Teaching a child to keep their room clean can be a challenge, but it works really well, so I had to share it with you! I love having a clean house and I like knowing where everything is, so I want my children’s rooms to be organized too. Otherwise, they complain about being “bored,” but it’s really because they are overwhelmed. An organized room solves that.
Do you ever feel like your child’s room is always a mess? I admit that my biggest “time drain” is picking up our child’s clothes. As my mother said, they “come off of them.” It’s so true!
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Our kids have this terrible habit of taking off their clothes and leaving them everywhere they stood. I had to find something to teach our kids to pick up their clothes, and here’s what works for us. (Leave a comment on what works for you!)
Why are their clothes always on the floor, you ask?
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They dress up like superheroes… a lot!
They dress up in their swimsuits and pretend to go surfing (or they just wear their swimsuits because they love wearing them!)…
They dress up in their dad’s old football jerseys…
They dress up in each other’s clothes and play “family”…
They dress up in their pajamas and play “camping”…
Yes, our kids are constantly changing and changing again. (Please tell me I’m not the only mom dealing with this!)
I had to make a new rule because they “forgot” where they left their clothes and would pull out new ones. I was washing up to four outfits a day sometimes (per child!) To help keep the kids’ room clean, we set up a new rule & consequence because I didn’t want to constantly nag them about it…
Here’s the rule:
For every piece of clothing I have to pick up off the floor, they go to bed five minutes earlier.
Believe me, it’s quite motivating for the kids to pick up their clothes. They really don’t like going to bed before 7 PM (their bedtime). (see my post on teaching your kids to sleep later here)
Here’s how I taught them to clean their rooms:
Sunday – I talked to them about the new rule and explained it in detail! “Every piece of clothing you leave on the floor gives you five minutes of earlier bedtime. One sock? 5 minutes. Two socks? Ten minutes.” I went through a lot of examples and they gave me some too.
I told them that if they just changed into a costume, they could simply put their clothes on their bed or dresser for later. They needed to do this because when they leave them in a pile on the floor, they end up pulling out a new one ten minutes later. I told them they would get a day to practice it before it started. So they had all day Sunday to work on this before the consequence would start on Monday.
Monday – they both had ten minutes to leave clothes out and I held firm, even though both kept asking for “Just one more chance.”
TIP:
(Even if you don’t have a fixed bedtime, you can simply say “It’s bedtime. You were going to stay up ten minutes longer, but you have to go to sleep ten minutes earlier tonight for leaving your pajamas (or other) on the floor today. “ Our kids know that 7:00 is bedtime (well, 7:00, but the minutes vary), so when they saw the clock say 6 again, they were upset. (even if it said 6:59, that’s early for them!) Reminder: our kids get up at 7:00, so it’s important to go to bed early. See my post here on: My kids will wake up too early – How to keep your kids in bed later).
Tuesday – no clothes on the floor
Wednesday – Pajamas were on the floor when I went near the room to see how they were getting ready for school and by the time they were dressed and ready for school… guess what? The pajamas were put away. Woo-hoo!
This consequence won’t last forever–probably about a month, but it’s in place right now as a teaching rule. (Like many of our rules and consequences. We make them teach our kids, and after they have formed a habit, we can get rid of the consequence and just remind them, if necessary.)
Update: This is also an easy system.
If you want to start chores with your kids but don’t want to deal with a chore chart, try these. We have them & they are easy and they are “normal” tasks, like sweeping floors, dusting, cleaning the living room, etc… It’s easy to say “Okay everyone – go grab 2 chore sticks and then you’re done and you can go play.”
You can find them on Amazon. Here’s the affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2qcNEei
Or I encourage you to join our delegation of course.
I bet you’ll find this post helpful, too:
And the reason our kids go to bed at 7 PM:
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