How strict are you with your kids about keeping their room clean?

Not very. My kids usually don’t have to be told to put their toys away or keep their rooms tidy——they get that from their mother, not ahem, me. lol

I have tried and tried to get my kids to keep their rooms clean. I gave up and just insist they keep their doors closed. It’s not worth the aggravation as they are the ones who ultimately have to live with it.

Not very. I wouldn’t want old food or dishes laying around in there, but other than that I’m not too worried about it. Every once in a while they have to do a clean up, though.

I was raised by parents who were very strict and I did NOT enjoy that .

I am very messy now and I like it . [ I clean the room but there’s always clothes on 2 chairs , things that constantly need to be picked up ]

Suffice to say I’m very open and I enjoy my mess. If others figure a way to know where things are and keep them a bit organised then they can keep the rooms as they see fit .

I wonder what the connection is. I keep a very clean house, always have. My parents were always breathing down my neck to clean my room…. and to this day my room is a mess. My friends always tease me because my house is always really tidy, but my room is a total disaster. I’m 28 years old and my dad STILL yells at me about my messy bedroom.

I feel the same way as auggie.. I just don’t want food or plates or anything that could get funky. Otherwise I don’t care much. When I can’t walk from the doorway to their beds, then they have to pick up.

As long as it doesn’t resemble a shelled out war zone think of “cracked” on black ops ;¬} then i’m pretty relaxed about it. After all, that’s their personal space.

I’m pretty relaxed about it when it comes to my son’s toys. My son’s room has legos all over the floor right now, but he plays with them everyday. He likes to build different things and then play with those for a while and then build something new. There are times when I make him pick them up (so I can vacuum or if we have company coming for example), but most of the time I let him keep them out, as long as they stay in his room.

Food is a different issue though. He is only allowed to take a snack/drink in his room on special occasions and he knows the dirty dishes and trash must come out of the room as soon as he’s done with them.

I am not a very tidy person, but like @ANef_is_Enuf my house is tidy, but my own space is a bit untidy. If I didn’t share my bedroom with my husband, it would probably be a big mess too. My kids, like @tranquilsea I have tried to make them tidy their rooms and I have failed so I too go with the closed door policy.

My daughters have left home and their houses are spotless! They were never so anal when they lived here.

I only insist her closet stay organized and tidy – because, a messy closet leads to her whining about what to wear or that she can’t find her socks. Which drives me nuts.

Other than that, I leave it alone. She keeps it how she likes it. Luckily, she’s fairly neat on her own.

I’m envious of those of you who have naturally tidy kids. When I say that I can’t get from the door to the beds… I’m serious.

It doesn’t bother me too much as long as the mess is just clutter, not something disgusting. Usually I just let it go but I do tell the kids they have to have a clean room if a friend is coming over. It works out well, because they aren’t constantly being harped on about their rooms, but they have their own motivation to clean up on a regular basis.

My room is cluttered and drives me nuts but I try to deal with it. I’m 21 and my mom stormed in my room last night around 12:15 and told me I should be up and cleaning my room. I spent all day yesterday cleaning. Maybe she took an Ambien.

We never really got on the boys (now 17 & 19) about keeping it clean and when they hit the 12–13 year old mark they started keeping it pretty tidy.

We’re hoping the same thing happens with our 7 year old daughter. Right now, she is the world’s youngest hoarder.

I would bug them about it, but didn’t ground them and make them clean it.
The result? They are slobs as adults.

For a while, my mother tried to get me to clean my room when I lived at home. It always caused fights and resentment between us. Also, the rest of the house was a mess so it was patently ridiculous for her to try and get me to clean my room. So, after a while, she stopped making me and everyone was happier.

Oh my gosh, I have no right to be strict with them about that, I can’t keep dead roaches off my floors! The only thing I ask is that the 4 year old makes his bed.

I have a theory about the whole clean and tidy or messy phenomena. My mom was an only child and always had to have her room clean. She was a mess when she was on her own. I grew up in a mess and started spontaneously cleaning when I was 8 because it drove me nuts. I’m still tidy as a clutter makes me anxious. But the thing that impacted me the most was losing things. I only lost a few things but my mother lost things all the time. I got to the point that when she started looking for something I left the house because I knew a blow up was going to happen at some time.

I’m hoping that my kids’ mess will eventually bug them so much that they’ll keep it clean.

I’m not horribly strict until it gets to the point where I can’t walk through their rooms without stepping on their things. There aren’t any bugs or anything gross, just toys and clothes and such.

When it gets to the point where I’m tripping over stuff, we have a “cleaning day” and we blast fun rock music through the house while we work. It generally ends with us screaming along with the music and having a massive pillow fight in the hallway. =0)