Teach Kids to Have a Clean Room + Bedroom Cleaning Printable
Do you have a child that struggles when you say “go clean your room?” Is it a nightmare to just get a clean room? How about a child that says “I cleaned it!” But it is far from your standard of clean?
Well, you are not alone! I can’t tell you how many times we have sent our kids to clean their rooms. And then when we check it still looks like a tornado went through it.
Obviously, our standards of “clean room” are far apart.
So how do you get to the same level of understanding of what constitutes a clean room?
Sadly, it’s all through consistency and teaching. But there are resources to help!
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- Similar- Comforter Bedding set.
Help Kids to Have a Clean Room
Just like when we shared how to clean a bathroom as part of our Teach Kids to Clean series; when you have a printable that states each individual step to cleaning the bedroom, then the child knows exactly what is expected.
Also when they have a checklist right in front of them, they know they can’t cut corners because you will be checking for each item on the list.
Plus the “I forgot” excuse no longer works! Because they can’t forget. It’s right in front of them!
Or the “I don’t know how!” or “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that” excuses are now void!
Yes, I’ve heard them all!
My inspiration for our Clean Room Checklist is from a very old book that my Mom used to teach my sister and I how to have a clean room. It’s called What To Do When Your Mom or Dad Says Clean Your Room.
It is part of the Survival Series for Kids books from Joy Berry. And let me tell you I love these books! They may be old. But the lessons they teach are still very applicable today!
And I can’t tell you how much I loved this book as a kid.
Now don’t get me wrong. I hated cleaning my room as a kid. I still hate it.
But, this book helped me understand how to do it. It helped to keep me from getting overwhelmed and discouraged.
It stopped the battle of “It’s clean mom!” and her replying “No, try again” battle that can last for hours.
But I have 4 kids. I can’t just expect them to easily share the book. No that would be too easy.
They have to bicker and fight over who is cleaning their room first. And who needs it most. And then the other one claims they didn’t know what to do, or how to clean their room. or that they “forgot” to clean under their bed, etc.
So I decided to make it easy for everyone!
The book resides in a common use area. And each kid gets a Clean Room Checklist Printable for each of their rooms.
Then if they have any questions on a particular step they can go visit the book for step by step instructions on how to do that step.
So let’s go over How to teach kids to have a clean room.
My Mom Used to say ” A Place for Everything, and Everything In Its Place”. And that is how you have a clean home.
My mom would say that every time we went to clean. No matter the room.
And I have found that very true with my own home. If everything you own has a place, then you can put everything in its place and your home is well organized, clean and comfortable.
If you don’t have a place for something, then it needs to either
1. Create a place
or
2. Get rid of it.
Simple as that.
When you use that theory when it comes to clutter and these 10 steps, you will have a clean room all the time!
- Clean everything off your bed
- Make your bed
- Pick up everything from the floor that is out of place and place it on the bed
- Pick up everything out of place on furniture and add it to the bed – begin at the area to the left of your door and work your way around the room
- Put Objects on Bed away
- FOLD clothes and put in drawers
- HANG up clothes
- Put trash in trash
- Objects without a home go in homeless box
- Toys neatly put in their place
- Dust/Polish Furniture a. nightstand, dresser, bed frame, desk.
- Dust out window frame/ Window tracks
- Sweep, Vacuum, or Dust Mop floor.
- Begin at the area to the left of your door and work your way around the room
- Make sure to do under the bed and other furniture.
- Put Cleaning Supplies away
- Empty Trash
Just Print out the Clean Room Checklist Printable.
Laminate it in your handy at home Laminator. I got mine for only $25 on Amazon with free shipping. (LOVE Amazon PRIME Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial). And it’s so worth it to have my own laminator! Especially with all the cool printables, we’ll be bringing you in the How to Teach Kids to Clean series.
Once it is laminated (because you want this to last week after week after week) simply use some Tacky and stick it up in the bedroom.
Place the printable where your child can read it easily.
You can even add a dry erase marker if you want. And they can mark off each task as they accomplish it. Because remember we laminated the How to Clean the room Checklist Sheet.
Be sure to check out our other Parenting resources. And Download your How to Clean the room Printable. I put one in each bedroom.
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Also, make sure to visit our How to Clean a Bathroom and get that printable too!
That is a great printable! Thanks for sharing it. I find that a lot of the books I grew up with still have value for today also. I like the idea of laminating it and using a dry erase marker to check things off. That would definitely save on ink and paper.
I’d love to know where you purchased the pegged pole next to the bed in the picture of the “clean” bedroom. Thanks!
Hi Leslie! Isn’t it adorable?? You can get it on amazon here: http://amzn.to/2bOQuLd
Also at ikea if you have one near you.
I was wondering where the blue and green linen is from? I love it and it matches my boy’s room/.
I’m not sure the exact bedding, as I was given permission to use that image. I wish that was my child’s bedroom. But I lack a lot when it comes to decorating talent.
I haven’t been able to find the exact item online. But I found a similar bedding set with green/blue combo that my son actually has on his own bed and loves it. http://bit.ly/2bxncTD
You can look at various options on their website. Or if you have an ikea close by, they usually have great color choices for linen as well.
Hi! I have to confess I LOVE these and I am an adult! I was never taught to clean as a child and truly don’t know how it is done. I once heard someone say they wanted to write a book to teach husbands how to clean…but there are many women who never learned how to clean (or have other issues that make it overwhelming for us) who would love to learn how to clean methodically. This kind of thing is a gift for us! Thank you so much!
You are so very welcome! I had roommates in college that had never been taught to clean and it was very hard as we were supposed to work together to keep the dorms clean. Is one area where I’m very grateful my Mother taught me when I was young. Much easier to learn then.
Even as an adult, it’s always great to have reminders, cause even adults forget sometimes about some corners. 😉
You totally just took the words straight from my mouth! I am 100% exactly this person! Still learning though.!
Hi! First time here, and this printable looks to solve many a problem in my house. I’ve tried to teach my kids to clean their rooms, but I think this is one task that may be better left to a check off list whilst Mom is occupied elsewhere. I do however, wonder what your solution would be for two boys, 5 and 9 who share a room? The elder son insists the younger does nothing while the elder cleans, yet following an hour, the room is still a disaster. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.
That is always a continual struggle! We have jobs that my boys are supposed to complete together. And it more often than not turns into a battle. And yes, the older “cleans” while the younger one sits and watches and then says that he cleaned too.
This is how My Mother handled this struggle:
My sister and I shared a bedroom when we were little. I believe
1. She said we were required to take care of our own items. So if someone was out that was mine, it was MY responsibility to take care of it.
2. We were then assigned specific tasks on the room cleaning checklist so we knew exatly which task was our job and which was our siblings.
First, we each had to take care of our own items so that the floor and bed wwere picked up. THEN, for the rest of the cleaning tasks she assigned them to each one of us. I was required to dust. Then my sister had to sweep. Etc.
The next week the jobs switched. So we each had equal turns to do each job.
Then if something was left unfinished she knew WHICH child hadn’t completed his task. So that she wasn’t punishing both kids for the one child’s actions.
The other rule she had was that if you didn’t complete your task and it held up the other person (like dusting had to be done before sweeping an if I didn’t do the dusting in a reasonable amount and time and help up my sister so she couldn’t complete her job) then you were then required to do the other persons’ job too. She was trying to teach us to be respectful of other people and see how what we do or don’t do affects others as well.
I use this method with my boys often. If they have general “go clean this together” instructions it turns into battles. But when we give them each a very specific task it reduces the fighting. Or at least the blaming that they thought the other person was supposed to do that task. 😉
Let me know how it goes with your boys!
You just saved my life! Oh My God do I need this book at our house. I may be searching for it right now! 🙂
Thank you so much! Printed ou all how to clean printables and am laminating all of them so I can let the little guy use them every week.
All the love
Sophia
Oh I LOVE the book! like seriously I use it all the time with my boys!
The printables have been great for my boys. I hope it works with your little guy too!
Omg I have the same book! That my mom also gave me! I swear this was one of those situations where i thought I was only person with this book! I’m so thrilled to see someone else use it to their advantage because it works! Even today, as an adult, my mom still reminds me of it. Haha. I guess it didn’t work as well as she hoped.
I tell you what Chelsee, I hated this book when i was a kid. Because I couldn’t get away with cutting corners. lol. But now as a parent I LOVE it! I use its tips to help clean many different rooms in the house.
Why did my grandmother never give me this book when I was growing up? I want to clean better and these charts can allow all of us, even the adults, the way to do that. My kids still need lots of physical guidance and my oldest is 3 w/ nonverbal autism. If there was a way to turn these directions into a very visual representation I’d love it for him.
Great printable. My kid has turned 10 now. I am willing to teach him all good habits. Thanks for sharing these tips 🙂
This is a great checklist. My daughter and I are so glad to have something easy to help with the struggle of keeping her room clean. She has her checklist and dry erase marker and is in her room as I am typing this. Thanks for the resource.
These are habits which I was looking for my kids to clean their rooms. Thanks for sharing these ideas.
Very interesting book! May I ask you to sell me its pdf version?
I’m afraid I’m unable to do such. It has a copyright and I don’t have a PDF version. You can still find it on Amazon in good used condition here – http://amzn.to/2FNiMUq
Thank you so much for this! My mom checked that book out from the library for me when I was little and it helped me tremendously! As a kiddo with undiagnosed ADHD, having a book explain exactly what to do step by step was a life saver! I’ve been looking everywhere for this book, but had completely forgotten what the title was. I now need it for my own daughter (who has been diagnosed with ADHD) and just bought a copy from Amazon! Thank you for sharing your checklist also- you don’t know how much you’ve helped me!