my nine year old son cant keep his room clean? he is so messy , ideas anyone,......?

Answer 1

Try making him know the danger by telling him about the things that might be in all of those mess. Try telling him there are bugs living in there and a lot of dust and microorganisms, ect. And try telling him a bit about health. Tell him that the amount of dust in all of those mess can make him really sick, make his nose stuffy and may give him athma.

Once he knows the danger of it all, he'll clean it up.

And don't force him to do it. He'll do it eventually. To make him feel even better, clean the room with him. That'll make the work easier and he'll have more fun with you.

Answer 2

I seem to have that problem with my 11 yr old. Right now we have it that he can have it as messy as he wants but by Friday (he goes to his dad's for the weekends) before he leaves his room must be cleaned (mom-style which means until I say it's clean enough) or he can't go. That's that. There's been a few times he's refused so we stuck to our word. He didn't go. Allowing him a messy room during the week seems to give him some freedom and yet it does get cleaned every once in a while :-)

Answer 3

I have 4 kids who are now 28, 26, almost 23, and 10. My almost 23 year old has always been messy. It caused quite a problem as she and her older sister (the 28 year old) used to share a room and her big sister was pretty neat. We tried every thing possible to get our daughter to clean up her room. We tried rewards in all forms from money to food to special trips. We tried punishments from taking away toys, withholding allowance, not allowing friends over to play, and not having a birthday party. We tried working with her, breaking the task down in to small parts, giving specific instructions, and buying neat storage boxes and containers. Now that she is an adult (and is still very messy) she says she doesn't mind things messy and in fact, likes things that way. She knows where everything is and she's happy. We tried everything imaginable to find out what her "price" was. She just didn't have one. Some kids are like that. When our daughter was 10, we developed 3 rules. She has never been good at remembering anything in quantities greater than 3. Rule #1 No eating or drinking in her room. Rule #2 Mom will not go in to your room looking for dirty clothes, they must be in the laundry room if you want them washed (by 12 she was doing most of her own laundry). Rule #3 If you can't keep things in your room at least as clean as the messiest room in the house then keep your door shut. We thought by taking the battle out of the clean room situation, she'd get tired of the horrendous mess, but that wasn't the case. There are tons of ideas out there, hopefully one will work for your son, but it is also possible that messy is just his nature and you'll have to decide if this is a battle worth fighting. For us, constantly fighting about a messy room just seemed a waste of time and in the end, we choose to focus more on her positive qualities. A few humorous things - Once, at about 8 years old, she said she had cleaned her room. We took a look and it certainly appeared better. Later, when I took some clean clothes to her room, I opened the drawer to put away socks and the drawer was crammed with stuff. I opened all the drawers and each was stuffed with toys, paper, dirty clothes, etc. Every bag, box, back pack, drawer, etc. was chocked full. That was when we realized her definition of clean and ours was very different. One day when we were so exasperated with her messiness, my husband and I took turns sitting on a chair outside her room and watching her pick up and take care of 100 things while we kept count on a piece of paper. In the end, you couldn't even tell she had done any work in there.

Answer 4

a WHOLE room is a huge job. I cleaned it with my daughter about 15 times.... after that I told her she was on her own. Now I tell her on Tuesday that on saturday (I give her notice)... I will be coming into her room with a garbage bag. Some of what I 'clean up' goes to the garbage, to the thrift store, and that I may or may not let her earn a few items back). She ignored it. I told her the next day. It was Friday and I told her that Tomorrow I was going into her room with a garbage bag to clean up what she missed. She was shocked... lol. Selective hearing. I told her that she had all week and that if she didnt' hear me, taht is not my problem. Tomorrow is the day. Saturday came and I told her that at 4:00 pm I would be coming to clean her room and check her cloesest and see if her clothes were folded in her drawers. Suddenly she took me seriously and she cleaned her room. She even re-arranged the furniture. She did really great! I would have totally followed through and taken the things to the thrift store and made her buy her clothes back from me with her allowance money. She knows that i follow through.

After that we spent some time in her room and played a game. It was so nice and clean in there. I even made her a decoration for her room. It looks great and she is proud of it, so am I.

Answer 5

wow are you specific you're no longer my mum? that sounds lots like me different than i do no longer circulate ballistic. i've got self assurance like a great style of my stuff would not have a place it belongs so once I clean it is in ordinary terms a speedy restoration. My dad consistently threatens that he will take a rubbish bag to although is on the floor, he hasn't long previous by using with it yet while he says it I do it that night. My mum surely wiped clean my room as quickly as and he or she did throw a great style of issues out. some I have been given out of the bin and alter into in huge hassle! you may desire to purchase her a medium sized laundry impede for her room and get her to apply that so which you do not have the showering pileup. Is it in simple terms clothing that are a multitude? if there's a messy table or table a sort of small drawers could do the trick. Or a pair of plastic curler storage containers under the mattress.

Answer 6

Consider not doing anything. Seriously, wasn't this one of the things you swore you would never do to your kids when you were a kid? Just shut the door and enjoy the tranquility. Set a few ground rules, such as, no food in the room or anything else that could attract bugs, and he has to clean it up when company comes. Even a 9 year old is entitled to some autonomy. He won't be messy forever.

Answer 7

here is what i did to my daughters....first i gave them a time frame to get their room cleaned and told them that if it was not done by that time i would go in and clean it and get rid of the things that i did not think they needed. Well I only had to do this once because i kept my word and got rid of some of their favorite things that had not been picked up. from that day on they new what would happen if they did not clean their room. Trust me this will not kill him my girls are now 15 and 17 both still keep their rooms clean and are doing great in school and my oldest has a great job.

Oh and if you have to go to the extent of getting rid of some of his things don't cave in a replace them or give them back

Answer 8

It doesn't get any better as they get older. My twelve year old is the same way. We had a discussion about it last week. I found a way to resolve it though. I went in their with him and we boxed up most of his things and gave them to Goodwill. He just had too much stuff and there was no way to keep it all neat and tidy. Now he has a place for everything and everything in its place. As he gets more things he has to take something out of his room to make room for it. For example, if he gets a new toy truck, then he has to find a place for it and maybe take out an old car and give it away so that he has a place for his truck.

Answer 9

Perfect solution: A friend of mine used to take a laundry basket through her kids' rooms each day after they got on the bus. Anything left where it shouldn't be she'd throw in the laundry basket. It was taken away for a week. If she had to pick up the same item again within the next week or two, the item was donated to Goodwill. Each of her kids lost a couple of items, and after that, their rooms were spotless ALL the time. Good luck on this one!

Answer 10

Make him clean it. YOu are the adult, right? Are you going to let him smoke when he's 14? Do you let him leave the house at 3 a.m. when you're sleeping, and wander the streets? NO? Then don't let him be a filthy pig.

If he doesn't obey you, what do you do? Obviously you let him do what he wants. If my kids don't clean their room, they lose computer time or their ipods, or a sleepover. However, I've disciplined my kids since birth, so they know they can TRUST me- I always follow through.

I don't believe in confusing kids.