How to get a child to clean their bedroom
Helen’s Version
I found a wonderful article on this but Claudia says I have to give you my version. She has a horrifed memory of a story I told about my poor sister Marian thinking that the three day old fried egg sandwich that I had left on the kitchen bench (I was tidying my room) was her school lunch… I blame my mother - who would give a fried egg sandwich to a child but she said she didn’t want to see it go to waste.
Anyway send child into room with a rubbish bag and a laundry basket. (Terrible egg sandwich problem would not have happened if I had been given a rubbish bag)
Tell the child to pick up every single thing on the floor and any other surface and put on the bed.
Vaccumn the floor and dust all surfaces.
Sort the stuff on the bed - rubbish in rubbish bag, dirty laundry in laundry basket, clean laundry into drawers, everything else put in proper place and make bed.
Done - yeah right!
Andrea’s Version
Having read Helen’s tips above I am most definetely thinking - yeah right! I know for a fact this doesn’t work. Here is my technique for getting a clean bedroom.
Ask child to clean their room by x time. Warn them that if this doesn’t happen a black rubbish bag clean up is coming.
If it is not cleaned go into the room. Pick up all dirty washing and put in the wash. Put everything else that is not in it’s rightful place in a black rubbish bag.
When child come’s yelling “where is my hockey uniform, clean undies, homework, etc.” tell them that it is in the rubbish bag. It can be retrieved by doing a small job of your choosing.
Job done.