Are you tired of seeing the kids’ rooms looking messy? You go to wake them up in the morning and have to step over Legos, dolls, and toy cars, not to mention dirty clothes, food wrappers, and suspicious spills. How do you go from this mess to clean bedrooms?

It won’t happen overnight, but we have some strategies you can employ to turn your kids into the kind of people who keep their rooms clean. You can get them to tidy their own rooms and to keep them looking tidy. It will take some work, so let’s get started.

Provide Incentive

We have to start with a very basic principle that will reap rewards for a long time to come. You have to your kids that they should clean their rooms. You might not be able to do this with a pep talk, but you can probably do it with some reward. Think about what you want to give to your kids in order to reward them for keeping a clean room.

It could be money or snacks or something else tangible. Keep in mind that you will have to keep rewarding them for a while until they get into the habit of keeping a clean room. So, if you always give them money or something that is expensive, that is going to add up quickly. If you give them physical items like money or snacks, make sure the value is low but that it is valuable to them.

You can also give them time with their friends, screen time, and other privileges. By rewarding them, you are helping them stay motivated to clean when they would otherwise not want to.

Teach Them How

You can’t expect your kids to keep a clean room if they don’t know where to put everything or they don’t know who to clean very well. How can they sweep the floor if they have never been taught how to sweep? You will probably need to help them clean at first, assisting them in choosing where each item can go and showing them how to do tasks that they are unfamiliar with.

This will be hard work at first, and it can be frustrating for you to teach them what should be obvious, especially if they are slow learners. But your efforts will pay off, and your kids will learn how to clean their rooms for themselves after a while.

Create Penalties

We have talked about rewards, and now we need to talk about penalties. In the beginning of this process, you need to give them positive reinforcement to help them have good attitudes while they are doing something they don’t want to. After a while, they will understand that cleaning their room is expected, and their confidence in their ability to clean it well will have increased.

Now that they have reached that level, you can start instituting penalties for not cleaning their rooms or for not doing a good job with the cleaning. We recommend telling them that they have to wait to play games or use screens until they have a clean room. Tell them they cannot talk to their friends or go play outside until they have a clean room.

These are just a few suggestions, but you can think of some that tie into the way that you live your life.

Don’t Get Stressed

It’s important that you not let the kids’ dirty rooms get you stressed out or frustrated. They will not always be able to clean their rooms to your satisfaction. And sometimes they will be forgetful or not do a good job, and that can upset you, especially when you have put so much work into training them to clean their rooms.

Here is what you can do instead of getting stressed. You can write down what you want to penalize them with. You can also talk to them and tell them why you are not happy with them about their rooms. You can change their schedule so that they have more time to clean and are spending less time doing unnecessary things.

You can also hire a cleaning company in to do the cleaning and then penalize your kids for not doing it themselves. That way, the room gets clean when you want it cleaned and your kids still have to pay the price. It’s probably not a good idea to clean the room yourself, as that might make you more stressed and angrier at the kids. You can always close their door until they get a chance to clean it. If they are too busy to do a proper cleaning, just tell them to target certain key areas in their cleaning for now and get the rest of it later on.

Talk about Challenges

Do your kids struggle to keep their rooms clean even after you have tried all of the above advice? If so, then you need to sit down and have a chat with them. Ask them about why they are having difficulty and what you can do to make things easier on them. Ask them about any challenges they are facing and look for solutions. If you can do this cooperatively, then you may be able to fix the issue and get your kids to have clean rooms.

Be sure to let your kids know if their rooms are not up to your standards and if they need to work on any areas. This will help them to get better at doing their chores and will prevent you from being frustrated with them.

It is possible to get your kids to clean their rooms on their own and to keep them clean most of the time. It is going to take some patience and some purposeful training, but it can happen. You have to be willing to put in the time and deal with any challenges that will keep your kids back from getting their rooms clean, and in a matter of time, you will have responsible kids with clean rooms.