Kids bedrooms- do you require them to clean them? How often? No-why? - Page 2

[SAHDS]

Yes,I make them keep them clean.  They are 10 and 11 and have no toys in their rooms so it'snot too hard.  I figure you take care ofyour things, regardless if you have a lot or a little.  If you don't take care of your things, I will give them to someone who will and who will also appreciate them.  I also make sure they keep up on their hygiene, exercise and homework.  I want them to develop good habits. 

[*bejeweled*]

I try to give DD room privacy. But she has to clean it once a week for vacuuming. Also, no food is allowed in there. Every few months I help her declutter it and she loves the results.

[AnnaBees Mama]

Thanks for posting this. My DD is still an infant, but I've been contemplating how we'll approach her living space when she's older. It is great to see what everyone is doing in their situations.

Many have commented on making sure you provide large enough bins and adequate shelving so that there is a place for everything. I totally agree. I remember when I was a youngster and my mom asking me to "clean the house". I had no idea where things went. There was no organizational system. No place to put wandering but necessary papers, craft items, etc. It was very stressful. So absolutely, before we can expect ourselves and our children to really clean up, we need to make it easy on ourselves and them and designate a place for everything. I also think weeding out our possessions to the necessities helps a ton. Simplification. If you don't have much to begin with, big explosive messes are not possible. "Stuff" is overwhelming by nature. Maybe you have shelves and bins galore for the ton of stuff, but excessive stuff + excessive, detailed organization can be just as overwhelming. I know my husband is not an organizer. He gets frustrated by too many different designations for things in our house. He just gives up and throws it in the general area (like, instead of putting a screw in the appropriate tray in the drawer, he just throws it in the draw and calls it 'good enough'.). Keep your family's personalities and preferences in mind, and don't go too crazy with organization :) (so in the screw example, nixing the trays and designating the whole drawer for the screws+related items helps us). You want something that will work for YOU and YOURS :)

[Alenushka]

Unless it is fire hazard, i.e. I can;t open a door inward or there is weired smell, I do not require them to clean. If it is fire hazard and tehy refuse to clean, I come in with a garbage bag and just thorw out everything I see fit. If they think I threw out something important, they are welcome to fish is out of the garbage can.

I noticed that when they have friends coming to visit or a sleepover, they do agood job cleaning their room.

It is their room, why should I care unless there is safety issue?

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

Mine can do whatever they want in regards to cleaning their rooms, with just a few exceptions. First, there must be a path from door to bed to window. Second, no bugs. Ants show up and they will be doing a thorough cleaning. Third, messy room means friends can't play in there. So...if they want their friends to come in and play with something in their rooms, it needs to be neat. Fourth, no smell. If it stinks, it needs cleaned.  That's it :)  As you can imagine, I was the messy kid that was always, always, always in trouble for not makign their bed or keeping their room clean. Swore that when I had kids I would let them have messy rooms. And I do ;)

[purplerose]

I have mine do a thourough clean-out once or twice a year, and otherwise keep out food, bring glasses and towels down, keep clothes washed and put up, and keep a trail from bed to door(their rooms are on 2nd floor). My mom was also one of those who required me to keep my room spotless and would come throw alot of my stuff away and that's hurtful and I didn't want to do that to my own kids. I do help them keep it clean daily until they are 6 or so, then I go through the bedroom with them once or twice a year until around 9. After that, they are on their own. If I feel it's getting too bad and they won't clean it on their own I require it to be totally cleaned out before anyone is allowed to go anywhere or have company.

[onlyzombiecat]

I just helped dd clean her room yesterday. It had probably been 5 months since I spoke to her about cleaning and stuff was piled on the floor.

I do collect the trash from the wastebasket every week and dirty clothes to be washed.

Recently dd cleaned her closet on her own and it looks great. She has trouble figuring out where to put things away in her room though. I think if we pared down her possessions it would be easier for her.

We do have a couple of rules like no food in the bedroom & dirty clothes go in the basket. If she is following the rules I don't care much if her room is a bit messy. I've always felt that is what doors on bedrooms are for.

My mom would come to my room with a trash bag and start tossing things. I had a reason for things being the way they were but she just saw it as a mess. I don't want to do that with dd.

[enkmom]

My mom threw a "Saturday room fit" every week when I was a child, so I did not require rooms to be cleaned every week.  I cleaned for and with them when they were younger, but by the time they were 11 or so the responsibility was all theirs.  Like some pp's, I had rules like no food, no smells, no company if the room wasn't neat, no help from me if you couldn't find something (their car keys were the most consistent missing things).  Otherwise, I shut the door and tried to forget it.  They both keep their dorm rooms/apartments neat and clean now, so there were no adverse affects.

Edited to add onlyzombiecat's point about laundry.  I would happily wash their clothes as long as they were in the basket.  I would not traipse all over their rooms looking for laundry.  If they needed clean clothes that weren't in the basket, they did their own laundry.

[freestylemama]

My DD is only three.  She's expected to throw away trash, return toys to bins and books to the shelf, but I do the actual tidying and bed making.  She also puts her dirty clothes in the hamper.  I will probably start having her make her bed soon, but I think it's a nice balance right now. 

[purplerose]

Mine are supposed to put laundry downstairs everyday, but instead they wait and every other week or so bring down 1-2 loads of clothes to be washed! Drives me crazy. I don't mind doing their laundry but not 2 loads when it's their own fault. They do that themselves.

[mamadiamond]

mine is still a baby, but as a kid i was very messy and when my mom told my sister and i to clean we had no idea *how*. once we hit the teen years she just gave up and our room looked like a natural disaster had hit it, was embarassing and not nice to live in. cleaning comes naturally to very few people. we had too much stuff to begin with, and none of it had a designated place. so cleaning was overwhelming and stressful, and so was living in our messy room, but my mom was messy herself and never showed us how to organize and clean and how to develop habits to keep things clean. when i moved out i spent several years trying to learn, and really am only recently starting to really get a handle on what it takes to have a clean house. i really wish i had been taught as a child how to clean, and more importantly how to live in a way that was organized and helped to keep things clean (i.e. constant reminders and example setting to pick up after oneself, not start a project till the previous is finished, etc). developing those habits as an adult has been really hard, and i plan to try to help dd learn them at a young age. cleaning is hard if it is viewed as an event, but it surprisingly easy - i am now discovering - if it is viewed as a way of life/part of being a loving and responsible part of the family.

[purplerose]

A big part of cleaning is having somewhere to put things. It took me years of adulthood to learn how to keep the house clean. I never learned about storage, separation, I was just made to clean things(like soap-clean, not neatening and putting things away) I've learned to use storage bins. Unfortunately, my kids are also not good at keeping things clean. Hell, they leave trails of belongings through the house!!(well, 2 of them do. the oldest does not usually) If there's a certain spot that gets really bad, keep a basket or bin there to dump everything in, then it's all confined and will be easier to clean up.

[MonkeyPrincess]

My limit is garbage/food items or dishes, because that will effect everyone in the house. Otherwise, its their room. If I don't like how it is, I close the door and don't go in. Its hard though, and I have lost my mind about the mess at times and I ask them if I can clean it! They always appreciate it, but its not really a priority to all of them to keep it that way (I have five kids, ages 4 thru 13).

[tonttu]

I used to be more strict , as the kids used to share a room and it was near impossible to see the floor after a couple of days , if I wasn´t on their case all the time , but now we have moved and each of them has their own room , so (with help for my 8-year-old) I pretty much let them do their own thing .

My youngest son is very neat , so he is no problem , but his brother is a big slob , but honestly , at 13 , it´s more or less his problem .

Food items and other things , that can go bad , that´s where I draw the line , but other than that , he´s the one getting embarrassed , when his friends come over !

[Shantimama]

I find that insisting on 5 minutes a day of tidying their bedrooms usually keeps things just fine. I view cleaning as a life skill and I want my kids to know how to do it. If they choose not to when they leave home that is fine because they will be making a choice. They won't be able to choose to have a clean and tidy living space if they have never been taught how to make it happen. I know too many adults who grew up in homes where it didn't matter and they want to have a clean home but can't make it happen or else their moms did it for them and they don't understand how bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms no longer magically stay clean and tidy.