Confession: when I ask my boys to clean their bedroom it usually ends in a huge weeping pile of me. After hours without progress and constantly breaking down tasks and repeat repeat repeating myself I am left wanting never to face this challenge again. So I wait and wait and then rinse and repeat the ordeal and cry shamefully.
Then a friend said: make a list.
And to quote my 8 year old I said: Duh.
I sat down with the kids and together we listed 7 general cleaning tasks that were necessary to tidy the room. Each boy got an index card and an explanation. They would be asked to check one or two things off their list throughout the day: maybe after breakfast, before lunch, and/or when I’m making dinner. The goal is that by bedtime all items are checked off and Mama (or Papa) tucks in without stress.
Green aside: I write in ink on the index cards and make little check boxes and the kids use pencils and erase the checks when the boxes are full. So, you know, reducing the amount of cards used, reusing the same card, and recycling when it’s done. Hurrah!
We’re in the transition period, but so far it’s working pretty well. So well that we are going to write a list for playroom tasks, too. Because this Mama hates the playroom messes.
Let me be clear that we’re also talking about cleaning as they go and finishing one thing before starting another and tending to the house as a family unit. But until that sinks in, the index cards might help to reduce the heaping weeping piles of me.
Do you have any tricks?
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by Megin Hatch
Photo graciously provided by Guillermо, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.
5 responses so far ↓
Rob // Jun 26, 2008 at 5:40 am
Punk #2’s enthusiasm for it was great fun to watch last night. It seems to feed into the need all of the
Punks have for breaking down the large, overwhelming nature of cleaning an entire room, into manageable bite sized chunks.
I think we all need this at times.
AmyL // Jun 26, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Laminate the cards either in a laminator or with clear contact paper. Then mark on them with a dry-erase pen and voila! they’ll last even longer.
Nan // Jun 27, 2008 at 5:42 am
I am ashamed to say that once I had gone through the tasks with my boys, showed them how, made sure that each one was age-appropriate, ensured storage solutions, etc, we still had a problem. I am more ashamed still of my solution: I tidied up. Then I put all of the toys in a garbage bag and put it out. The boys were completely horrified, and begged to rescue their toys, which I grudgingly allowed. The toys were then neatly put away in their rightful places! Now, I just need to say “If you don’t clean your room, I WILL!” You have never SEEN such a neat room, uh, when it’s neat! Which is most of the time.
AmyL // Jun 27, 2008 at 8:03 am
Nan, there’s nothing to be ashamed of in any of that! Your solution is perfect because it worked for your boys, lol. Part of the problem here is there’s so much junk that they often don’t care if I throw things out. We’ve been working on limiting how much comes into the house and going through and purging a few times a year. Several parents were taken aback when I threw a birthday party and said “No gifts please”. But if I hadn’t, that would have been 10-12 more toys coming into the house! Two boys times 6 guests…you get the picture. Insane. They each got one super nice gift for their birthday and it’s all good. Of course, the younger guys came home from Grandma’s with 3 Happy Meal toys apiece. I swear those things breed in the closet.
Debbie // Jun 28, 2008 at 2:59 pm
One thing we do to motivate cleaning is to put toys that remain on the floor out of reach. These toys can be “earned” back by future completed clean-ups. One complete clean-up (no toys left on the floor) = one reclaimed toy. I would love to try combining this reward system with the card system you use.
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