be Zone that stands alone. DS has about 40 VHS movies in this cabinet that he's free to watch when ever he'd like. About half the time, he puts the VHS tape back into its cover. To insure that the VHS tapes are where they belong, each week we'll go through the cabinet to make sure the tapes in the appropriate cover, and dust the entire cabinet and TV.

Friday Work Zone is the Closet/Dresser. My DS loves to put his own clothes away and get himself dressed. What that usually means is that Socks are in the pants drawer, and underwear end up with the Shirts. When I go to dress him I find that he's out of underwear and socks LOL. So once a week I will try and help him reorganize those drawers. The Dresser is in the closet and the closet has A LOT of big things stored in there. Those things include race tracks, and train tracks, puzzles, and games. Its very easy in our 5 Minute madness or just through out the day misplace a game piece or dump out one of the storage boxes, so we'll be picking those up and making sure they are all where they are supposed to be for next time.

The Final area is the Bookshelf. I have two book shelves that house our Montessori Work. These shelves are relatively easy to maintain as everything is put back during our work cycle. The problem is the books and miscellaneous toys that end up on Shelves at other times. The books I am notorious for just stacking books up with thinking about where they go and my DS is the very same.

What my plan ultimately means is that my DS can accomplish each of the tasks on his own if shown with repetition how to do it. At no point will he ever have to feel over whelmed by cleaning up the entire room at once. Cleaning each area will give him confidence in himself and there will be no "OR Else's " from me.

Before you start yelling at your kids to clean their rooms, take a lesson from the Fly Lady and make it easy for them. Customize what she has to say to your childs needs. Make sure what ever "Zone" you come up with your child can complete teh task in under 10 minutes.