POSTED: 01.07.2011

Never Tell a Child: “Go Clean Your Room!”

TOPICS: Family, Home Improvement

What?! Yes, that’s right. Telling a child to “Go clean your room” is like telling an adult, “Go clean the garage or the basement!” It is overwhelming.

Instead direct your child to one specific task: “Go make your bed,” or “Put away all your clothes,” or “Clean everything off the floor.”
Five Steps to a Clean Bedroom
1) Make the bed first.

Since this is the largest surface, the room is now 50-70% clean!

2) Put everything “away” on the floor.
Start at the doorway and move everything (besides obvious trash) from the floor to the bed.

3) Clean up the rest by three categories:

* Clothes: put in hamper, or away in drawers and closet.
* Papers and books: organize papers in notebooks or a file, and books on shelves.
* Toys or favorite collections: place on open shelves.

4) Add one extra cleaning area per week after the above three steps:

* Desktop
* Dresser top
* Nightstand
* Closet

5) Empty the wastebasket often.

Organizing expert Emily Barnes says, “Children don’t do what you expect, but what you inspect.” So check on any cleaning they do.

I am a firm believer that “If you work orderly, you will think orderly.” What a great academic help orderly habits at home can be for kids!

Excerpted and adapted with permission from speaker and author Marcia Ramsland’s, “Ages and Stages of Getting Children Organized” booklet.