My kids are pretty bad about cleaning their rooms. My teenager leaves dirty dishes in there for days and dirty clothes strewn all over the floor, and my youngest is a pack rat so his room is always overflowing with stuff. So no, I have NOT figured out how to get messy kids to keep a clean room.
I have, however, found a way to help things go better when I do ask my kids to clean up. I discovered years ago that even if they’re willing to clean their room, they get overwhelmed by the prospect. And really, which of us doesn’t look at an incredibly messy room and wish we could just turn around rather than figure out how to start?
This checklist can help get your child past that initial reluctance and help them know how to start, and even more importantly, how to finish. It turns out one of the things that bothered my kids the most is that they didn’t know exactly what I meant when I said ‘clean your room’. Although it was obvious to me, it wasn’t to them. And so to them, the task felt overwhelming, and might take hours – they didn’t know. I found that a checklist that made it clear what I expected made a world of difference.
This checklist helps make a task that seems overwhelming feel manageable by breaking it into smaller steps. It makes your expectations clear, helps your kids know how to start, and helps them know there really is an end in sight!
You can print this list for free right now.
Or, if you need to make some changes to make it work well for your family, you can easily edit this list to make it just right.
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