Waking up in the morning or coming back home after a long day to a messy kid’s room gets many parents greatly appalled. The last thing you’ll love to see is a room full of clutter. A pile of clothes in the middle of the room, toys scattered all over, and an unmade bed are enough to get you at your wit’s end. How to Help Your Child Keep It Tidy

This behavior may cause some drama, and you may have to yell “go clean your room right now” repeatedly before you get the results you seek. Children can be pretty erratic and a little stubborn, so it may not be easy getting them to tidy up us as you want.

And, your expression of discontentment may be met with grumbling, half-hearted obedience, and perhaps, a pathetic job. Oh, the struggles of being a parent.

While the responsibility of teaching your children to be more neat and organized may be stressful sometimes, it falls within your job description as a parent to instill these values in them.

Messy kids grow up to be unkempt adults with the habit of piling dirty clothes all over and leaving a mess wherever they go. How then do you turn messy kid’s room into an organized haven? This article is here to provide you helpful tips, so I hope you stick to the end.

messy kid's room

Tips To Help Your Kids Tidy up Their Rooms

1. Be a good example yourself

Children are naturally observant so how you act around them impacts their behavior just as much and maybe even more than what you say. You can’t expect your child to be neat and organized if you have trouble doing so yourself.  If you struggle to maintain a neat environment, you should work on yourself while working on your children.

Give them an example to look up to and follow. While you may need to scream “go clean your room” on some days, it is vital that your children also see how much of an effort you put into maintaining a clean and organized environment.

2. Give them direction

Children below the age of 5 may need specific instructions on how to go about cleaning up their room. You can create a checklist that informs them of all they need to get done to have a clean room.

Of course, you may have to get involved with the process if your children are still little. However, creating a list and working through it (with them) teaches them what they need to do whenever they are asked or feel like cleaning the room.

A Checklist could contain things like: make your bed, put away toys, vacuum, etc. Assign age-appropriate tasks as well, a 5-year-old child could learn to make their bed and put away toys when done playing, but you will need to step in for vacuuming. They are still learning by watching you even if they can’t do all the tasks on the checklist independently yet.

3. Create storage space for things

One contributing factor that results in a messy kid’s bedroom is the lack or improper use of storage spaces for stuff. There should be drawers, bags, baskets, or anything similar to keep things organized.

It also helps to inform your children what each storage space is for and demand that they use it. It may help to use labels to point out what goes into what for younger children.

Hence, when asked to clean up, they know exactly what to do because they are familiar with the storage spaces in their rooms. The following spaces may help your child keep their room organized:

  • Drawers or a small closet for clothes
  • Boxes to keep toys: You can label these boxes, so your kid knows which toys go into where.
  • Laundry hamper for dirty clothes
  • A box or rack to keep their footwear
  • Shelf for books

4. Avoid over-stuffing

Most parents fall into the trap of buying stuff for their children without getting anything out of the house. It’s exciting to get your children new toys, clothes, and books. However, they tend to use some things less and less as they grow older.

Some clothes may not fit anymore, some books may become too childish, and even the once-favorite toys they no longer use. Once in a few months, go over the stuff in your child’s room and find things you may need to discard or donate to others who’ll find them useful.

Depending on your child’s temperament, you may want to do this in their absence to make the job easier for you. Also, you should try to control yourself if you find that you’re quick to purchase any cute thing you feel your kid will love.

There’s only so much one human can use, right? Besides, you want to limit the mess they can make. Avoid over-stuffing their spaces. As you buy more stuff, take some old things out.

5. Help out initially

As a parent, it’s your job to hold your child’s hand till they learn to walk by themselves – you can use this logic to teach them how to clean up. Yelling or screaming after them may not do the trick from the beginning, and they probably don’t know how to get things done right if they’re still young.

Teach them how to clean up by literally showing them how it’s done, and in a few years, they’ll get the hang of things.

6. Go easy on them

No learning process is entirely straightforward, and you may have to be patient. It could mean ignoring mess on some days or just doing it yourself. However, don’t give up trying to show your children the right way to get things done.

Why Children Should Learn To Clean Up Their Room

1. It creates an organized environment

Nothing beats being in an organized environment. It feels great to walk into a tidy room and relax on a made bed after the day’s activity.

The tips above should help you transform your messy kid’s room into a more organized environment.

2. Makes it easier to find things

Have you ever tried to find a lost item in a clutter-full room? It’s a frustrating exercise because you have to look through the mess everywhere.

It’s even more annoying when you never find the item despite your best efforts. Teaching your children to tidy up their rooms makes it easier to find lost things. If the storage spaces provided are used well, it limits the probability of losing something.

Your children should learn to put things back where they’re supposed to be after use. If something gets missing, it’ll be easier to search for it in a tidy room than in a hot mess.

3. Instills healthy habit in a child

A child’s formative years is the perfect time to teach healthy habits and life skills they’ll find valuable as they mature into adults. Tidying up one’s personal space is part of the healthy habits young children should imbibe growing up.

Children take up the habits they learn into adulthood, so you want your child to know the right things and grow into a mature and responsible adult.

4. Saves their time

If you’ve ever had to deal with children whining when they can’t find something in the morning when you’re trying to get them to school, then phew, that must have been tough.

Keeping a child’s space neat and organized allows them to find things when they need them quickly. As a parent, you should explain this to them while they learn to do tidy up.

5. You’re happier as a parent

Parents will love to avoid dealing with a messy kid’s room – it’s stressful. Things will get better when you teach them how to maintain a neat environment and understand they have to maintain a certain standard at home.

Allowing your children to clean up themselves instead of taking full responsibility for picking up after them will give you fewer things to deal with.

You’ll feel happy as a parent when you watch your child become more helpful and responsible around the house. Put in the work, and you’ll see the benefits with time.

The Gist

Whether you’re a child or an adult, it is healthy to keep your environment tidy. As a parent, you should teach your children how to do so not by talking alone but by showing them how to. Moreover, it’s pretty stressful having to clean up a messy kid’s room all on your own!

There are adults (some of which you know) who find it challenging to keep their environment clutter-free. This is because they’ve gotten accustomed to dwelling in a mess.

Teach your children how and why a tidy environment is best.

Categories: Parenting