How do you get your kid to clean their room?

I used to just shut the door and walk away. What isthe fascination with your kids having a spotless room. thatjust stiffles their imagination.The more you force her now, themore she will rebel as an adult, and she may not have a clean kitchen even.

How about a reward system where she gets a reward after she has her room clean for so many days . I have always been told if we focus more on the good then the bad then we will be able to get through to them better . I have a chart here for my son and the way it works is that he knows what needs to be done . If he does what he was supposed to for the day then he gets so many points for this , if he doesn't do what he was supposed to do then he doesn't get anything . When they reach the goal that you have set togehter they get the reward that you both agreed on from the beginning . Not sure if this will help but best of luck !!

How long do you take away the privleges? My grandkids are horrible when it comes to cleaning their rooms. Their mother tries but without success to have them keep it somewhat clean. She has tried to take away privleges, but I don't think she really has tried to keep them from them for long enough. If they have to sit in a room like the dining room or kitchen without having anything to keep them busy I am sure it will cure them. Especially if they have the privleges taken away for a week or two. But, who knows, not much phases a kid these days. Good luck to you. Hope you can find that magic cure.

one day i got so sick of having to clean up my son's room that i went and bought a lock for his closest door in his room and placed it where he couldn't reach it and put all his toys in his closest and only left toys in his toys box and his bed out in his room, the only way that he can his toys back is if he keeps his room clean. and for 4 weeks he has, every night before he goes to bed he puts what little toys he does have left to play with away, and makes sure everything is straightened up and we have slowly been giving him some of his toys back. my son is 5.

Oh, I gave up on that years ago, 4 kids and I've never managed to get them to clean their rooms the way 'Mom feels" they should be cleaned. Rather than drive myself crazy I've learned - it's their mess if they want to live in it let them but I don't have to look at it, I just close the door...

Tammy, as a mother of three boys, I can tell you that it will get worse. While I don't have any daughters, kids are kids, and they will test the boundries of their parents. You have to stand firm and never cave. Kids go through cycles in their lives, just as adults do. As I watched my 26 year old grow up, I saw the same behavior patterns at 4 years old and at 14. Just different. At 14 he still threw fits because I said NO to something he wanted to do. I see the same behavior in my almost 17 year old. He's thrown some pretty good fits as a teenager. My eldest sons room was awful. The food and drinks in it became a huge problem. So bad, the uneaten food actually drew mice into our home. I'm not afraid of mice and will whack one with a broom any chance I get, but they do carry disease. When I realized what was going on, I put my foot down. He kept doing it and I stood firm, and finally won the battle. My middle son obsession is throwing everything on the floor. Clothes, his guitars, books, pictures - you name it, its in the floor. My house is not spotless - its lived in. I work 6 -7 days a week and on my one day off, I clean, cook, do laundry etc. So I don't expect the boys rooms to be spotless either. The boys picked one day a week to clean their rooms. And that one day, they do nothing until the room is clean and vacuumed. I have to admit, I've cleaned their rooms. But instead of cleaning it, I cleaned it out. I left the bed ( on the floor), left the clothes in the dresser, taking all the dirty clothes in the floor. I removed games, books, puzzles, all but one pillow for the bed, and everything else that would cause them to have to clean their room. Is this extreme? Perhaps, but after trying everything else I could think of, I finally decided that if they didn't have anything IN their room to clean, then they wouldn't have to clean it. They all got fair warning; if you don't clean their room, I will. And I did. Was it effective? Oh yes indeed it was. After a month of begging, I finally relented and we sat down and discussed that when they clean their rooms, that meant cleaning it. Not moving it around to look neater, or shoving it under the bed, or jamming everything in the closet. I also stood at the door and waited till it was completely done. Was it a pain to stand there and wait (up to 3 hours as I recall), yes, of course it was. But they knew I meant business, and I wasn't going away until it was done. Don't give up and find what works with your daughter!

i have 5 kids 3 are boys and the other 2 is girls and are both young..likes of 5 and 9 and the rest are alrady teen-agers...im always out in the house and i dont know how my wife made them clean their room..or maybe my wife is the one cleaning lol..but i have been thinking on this on how to made them clean..as parent its our job to mold them and teach them how to help in house hold chores ,,,early training for them is the best so that they may accustomed to it in cleaning and helping...some said they have given promises or rewards jsut to make their children help but in my opinion it will not do any good in our wish for them to become responsible and independent..

I would explain the need for a clean room.give a lot of examples, finding stuff quickly, no place for critters and bugs to hide, be as graphic as you can. and as well explain that there will be consequences to her having a dirty room. But this time find something she wants and needs and enjoys and remove it. and do not back down until she has shown that she understands that this will continue as long as her room is dirty, I never asked my kids to have a clean room, but their belongings had to be put away and the room had to be tidy, Also complement her if she does tidy it up, tell her how proud you are of her, If push comes to shove, I would strip the room and only leave her bead, each and every day she must ask for her cloths and any toy, if she returns them she will get more but I can promise you this will work as it is such a Shock for them.

Awww tammy dear, I know what you mean. It is DIFFICULT to discipline our little ones. I have two monsters of my own but hey, they're adorable despite giving me white hair...LOL. I started training my girls as earlier as possible. I will tell them to organize their things and even provided a drawer for each of them. I told them that if I see even just a little piece of paper on the floor, I will get any one of their favorite toy and will not return back to them. This work quite effectively. Although, from time to time, they tend to forget picking up their things. I will try to be firm with my punishment. Hope this can help. :)

I think you should try to help her understand how it is important and beneficial to be neat and organised. You should also be setting up a good example with your own room. Then you can perhaps help her get started by cleaning and tidying the room TOGETHER with her. ;-)

I just leave the door closed! (Sorry, that's not much help!)

try to understand them in strict manner otherwise just slap them once.Belief me this will work

I have to admit to the very same problem. I read somewhere that parents should stop expecting their kids to clean their rooms the way they want it to be seen. Children have a different view of what their rooms should look like and also they feel that their space should be kept as they want it, not how you want it. I took that advice and now I'm a lot less stressed out. The only rule I have now is when company is coming, the room gets cleaned and they have agreed to compromise with me.

I know, when i was young, i needed to keep in my room 'til it was cleaned! you really don't want to sit there whole day!

I honestly think you reach a point where closing the door works best and then perhaps once a month make it clear "Go in and clean the room, I'll inspect it, you don't go out until it's done". I have 3 teens... I simply don't make it one of my biggest battles anymore.

At some point you have to decide to let her live with things as they are and stop trying to motivate her. You are looking at a power struggle that is going to spread to other areas of life if you keep trying to get her to do something that she has no intention of doing. People tend to forget that kids don't own anything in the home. They don't get terribly motivated until it is something they have a stake in. And even then, you still see totally trashed apartments and dorm rooms because they don't stop to clean them. I suggest you have her keep her door shut and drop the matter, but do not return anything to her and don't permit her to purchase anything that is intended to stay in the room with her. If you are initiating the subject of her cleaning her room then she knows that means alot to you so she exercises personal power by living with her things removed. Allow her to live with the fruits of her labor, which is zero.

how old is your daughter? i would stick with a reward system or remove her blongings, there must be something that she like that you can remove, dont be soft show her your in charge and dont give back the item until she does clean her room, she doesnt want the item grab other and keep going until you have something she wants, mobile phone, tv, internet, personal item are all a good idea, or just tell her anything left on the floor for more than XXX amount of time will be thrown out, i think that will work well enough as long as you are serious about it. all the best

Here is the BIG One. No kid like to clean their rooms (maybe a few). Here is what worked for me: Buy containers to help them keep it organized Help them get organized the first time and then tell them you expect it to look like that every Sunday or whatever day? Make it fun the first time. Strat a chore chart for each kid and they get a gold star for each week it is clean. Then after four weeks they get to pick a special activity to do (something unique) just for them. eliminate unused toys and clutter. Put in boxes in garage and rotate toys in and out every few months always giving them new ones to play with. This take care of too much. Praise them when ever they clean and spend time with them. All kids want their parents time and will do anything to get it. Kids have a right to have a room the way they like it even messy as long as it is cleaned on one day in the week so that it does not get to be a health concern. Don't ever constantly go into their rooms and pick up. It will generate low self esteem. Give them the responsibility. Cherish this time it will be long gone soon.

ohhh I see this problem is global!:) I tried different ways too - don't let watch TV, or go outside , or.... By the way, how old is your daughter? when my daughter was 5-6 years old, one thing "worked" good, (she is 9 now), I get so angry she didn't clean her room (toys were laying everywhere, but she didn't agree to settle them)I told her, that if she don't want settle toys, it means, that they aren't needfull for her. I told , that there are hundreds of kids , who have no toys and I will give to them. I put toys to big bag ...and put it in coridoor. She was shocked, and after few minutes, when she thought i didn't see, she went carefully to coridoor and brought toys back to her room :) During some period she never left her room disorderly. Sure, in time history repeat...:)

At times it's hard to get my son to clean his room. But he's also 4yrs old. What I usually do is help him. What I mean by help is...I will make him keep on top of things. I make sure that if he's playing with one thing and wants to play with something else, he has to clean up the first that he made. It helps and he's used to doing that now. And maybe because he's 4. I tell him that if he doesn't pick up his room. He won't get to go outside or gt to watch cartoons. That normally works!