A clean child’s room. Seems like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Day in and day out, we organise and shelf, and try to set a good example. But it seems to just get away from us. If you are frustrated with cleaning your child’s room, and feeling like you are berating your little one about it, take some steps to control the clutter and get things looking tidy once and for all.
Top tips for keeping your child’s bedroom tidy
Storage solutions
Children have so many phases and development changes, so it’s natural that the clutter grows and builds to a point that you can no longer contain it all. As a parent, plastic containers will be your best friend for the foreseeable future. They allow you to stow away old or unused items and label them so they are easily accessed again for the next child, to pass on, or to revisit and remember. If your child has a small room you can place these plastic containers to the side, under the bed or in another area.
Make a checklist
We’re nothing without a checklist, and keeping one for your children’s room to keep things tidy and in order is a great idea. Clearly label the containers and baskets in their room so they know what goes where. It is also a good example to your child to keep a list, make sure it is checked, and to feel the personal benefit of a tidy room and a job well done. You can get creative and make these checklists big and bright with stickers and pictures to get more engagement out of your little one.
Make it a game
Get on the level of your child, and turn cleaning time into a game. It could be a race against the clock game where they must clean their room within a set timeframe, or alternatively, you can pretend that you’re different people and cleaning a shop or some other location. Get creative! Be mindful that you may not be able to get away with this one for too long, as they will start to cotton on and want to play another game without the chores attached.
Break up the room
It can be a bit manic approaching a messy child’s room. And even when you make peace with cleaning it later, you still need to put your child to bed and dress them each day. It could be time to break up your room into zones so that you can make it more functional. Set your sleep zone up to be an area that remains free of clutter, and set a contrasting play zone which allows a little chaos but won’t interfere with your child’s routine. You can make the sleep zone storage containers one colour, and the play zone storage solutions another colour so it’s easy to decipher to them what goes where.
Offer incentives
Depending on your parenting style, this may be a controversial topic for you. Offering an incentive to your child to keep a tidy room might be all it takes to turn that room around. You don’t have to incentivise with money or items, it could just be they get to pick what is for dinner one night, they can have dessert on the weekend, or maybe they can rent a DVD. Keep it light and enjoy a tidy room while you educate your child on work and reward.
Keeping your child’s room clean starts and finishes with savvy storage solutions. And once those are in place you can set about keeping the order with fun games, incentives and other tasks that promote key life learnings.
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