Chores can get boring.
Which is why you shouldn’t be surprised when your child refuses to release his room from its cluttered state.
Do not fret though for help is on the way!
You can start getting those tiny little hands to help you by first teaching your child how to organize and tidy-up his room.
Done? Here’s what’s next.
Most will agree that kids are more engaged when playing and fun are involved.
So get creative, Mama! Think of better ways to get that room from drab to fab. (Sorry, couldn’t resist the using the phrase.)
What’s that you say? You aren’t creative? Okay then, here are:
12 Creative Ways: How to Make Kids Clean Their Room
1. I dare you!
“Bet you can’t pick-up everything on the floor in under 7 minutes!”
Set the timer and watch your child ricochet from corner to corner.
2. Pirate’s loot
Tell your child he’s a pirate who has found a room full of treasure. Hand him an eye patch and explain that his job is to pick-up all the treasure (aka toys) and put them in the treasure chest (aka toy box) for safekeeping. Arrrgh!
3. Read a story
Read a book while your child cleans his room. And even if GoodHouseKeeping.com says this tip is for teens, who says you can’t use it on your younger child?
4. Count your way to cleanliness
Ask him to pick-up 7 toys while counting out loud. When he’s done, tell him to get 5 more!
5. “No Mess” sign
Tape this on your child’s door. This will remind him to keep his room tidy without you uttering a single word. Use sparingly.
6. Jump & Pick-Up
This idea is from a book called 77 Ways to Get Your Kids to Help at Home by Judith H. Wright. During commercial breaks, have your kids run to where the mess is to clean it up.
7. Freeze & Clean
This is like musical chairs only better. Play music and ask your child to pick-up the mess while his favorite song is playing. When the song stops he should freeze as well.
8. Guess What’s Missing
This is another idea from Judith H. Wright’s book. Tell your child to pick-up 10 items from the floor and then have you (yes, you, the mommy) guess what’s missing. Oh, and no cheating please.
9. Pay Them
Every so often issue checks after a job well-done. A check for one hug, kiss or whatever it is you can think of. Use sparingly.
10. Sing your instructions
Release your inner diva by belting out commands – no matter how bad you think you sound. At least this way, you won’t be accused of nagging.
11. Clean by color
Again, another idea from Judith H. Wright’s book. Ask your child to pick-up everything red first, then blue, green, etc. This will make the task of cleaning a whole mountain of toy less daunting for your child.
12. Play a song
Play your child’s favorite tune, this will get him bopping to the beat while returning those crayons in the drawer.
Here’s a bonus!
If none of these work, tell your child that toys or clothes left scattered around will end up in the trash. And we all know who loves garbage:
Do you have other creative tips on how to make kids clean their room?
About Anne Mercado
Thanks a lot! Great new tips for me! I´ll try them starting today ; )
See you around, your friend from Voiceboks
Lolo
1 down, 11 to go…
Good luck and one of these are bound to work on the kiddos! See you around VB as well.
Funny!! I was thinking that I would try the musical chairs version and then maybe the have-mom-guess-what’s-missing idea, but I think maybe we will just watch the video first!!
Nice tips -
Thanks!
Visiting from VB (and now following you!).
Carla
Mrs. No-No Knows
A Week of Menus
Twitter: mrsnonoknows
Hopefully your kid(s) won’t be too generous with Oscar. Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you back soon.
These are really good ideas. I am surprised some musician some place has not written a song with the pick up and stop theme.
Pam
Yes, We Observe MLK Day In This House
Twitter: mommacansing
You’re right! Someone should really come up with a kiddie clean-up-your-mess song! A catchy one that the kiddos can dance to (while tidying-up of course!).
I thought I had this covered…the color idea is GREAT! and the musical chairs..you are brilliant!
I am your newest follower..pls follow back if you can!
Don’t Do Your Kid’s Science Projects
Twitter: annmariepipa
Oh dear, I can’t take credit for the color idea, that belongs to Judith Wright. Even my mom agreed with that one when she read it. Thank you for following by the way and of course I will follow you back.
oops! that is not my twitter acct. sorry. I don’t know how to delete it…I AM going to arrive, soon, into this century
Twitter: annmariepipa
I checked the commenting service and there is no way to delete twitter names for now. If you want, you can comment again entering your desired twit name and I’ll delete the old comments that have the current twit name, OR you can just do nothing
By the way, Will wait for your arrival haha
Those are Great ideas! I will definitely be incorporating some of these as my kids have started to fight against doing their chores! I especially like the Jump and Pickup; too bad we don’t have commercials…we don’t have TV, just internet.
Visiting from VB.
JadeLouise Designs
What Is All This Hype About Sopa and PIPA? Will It Really Restrict My Internet?
Twitter: JadeLDesigns
Glad you liked the ideas. For the jump and pick up, may I suggest you pause what you are watching to give them enough time to tidy-up? Hope this helps. See you around VB and thank you for stopping by.
Once again, great article! One idea that has worked recently for us is to give them a run-down of our expectation (i.e. pick up the toy, vacuum, dust). Then, we tell them to let us know when the room is ready for “inspection”. If it doesn’t pass inspection, then they lose 1 privilege that day (such as TV). Not once has a chore not passed inspection in recent weeks!
14 Days to Improve Your Relationships
The inspection idea is great, Ali. Thank you for sharing it and I’m sure it will help other moms.
Those are really creative ideas. I wish I could pull them off
.
I got to thinking, maybe I can change a bit of the lyrics to “A Spoonful of Sugar” while cleaning up the room. That may even work for me too, as I find chores boring as hell. Great post, as usual!
The Single-Parent Trap
Twitter: PepperTan
Yeah, some of these ideas should work for the kiddo. And yes, chores are definitely boring so sing away!
I make them dump out everything onto their bed and they can’t sleep ’til it’s put away. Or I threaten to take away their cell phone, texting, internet… but I have teen/tweens!
Friday Photo: Change
Twitter: mamawolfeto2
Taking privileges away works, Mamawolfe! You’re right there. Hey pretty soon you’ll be threatening to take away driving privileges. Haha
No wonder beating them with a stick didn’t work! LOL
Great tips and of course I love the top pic!
Sharon
“I Spy With My Little Eye…”
Twitter: http://sharon-moms-madhouse.com/
Really? Beating the kiddo works for me. I’m kidding!! No one in my house has ever beaten a child – a pillow maybe, but a child? Never.
About the top pic, I saw that photo and kept thinking, “I wonder if Sharon would mind if I used a vintage pic?” I’m glad you don’t seem to.
Great suggestions!
With my son, the song “this is the way we pick up our toys…” seemed to work. With my daughter, she only knew i was serious when i “threw” the toys away. I actually kept it hidden somewhere and then returned it when she started cleaning up her mess.
Smart Explorers Smart Tots Session 1
Twitter: kimps08
It’s different for each kid, huh? Thank you so much for dropping by, Krystyna! Hope to see you around more and enjoy your weekend.
LOVE these tips. Clean up time around here almost always results in someone crying. (sometimes even ME! Haha!) I’d really love to get through it with everyone happy and having fun. Thanks for posting this. Maybe our Saturday house cleaning will be much more pleasant.
Twitter: ChrstianSuprMom
This made me laugh!
We don’t want moms to cry so I really do hope your children respond to at least one of the ideas here. Hope you are having a fun weekend!
So great!! How do always come up with such fantastic suggestions?? My kids are so competitive with each other, so I like to have them race to see who gets the cleaning done the quickest and done well. I used to reward them with little things like getting to pick the bedtime book, but now bragging rights seems to hold more weight.
The Sex Talk
Bragging rights are awesome
Maybe you could make them medals or something haha. And as always, thanks for the kind words, they are much appreciated.
Do enjoy the rest of your weekend.
One of my siblings’ favorite songs is “4 minutes” by Madonna. So I told them they were spies – and they only had 4 minutes to ‘save the world’ (lyrics from the song). When the song would stop, we’d take a break – then come back and do it all over again. The song has a great beat – so the kids had fun doing it!
Love, love, love your example!! Thank you for sharing, Maddy!
Hmm I haven’t heard that song yet but will see if I can use it on the kiddo. Thanks for sharing that cool tip, Maddy!