Broomhuggers » Never say “Go clean your room”

February 16, 2008 | Kids clean, Cleaning tips

Telling a child to go clean his room is like asking an adult to go build a cold fusion generator. Unless your kids are experienced at cleaning their rooms, they won’t know where to start. It takes specific instructions, and the expectation of supervision if you want your child to actually clean his room. So let’s take it in steps.

First, go make your bed. If there are things on the bed, they’ll need to be put away first. Once the bed is made, there’s a clean work surface, and the instant-gratification that cleaning makes things look nice.

Age-appropriate expectations? Age 1: Child can help parent pull the sheets up and straighten. Ages 2-4: Sheets pulled up and somewhat straightened. Pillow and stuffed animals in the right place. Ages 5-7: Bed should look nice from a distance. Ages 8+: Teach them how to do hospital corners and all that jazz. They may hate it now, but they’ll thank you for it later.

Pick up everything off the floor and put it on the bed. Aha! Now they’re stuck. They can’t go to sleep or enjoy the cleanly made bed until it’s been put away. But look! Now you can see the carpet!

Age expectation: Any age of mobile child can do this. Up to age 4, expect them to miss things - you’ll have to help with the details.

Put the things from the bed away. Clothes can be sorted into what’s clean (to be hung or put in drawers) and what’s dirty (laundry basket); books go on the bookshelf; toys go into their appropriate homes - whether that’s the bookshelf, toy bins, the closet, etc.; papers can be sorted and either put away or thrown away.

Age expectation: Age 1: Can follow simple instructions (put all the balls in the basket; take this book to the bookshelf, etc.). Age 2-4: With supervision they can usually sort categories (books to the bookshelf, clothes to the laundry basket, toys in a bin) and may be able to put things where they belong - only not very neatly. Age 5+: They should be able to put things away with little supervision, but expect the younger set to put things away without much organization or order.

Dust or vacuum (or maybe both?)

1. Age expectation: Age 1+: Can wield a cleaning cloth and wipe surfaces they can reach. Don’t expect anything close to perfection. Age 3-6: Can dust specific surfaces with a damp duster. Can also use a hand vac to get under the edge of the bed and dresser. Age 7+: May be able to dust the furniture with no supervision, and can be taught to vacuum (depending on how heavy your vacuum is).

A few key guidelines to remember:

Children don’t do what you expect; they do what you inspect. Don’t expect them to meet your standards unless you teach them what your standards are and inspect their work.
“That isn’t clean enough” won’t get you far. “Let me show you how” works better.
Positive encouragement goes a long way - when it’s specific. Examples? “I like how all your books are lined up just right!” or “You sure worked hard to get all your toys into the right bins!”
A little competition makes cleaning fun for everyone. “Can you put away the green blocks faster than I put away the blue blocks?” I even talked to one mom who put duct tape (sticky side out) on her kids’ hands and knees - the one with the dirtiest duct tape (i.e., who had picked up more dust and dirt) after 10 minutes was declared the winner.

Posted by mudlark @ 6:57 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://broomhuggers.com/2008/02/16/never-say-go-clean-your-room/trackback/

Mr. C.’s Random Thoughts » Blog Archive » This post makes SO much sense! says:

[…] Never tell your kids to “Go clean your room!” […]
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
Through The Looking Glass » Blog Archive » Clean your room! says:

[…] Clean your room!Nice article on age-appropriate cleaning chores. Via… I already forget, probably Parent Hackers. February 22, […]
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am
Sarah S. Chicken says:

I like these instructions and ideas. If I’m in a good mood I pretend I’m the trash monster and the kids have to pick up the things I want to keep before I get to them. I usually give the kids choices: do you want to pick up your books first or your clothes first?
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 pm