How to Teach Children to Clean Their Rooms - S Post

Being a parent is a lot of hard work and can be a little overwhelming at times, so while cleaning seems to always be needed, having one less room to clean would be a blessing. Teaching your child how to clean their own room can be a great way to make everything more manageable while also teaching them responsibility. Cleaning a whole room can be a big task for a child, so here are some ways to teach them without overwhelming them.

Start with Small Tasks

In school, you don’t jump into adding larger numbers together before you learn the small ones, and just like in math, there are many components that go into cleaning a room that a child might not understand.It’s important to teach children how to do smaller tasks first, like pulling their comforter all the way up to their pillows, or putting away their toys when they’re done playing. If they don’t know how to do a task, like hanging clothes on a hanger, make sure you show them how it’s done.

Use Pictures to Help

Depending on how old your child is when you’re teaching them how to clean their room, it may be easier to show a picture of how to do something. If there is a box for blocks in their room, put a picture of a block above the bin it goes in so your child remembers. You could also utilize diagrams with arrows to show your child how to make their bed or hang up clothes.

Teach Them to Clean as They Play

This concept can be a trickier to teach, but once children learn how to clean up after themselves when they’re done playing, it’ll make cleaning their room easier for them. If you have to clean up after them, you can take whatever toys you had to clean up and keep them somewhere. Your child can get them back once they’ve done a chore or two. It may not work the first time, but it’s a start to teaching them to pick up after they’re done playing.

Make it Fun

Cleaning your room isn’t a fun task for most, so find something to help make cleaning something your child wants to do. There are different clean up songs you can teach your child, or rhymes to get them to remember to tidy their room. You can come up with a game with prizes to make cleaning more fun.

Have Patience with Them

Remember that your child is learning, so don’t expect perfection on the first try. Be encouraging, and tell them how proud you are of them for trying and then correct them on something if they messed up on it. Let your child know it’s okay to forget or mess up; they just need to try again so they can learn.

Having your child clean their own room will make them accountable for the messes they make. Your child will also learn tasks that will help them later in life, like putting a shirt on a hanger or organizing their toys. There will be less mess for you to worry about and you’ll all be better off because of it!

This is a guest post by Michael from ThinkCrucial.com, a home improvement brand that helps people save money on replacement parts.