How tidy are your children's bedrooms?

[thinkfast]

I'm so so fed up and frustrated with my children's bedrooms.

I work full time in a demanding job. We have a cleaner once a week. DS12 and DD8 know they are expected to keep their bedrooms tidy, but they can't.

DD is my current focus. She has a large room with enough space for her belongings, but cannot seem to keep her room tidy. She throws clothes and toys on the floor, rubbish and empty food wrappers, and her wardrobe and drawers are just a tangled mess. She has a box to keep hair bands, a box for jewellery, but it's strewn everywhere or shoved in a cupboard Every few months I do a massive tidy and organisation of her room, but within a week it's just as bad as ever. She's tidied her bedroom every evening this week and today it's an absolute pit.

She had a friend round yesterday and they got lipstick and makeup all over the carpet and ruined some toys. I'm furious. She's currently in tears tidying up, then I'm going to go in and sort out her wardrobe.

Ds' problem is lack of storage. He collects and paints warhammer which is taking over his room. He reads voraciously and has stacks and stacks of books everywhere as he's run out of space to put them. I'm not a visual thinker and just can't think how best to organise him to create some storage and some space for him. I was up until 3am Googling and looking on Pinterest for ideas, but not really able to think how they'd fit his room.

They both leave a trail of belongings throughout the house which I'm constantly putting on the stairs and shouting for them to take up.

I've had it. Why are my weekends ruined by a constant stream of overflowing crap. Anyone got any helpful suggestions or solutions? What does everyone else do?

Ds is tidy. All the time tbh if he’s not playing in it.

Trick all over the house is simply not having too much of anything. Ds has drawers with clothing in, but all have organisers in per item and nothing more than half full so he isn’t ramming things in. Ie drawer with pjs would fit maybe 8 pairs, he only owns 3.

My children are younger so haven’t reached the point of asking them to tidy their own room yet. But we have a separate play room at the moment. Their rooms are just their bed and a cosy book corner for reading. I want their bedrooms to be a place of winding down, relaxing and sleeping. I find with having toys on display tenors them to get up and play.

The playroom on the other hand, it’s constantly messy 😂 toys everywhere! Some days you can’t even see the floor. I don’t make a point of tidying it every day either, it’s a play room where they play. If I tidied up every single day my effort would just be wasted. I tidy it about once a week tbh, usually on a Sunday as they’re both in nursery on Monday so it stays clean for at least a day 😂

Dd6 has recently been moved into bigger bedroom so we painted, new Carpet etx

Storage is important so we brought storage cubes for toys - all have use like duplo - doll stuff - jigsaws etx

Having boxes makes it neater /hidden

Plus bookcase for all her books

Food isn't allowed.

Make up def not. Downstairs on table

8yo and 10yo keep their room relatively clean (they share), but by putting everything under their bed. Ds13 leaves clothes on the ground at the bottom of his bed, there is Lego EVERYWHERE and ds15 (they share too, has sweet wrappers everywhere. Every so often I go in with a black bun bag and act like the Lego etc is going too and they start cleaning. What has made a bit of a difference is a clothes basket in the room for dirty clothes. Other than that if you find the secret I’d love to know it. It’s the only room in the house I refuse to clean but they aren’t seeing the error of their ways even though I’ve said ‘but what if you got sick?’ Etc

All of my three have tidy rooms. They’re not allowed to eat outside of the kitchen diner. Or play with messy stuff like make up orbeez or slime upstairs.

They have enough storage and very 3/4 months I help them sort and bin stuff they no longer need. Clothes go in the laundry basket every night automatically.

All three (3,7,9) know that they’re not allowed screen time unless room is tidy, bags packed for next day, clothes ready for next day and stuff cleared from downstairs and I’ll interrupt them to go back and do it if it’s not done properly.

They’ve all been involved in tidying, dirty clothes in basket, putting clean laundry away etc since toddlers. Consistency is key here and I hope they’ll carry these good habits through their teens and into adulthood.

One 7yo. Reasonably tidy, within parameters!

No food or drinks allowed beyond kitchen or dining area. That includes sweets. Also saves having to clear up spilt drinks. Use a non-spill cup for water overnight.

Anything that could stick to or stain carpet isn't allowed in rooms with carpets - this includes Playdoh, lip gloss, slime, paint...

Anything and everything can be left out and played with BUT all corridors/doorways must be left clear. Everything is picked up and put away on Sunday evening ready for DH cleaning bedrooms on Monday.

Partly this works because there's somewhere to put everything away. Partly we turned it into a conversation about everyone pulling together as a family and how can we make it easier for Daddy to clean? DD didn't understand 'tidy up' but did understand when she had a demo of trying to hoover the floor with a load of stuff in the way!

Thanks for the tips. I've just helped Dd a bit with her room. Massive massive clear out of her wardrobe and drawers - took EVERYTHING out and put neatly away or bagged for charity. Tidied up her desk, book shelves and bedside drawers. Thrown tons of stuff. Her cupboards need some rearranging where she's just shoved stuff in, but that can be another day.

Bathroom stuff back in bathroom, kitchen stuff back in kitchen. Piles of laundry to do, but her room feels much better. Hope she keeps it that way.

I like the suggestion of no screen time until the room is tidy. Think I will instigate that.

Task for another day is DS's room. He just has too much stuff. And likes to cover every surface with warhammer. I'm going to have to insist he throws some things out and that he has one small display of warhammer, with the rest put in boxes and drawers.

It sounds like they have to much stuff. Think of it all as inventory. They need to be able to use it/clean it/ store it. If it’s too hard, they are never going to manage it. They are still pretty young and probably overwhelmed. I would do a big Declutter. Adding more storage won’t make the problem better, just worse imo.

When our children's room were constantly messy, we invented a tidy zone system. It has dramatically changed their behaviour and now their rooms are so tidy.
I went into each room and decided with my child how many zones are in their room and what each zone consists of.
For example, dd's room has sleeping zone (bed, bedside table) working zone (desk, chair, waste paper bin, storage units, bookcase) getting ready zone (wardrobe, drawers, shoe rack, coat rack), accessories zone (bobbles and accessories storage and area by mirror) play zone (all toys put away in right place) carpet and surfaces zone (floor cleared and vacuumed, surfaces cleared and dusted)
Each day by 6pm, 2 areas need straightening up, things put away neatly in their right place, things that don't belong in that zone are put in the right place in the zone they belong.
The rule is that they can't do the same zones two days on the trot and all zones need to have been done at least once in a week.
The children have started tidying as they go along now so that the zones don't take them as long.
When we first started doing this, I spent a day in each of their rooms getting rid of stuff they don't want or need to give them a start.
We are now a year along, and their rooms are so tidy. The only other thing we have told them is that on the mornings, beds are to be made, wash baskets emptied into the utility room, curtains opened and wardrobe doors and any drawers closed.

Might be worth a try to see if it works for you too. Our children now help themselves to the vacuum and dusters without having us nagging. Our home is so much calmer and happier. They are proud of their rooms now and we always make sure we say how lovely a zone looks or their room as a whole. We also thank them for their help.

Sylvester - that is brilliant!

We have twin 2 year olds a 3 and a 13 and they all know time to tidy away before bedtime

Have a brutal clear out whilst they aren't there. And also ban food in bedrooms