Bedrooms and keeping them tidy

[NotABanana]

I am about to go and sort out my 7 year olds bedroom. At what point can you expect your child to keep their rooms half decent? I don't know if it is he doesn't have enough storage (though when I tidy it all goes somewhere) or the lay out is wrong, the storage is wrong, making excuses now me thinks, or I am expecting too much.

Be back in about a week for some help, hopefully.

My DD is 8 and has plenty of storage, she will tidy up when given a shove nudge in teh right direction.

Her version of keeping the room tidy is rather different to mine so I get her to tidy it, then go up and sort it out properly, with her - I used to do it for her, but now think she's old enough to do it herself so I sit on the sofa and say "OK, that pile of books, get that on the bookcase, the craft stuff in teh corner, put it in the craft tub" etc

I despair of my DD's room - she's 8, and it's always a real mess. Part of me wants to just go in there and sort it out, but I want her to learn how to do it, so maybe I need to do more of the sitting on the bed directing things that MamaG does. Also we need to get rid of loads of her stuff - she just has too much tat.

My eldest (nearly 11 )keeps it (sort of) tidy, thats his way of earning his pocket money, he shares a room with his brother.(7)
I go in once every couple of months and have a complete gutting out of the room, as there will be crisp packets, sweet wrapppers, dirty pants shoved here there and everywhere.

We did have some success with the Flylady for children control journal (for 'student' read 'schoolchild'), but it didn't last long.

Shinyshoes - what is it with the dirty pants? DD hides them under her beanbag, or in a cupboard .

My eldest DD keeps her room like a tip but the other 2 (8&9) have bedrooms that would put show house to shame. Don't tidy your son's room alone: get hime to do it with you so you can see if he needs storage for 'special' bus tickets etc and get him to choose where things go. Do this every so often and he might keep it a bit better. 7 is old enough to keep a room habitable but not immaculate

It took me over an hour but it is done except for a load of stuff I shoved in a basket to find a home. Lots of it needs to be downstairs or in his siblings room.

Have swept the floor (need to mop later) and put all his books onthe shelf. Will get DH to put the shelf up I bought months ago as it is ideal for his Planatarium thing and this other thing that looks like a ball but is something 3D.

I have put his clothes in a better system and some boxed toys under his bed.

Hopefully he will be pleased as I have moved his bed which he always loves.

Hardly ever do DD's room. Much smaller, less stuff and rarely as messy.

Well, good luck for the teenage years!! My DS2 - 12 - used to have a beautifully tidy bedroom, all of his own accord, up until approx 9 months ago. It is now rapidly catching up with DS1's (14) cave room, which is appalling at most times. Usually help him gut it approx every 4-6 weeks, usually when I am running out of cups/glasses etc or he is complaining he has no clean boxers. Their rooms are linked to their pocket money too, along with other jobs which they are far more successful at, like walking dog, stacking dishwasher, etc.

My DS1-12 now keeps his room very tidy, but it was never really terrible. DS2-11 has a bedroom which looks like has been been through earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes several times daily and stays tidy for only a matter of minutes after a deep clean. DD1-8 has a messy room and likes it that way, and all the moaning in the world doesn't get her to do it, but she's lovely in most other ways so I tend to turn a bit of a blind eye, and do it with her occasionally. DD2-5 likes her room nice and tidy and keeps it that way. In short, IMO, it's the child, not the age.

Ds is incapable of keeping his room tidy but he is expected to tidy and clean it once a week. The rest of the week I leave him to it. DD is much more tidy so it takes her 10 mins on a saturday to do her room while it often takes ds an hour.

Ds is 7 and dd is 9

Oh, another thing that used to work - I would box up a load of toys (maybe 2/3) and put them in my (walkj in) wardrobe then every month or so I'd rotate them. A real PITA for me, but it made it much easier for her to keep tidy and she loved rediscovering her "old" toys

oooh get me with my walk in wardrobe!

I despair of my DD (17)'s room, but often it is revision notes / coursework / schoolbooks all over the floor, but clothes are everywhere (on chair, end of bed, radiator, floor).

I don't touch it, but every so often she completely blitzes it, dusts, polishes, hoovers & tidies and vows to keep it just so - and it lasts about a week!

We don't even get half an hour never mind a week!

I think they're old enough at 5-6yrs to be able to be trained how to tidy their room, you do it with them for about a year then they should know how to do it after that and then you only have to go in and give them a refresher every so often when it slips and suddenly its a tip.

Dd1 is nearly 9 and I haven't tidied her room since we moved last june (I strip her bed and dp re-makes it and that's about it)
Dd2 is only 2 and doesnt really play in her room but if it does get a bit messy I tidy it about once a week plus do the bedding of course.

meant to say dd1 puts her own clean clothes away and brings her dirty washing to me most of the time.

Dd2 is learning how to tidy and will quite often say "I'm going to sort my room out" so she must have heard her sister say it

Milliways DD2 18 is very much like your DD. She actually mamaged to keep it tidy for 2 weeks recently! but it is now a mess again,