I have had a lot of experience with getting a child to clean their room.
Each child is different and what works with one will not work with another. Some children don’t need help in this area, this article is written for the ones that do.
Rewards and punishments work for some children, but not for others. Some children look at a messy room and have no idea how to begin cleaning it. For kids that are just completely overwhelmed, here are some ideas for helping them.
- Break down the job into different areas. For example, have your child pick up all the books in the room. When that is done, have them put all the clothes in a pile. Breaking down the mess into small messes helps make the job more manageable.
- Make a game out of cleaning. Set a time limit for different items and see what they can clean up the fastest. Write down the times and find out which items was the easiest to clean.
- Pull everything together in one big pile. Have your child pick out the biggest item from the pile and put that away first. Or find everything that is the color red and put that away. Sometimes just cleaning up in a different way is all it takes to get the job done.
Setting rewards and punishments can work sometimes, but helping your child learn how to manage the mess and get it cleaned timely is the key to success every time. Teaching them how to clean their room saves you from harassing them every day to get it cleaned. And it can give your child a great sense of accomplishment once they are done.
Let us know what works in your house in the comment section below. We’d be very curious to hear some other ideas that work for you.
Mike Sipes is the owner and operator of