by Yvonne Mccormack

Created on: May 16, 2009

We have all been there, the constant battle to get your child or children to keep their rooms clean and tidy. I was constantly on at my son to pick up his things off the floor in his room. He would clean up and tidy his things away, but the next day it would be back to the same untidy mess. Then along came his sister. Now I just did not have the time or energy to spend on picking up after him, or nagging him to clean up his room every day.

What I did next will most probably shock some people, but for me it worked. I took my son to one side and both me and his father talked to him about his room. We told him that his room was his own place, and it was up to him to pick up his things after himself. We made sure that there was a place for all his toys and all his clothes. Everything had it's place. We also told him that whatever was left lying around would be taken away.

After a few weeks there was hardly any toys or books or colouring pencils, left in his room. In fact he had none of his things left. We went into his room every day, and for the first few days he had totally ignored what he had been told. There was things all over the floor as usual, and nothing put away. So one by one his toys and games disappeared.

After several tantrums my son finally agreed to pick up his things and put them away when he had finished playing with them. One by one he got all his things back, and I am happy to say that now he keeps his room clean and tidy himself. He is also very proud of his room now and I only have to give it a good going over every two or three weeks.

The mistake I made with my son, was not learning him to put away his things from a early age. If you teach your child to clean their own room as soon as they are old enough to understand then it is so much easier for you and your child. When they are old enough to take out toys then they are old enough to learn how to put them back.

Now I didn't make the same mistake with his sister, we had a toy box for her toys, and a box for her pencils and crayons. Every time she took things out I would show her how to put them back. She was quite good at picking this up, and soon learnt how to keep her room clean and tidy.

I would turn this learning process into a game, which in turn made it fun for my children to learn. I would put on their favorite nursery rhymes when they were young, and we would sing as we put things away. I made up little songs for different toys and the places they belonged. I found by doing this with the children they enjoyed the learning process more and began to enjoy keeping their rooms clean and tidy.

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