A Surprising Solution to a Messy Kids Room
For the last . . . nine years, our girls’ rooms have generally been a mess.
Every week or two, we’d clean them up together and then they’d almost immediately sink back into chaos.
I mostly just ignored it and then at the beginning of the year, Bart said to me “Does it make you crazy how filthy their rooms always are?”
And then he came up with a plan.
He told each of the girls that on Saturday mornings, he’d take anyone who had kept their room clean all week out on a little daddy-daughter adventure. It might be a doughnut run or a trip to the park – nothing super fancy – and that everyone was free to earn a spot going with him.
That weekend, my girls cleaned their rooms like I’d NEVER seen before.
They swept and vacuumed and organized drawers all without any prodding from me.
Every morning they say to Bart, “Is it time for room checks?!” and on his way to his office for work, he peeks in each of their room and gives it a pass or a not-pass.
It is mind-boggling to me how these children who used to have junk a mile high stuffed under their beds now have perfectly neat rooms every. single. day.
Since they started it, none of the girls have missed a single outing (which is awesome for me because it means I get to stay home and have an hour to myself, which is pretty much my favorite thing on the planet).
The great thing is that once they spent all this time cleaning their rooms, they’re much less likely to let it fall into disrepair again and so each morning it takes them about 60 seconds to get it back to tip-top condition.
I can’t promise it’ll work forever or with every kid, but for now, it’s made our house 100% cleaner on a daily basis and it makes me happy every single day.
If you liked this post about messy kid room solutions, you might like these posts too:
- 13 ways I keep my house (mostly) clean
- My #1 rule when I’m cleaning out my closet
- My best trick for Saturday cleaning
Photos by Heather Mildenstein
I took a screen shot the first time
you posted about this on Instagram and immediately showed my husband. The kids now earn “Saturday Morning Mountain Biking”. My eight year old was in a deep hole with her stuffed animals and art projects, so we are working out new sustainable systems, but this has been such a positive idea in our house. You always have the best ideas!
Love this idea so much and will definitely be tucking it away to try as our kids get older!!
Do their rooms have to be clean each and every day? Do they have to pass the first daily check?
Yes, they need to be clean every day (if they aren’t clean in the morning, Bart will usually give them a chance to get them clean by the afternoon).