Anyone with children will know the never-ending struggle it can be to encourage them to keep their bedrooms and playrooms tidy. Replies of “I’ll do it in a minute” resound around the house and, when they eventually get around to it, their version of tidying might not quite match up to yours. Toys were thrown into a pile in the corner or piled up under the bed instead of neatly away as you’d like them might be a regular occurrence.
While there is no perfect ‘fix’ for turning your children into cleaning fairies, there are ways to make tidying seem like less of a chore to them and something that they can start to enjoy. It is important we teach our children from a young age the importance of looking after their belongings and taking pride in keeping their room tidy to help create good lifelong habits. This, in turn, should mean less nagging from you, a happier environment and a nice clean house.
So, how can we encourage our children to keep their rooms tidy?
Make it into a game
Children love playing games and they are generally much more receptive to getting involved if something is going to be fun. If you tidy together and set up little races to see who can put the most books back on the shelf most neatly you can encourage your child to enjoy tidying up.
You could ring a bell or play a song when they finish a certain task like making their bed and have something fun you do together at that moment – like a funny dance or a high-five. You could even set a timer for a particular chore and see if they can beat their last time at doing it. Anything that makes tidying a fun experience for them will help them form positive habits.
Make it fun for them
Children love playing games and they are generally much more receptive to getting involved if something is going to be fun. If you tidy together and set up little races to see who can put the most books back on the shelf most neatly you can encourage your child to enjoy tidying up.
You could ring a bell or play a song when they finish a certain task like making their bed and have something fun you do together at that moment – like a funny dance or a high-five. You could even set a timer for a particular chore and see if they can beat their last time at doing it. Anything that makes tidying a fun experience for them will help them form positive habits.
Make clear rewards and consequences
All the way through our lives we respond to rewards and consequences. This is something our little ones will have to get used to at school and in later life so it’s a great idea to have clear rules and boundaries laid out at home too.
Making a colourful checklist with a list of their individual chores is a great idea. You could draw little stick men or illustrations to remind them what each task means if they can’t yet read properly.
That way, they know that they have to make their bed, tidy their clothes away and put their books back on the shelf each morning or evening. If you can have a reward chart where they get a sticker or a star each time they complete a ‘tidy’ day and reward them at appropriate times, say each weekend, then it will help them to associate tidiness with rewards.
Similarly, if they refuse to tidy or haven’t done something, they don’t get the reward. It might be that for every toy you have to put back in the box, or every item of clothing left on the floor they lose a little bit of their playtime. Whatever the consequence and reward you choose, just make sure you stick with it.
Make them proud of their room
Most of us don’t love to clean. It’s probably not at the very top of our list of things we enjoy doing, but we just know that we have to do it. It always makes it easier to keep our homes tidy when we are proud of them.
Have you ever noticed that when you re-decorate a room, or even just get some new accessories you are much more keen to clean and keep that space tidy? Being proud of a space makes us want to look after it. It’s exactly the same for our children. If they love their bedrooms and playrooms they will be much more likely to want to look after them.
Letting our children have some choice in the design of their bedroom can be a great place to start. Giving them furniture they love and baskets, bookshelves and boxes to display their belongings and look after them will also encourage them to want to keep their bedroom looking its best.
If your little one has a mountain of toys, a Just4Kidz toy box might be just the thing you’re looking for. Not only can your child pick out their favourite colour and fabric from our unique designs and prints, but they will have a brand new space to put their toys and keep their bedroom looking ship shape.
The most important thing is to stay persistent and start small. At first, they may just clean their bookshelf, or half of their room well. If you keep on top of these 3 tips you will eventually have a little helper around the house who knows how to keep their things tidy!
Good luck! To browse our gorgeous range of toy boxes and children’s furniture just follow the link to our website here.
