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Challenge: Walking the Talk

How to Arrange Your Children to Clean Their Rooms

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Do you require a hazmat suit to go into your kids' rooms? Stimulate your kids to get their rooms clean and keep them fresh.

Help Them Out

For younger kids, help them out. Pitch in so washing doesn't feel like an impossible task to them.

We all understand it's much simpler (and more fun) to make a mess than it is to pick it up. Sometimes children just need a little additional help to get them going so they can complete the task.

Give Them Direction

We usually bark, "Clean your room!" And, sure, children know what the room is thought to look like when it's clean but do they understand how to get it to that point? Provide them way so they can get in the habit of knowing what needs to be done to get the room clean.

Originally, you may require to sit in the room with them and tell your kids to pick up books. When they're done picking up their books, give them more guidance, such as, "Put your things in your laundry bin."

Assign Age-Appropriate Tasks

Today's excellent vacuum cleaners are nothing like the clunky models of decades earlier. They're cordless, lightweight and pack rechargeable batteries for ultimate convenience and portability. It would be excellent if your two-year-old could knock some things off your list of housekeeping tasks by vacuuming her room, but that's not practical. Assign age-appropriate chores your children can get done.

Even the youngest kids can help out. Toddlers can sprinkle their rooms with socks on their hands. Preschoolers can start to learn how to make their beds. Your children can get a lot of cleaning done in only 15 minutes. Just be kind with them and make sure you're selecting tasks they can finish.

Make a Checklist for Kids

When your children can read, make a step-by-step list of what they require to do. As they complete a task, let them record a check in the box.

For younger children, you can nevertheless use a checklist. Just do your best to draw what they require to do. For example, scratch a stick figure teddy bear sitting in the toy case to show that your children need to pick up all of their toys.

Turn Cleaning Into a Game

You probably don't think of cleaning as fun action. Not do your children.

Turn cleaning into a contest to make it fun, though. Let them beat a bell when they complete a task. Set a timer on a chore and see if they can beat the clock. It doesn't take much to make cleaning fun for children, and it can do all the difference in their opinion about helping out.

Use Baskets for Cleaning

Boxes are a parent's best mate when it comes to cleaning up. You can get a bunch at the dollar shop and you've got flash, cheap toy storage.

Kids may not recognize where every little toy should be located, but with boxes clean up is a cinch and all they have to do is place their toys in the baskets.

Offer Incentives

You may not want to bribe your kids into cleaning but suggesting reasons works. You don't have to give up money or candy, though.

If you've got a family film night planned, have everyone pitch in to do their part of cleaning. The incentive is the movie. The result is a clean home and some well-deserved family time during the film.

Let It Go

The apartment is a mess. It's overwhelmed with toys and just as one mess is cleaned up, two more are made.

Sometimes you've just got to let it go. Take baby levels to get your home organized and clothes, games, toys, and DVDs de-cluttered.

Don't await little ones to clean more than one bedroom, or even half a room, at the moment. They're children, and while they can learn thorough duty cleaning, they're never going to be as effective as a professional cleaning company. So let it go. You are you. Let them be them. And sometimes shut the door so you don't have to recognize the mess that day.

Your home will be quiet and clean sometimes. And you'll miss your children being so little and messing it up daily.

This post comes from the TODAY Parenting Team community, where all members are welcome to post and discuss parenting solutions. Learn more and join us! Because we're all in this together.