I don’t know if your kids are like mine, but when I ask them to clean their rooms, they are continually coming up to me every 10 minutes and saying, “Okay, it’s done.” I go and check and it’s far from being clean.
We do this several times until it is ACTUALLY clean. I don’t feel like this is teaching my kids responsibility. It seems like it’s just teaching them to try to get away with as much as they can. So, in search for help on this subject, I came across this fantastic idea (thank you Lara) and adapted it to fit our family’s needs.
The question she poses is, Is your room “mommy” clean? I have to admit, I’m totally in love with this idea and have been using it and it has turned out great. No longer do I have to go back and forth checking their rooms. It is an important way to teach responsibility (and promoting reading), all at the same time! 🙂 It’ll be a great habit that’ll carry over to their teenager years – hopefully! 🙂
Some chore ideas to get your child’s room clean to your standards are:
1. Clear all toys off your bed
2. Make your bed
3. Put away toys
4. Wash walls if necessary
5. Pick up the mess on the floor (throw away garbage and put away all toys where they belong)
6. Put away clean clothes in drawer or hang up in the closet
7. If clothes are dirty, put them in the hamper. If hamper is full, fill the washer with clothes and tell me
8. Clean off dresser (put everything away where it belongs)
9. Pick up closet floor and shelves so they are free of garbage and toys
10. Go through toy drawers, picking out extra garbage and broken toys and throwing them away
11. Clean underneath bed
12. My children are too young an age to vacuum by themselves, but you could add that as well if your kids are old enough or just use a stick vacuum (here’s the one we use).
Print out the sheet and tape it on the mirror or closet. You can laminate it if you’d like and use a dry ease pen so they can feel accomplished and check mark off the tasks as they go. Whatever works best for your family.
