5Yr Old's Messy Room

Ok call me crazy but is it really that big of a deal if "HIS" room is not clean. I mean really that is the only place in the house that is truly his so to speak. I remeber growing up and as long as my mom could shut the door and get to my dresser without triping it was ok. But on the same note any toy or whatever that she had to step over or triped over got removed to the trash. At some point he will be looking for something in his room and won't be able to find it then you can remind him that if his room was clean or atleast picked up he would know where to find his toys and things. Oh and I could't have friends over or go to friends houses unless my room was picked up. It might just be finding the right motivation. Sorry for the rambaling but I hope this helps...

I have a 6 year old daughter that HATES cleaning, but early on I learned that fun is the answer. We have a race. One of us will race to pick up the stuffed animals and the other to pick up the dirty clothes and we see who get done first. You might try something like that.

Having a set time each night that he's supposed to have his room clean is what we do around here. Each night at 7:45 my husband gets the boys to clean the living room, then they do the baby's room and before my 5 year old can have his computer time his room has to be clean too.

Then on Saturday before we have family night the bedrooms get the most thorough cleaning using FlyLady's detailed cleaning list. They love using wet wash clothes to scrub the windows, walls, and appliances.

And the rule is they don't get bed time snacks until their laundry is picked up and put in the laundry room.

My oldest (almost 11) still doesn't clean her room unless we force her to. It's a real battle getting her to pick up after herself ANYwhere, but especially her room. It looks like a tornado hit! She will usually clean up the living room for me when asked, and do it without the slightest hint of argument but her room is a totally different story. Still working on a way to get her to do it willingly.

Well, my kids are too young still to really understand the concept of cleaning up very well but just downsizing the amount of their toys can help a great deal. Grandma loves to get new toys all the time and we have to periodically donate/dispose of unused and forgotten ones. It makes cleanup time easier b/c there is less to clean up!

I have the same problem with my two kids. I started setting my kitchen timer, and we play beat the clock. My three year old has started to play, too. When they're done, I usually give them a small piece of candy, hot chocolate, or we play a game together.

We have special boxes for each kind of toy, like a car box and a puzzle box, etc. If he gets everything picked up and put in the right boxes, he gets a sticker on his chart. When it's filled up, he gets a special treat, like a Happy Meal or Frosty or a trip to Incredible Pizza for some skeeball.
At this age, as long as they know where things should go, like special boxes or shelves, it makes cleaning up a lot easier and more fun.
I like the Rubbermaid drawer carts, but we also use shoe boxes, which are fun to decorate with pictures of what goes inside.
Good luck!
J.

We have a rule in our house, after you're done playing with one thing, you put it away and then you can get something else out. For them to get in that habit though, we had to start off by telling them what to play with, or them telling us what they would like to play with. And before switching to something new, they had to check back with us. They're getting really good at picking up now without me having to tell them. We also have a bed time routine of checking the playroom and bedroom floor to see if anything needs to be put back in it's home. Oh yeah, and if all of it just went out the window that day and they didn't clean up like they're supposed to, I say ok, find all of the ponies and put it in this bucket, or find all of the barbies and put it in this bucket. If it's overwhelming to them, it's hard to organize their thoughts into what should go where.

i have a 6year old and i tryed eveythig my slef to mack it fun to pick up his room like put on some muisc and sing a song about picking up his room

My brother has wrestled with this with my 4 year old nephew. He refuses to put his toys away. So, my brother, went in and cleaned up his room, and when my nephew went in to play, my brother said "no". He explained that "I cleaned up the toys, so they are my toys now." He went on to explain that if you don't take care of your things, you lose them. His room has been clean since!

First, make sure he has a place for everything to go - i.e. bookshelves or a magazine rack for books, small bins for little cars and small toys, shelves or bins for larger toys, trucks, games, etc. Labeling with pictures and/or words also helps them remember where things go. Try to avoid one large toy box since things tend to disappear. Having an organized space is half the battle.

Also, try to get him in the habit of picking up one thing before he gets out the next toy or game. It is a lot less overwhelming to pick up one toys rather than 10 toys. My son is allowed to keep his train set and blocks out all the time since he plays with them so often, but if he gets out another toy or game, he has to put it away before getting out more. It helps that this is the way they do it at pre-school, but also a good habit to enforce at home.

Get a trash bag and put some toys in the bag and tell him you will throw them away if he cant keep his room clean. Or just tell him you will throw them away if he doesnt keep his room clean then the next time the room is a mess get the green bag and say see this bag I am putting these toys in as your picking up some toys put them in the bag say see I am throwing them away, you are not keeping your room clean. Let him know your serious.

Hope that helps

G.

My daugter is 5 and we also recently have been trying to get her to clean her room. We found that she gets cleaning when I give her the spare change in my purse as a reward.

Hope this helps.

L.

FlyLady has some great info on her website about helping kids learn to clean their rooms and keep them clean. Her website is www.flylady.net. Also, there is a new website that is lots of fun for kids and helps them learn to clean their rooms. It is www.housefairy.org.

check out http://www.housefairy.org It is a great site that helps us help our kids clean better

usually rewards work for us. like a yummy snack or extra tv time. if it becomes a huge fight or if she continually ignores my requests to clean, i pull out a trash bag and tell her that she has 20 minutes to clean (i set a timer w/ a beeper). anything that is left out or on the floor, goes in the trash. i've only had to throw something away once for it to become the most effective tool i have.

p.s. i really didn't throw it in the trash i put it in the box that i keep to donate to goodwill or sell at a garage sale.
it was actually pretty h*** o* me to do it, because i tend to spoil my girls but i only had to do it once.

good luck,
B.

Hi C.,

We use the following method with our 14 year old son who has Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD and Bi-polar. Although his chronological age is 14, his emotional age is about 4-5.

We use poker chips and a list of chores/behaviors that he can earn points towards. Each time he completes a chore or gets caught being good we reward him with the appropriate number of points/chips. We save these in a jar and as he earns his chips he can choose to trade them for special activites, to take something from the treat basket (I purchased some inexpensive toys, treats and coupons for going to the movies or other special events) You must also appointment a value for each reward. Example: 1 chip/point can earn a story being read aloud while it takes considerably more to go to a movie. We applied a $.20 value for each chip which helped us determine the value for the larger/more expensive rewards.

Having a physical method to track his earnings and expenditures was quite helpful. We had tried a point chart but it took using the poker chips for our son to understand.

I made up a chart listing the chip/point value of each item he has to complete or use to purchase items. Example: cleaning his room equals 5 points while feeding the dog equals 1 point. The chart has eliminated arguments over point values.

I apologize if I wasn't quite clear about anything...you can always contact me at ____@____.com and I can exlain it further.

Good luck.

W. Q

I have a 7 year old that has a horrible room! Making it a game never worked for us. I have recently found that if I tell him to clean or I will make him go to bed 5 minutes early, he gets busy! I will tell him 2 or 3 times to clean up before I threaten the 5 minutes.

Make a list of the items you see in the room that need to be picked up. Then turn it into a scavenger hunt allowing him to search for those items. Then tell him where he can place them.

we use a sticker chart for my kids. They each have one hanging on their door with two chores on it. 1 pick up livingroom and 2 clean their rooms. For each thing they do they get a sticker for that day then at the end of the week we count how many stickers they have and they get a quarter for each sticker. So they can get up to 14 quarters a week(allowance.) I also make them count them out in front of each other so they know if one got more than the other one that way I can say see he helped clean on a day that you didn't so he got more quarters. It has really helped out. Some nights they even have to remind me that they need to clean. It really is helping.