Just how dirty can they let their room get???/

[dzneprincess]

Help! I have tried and tried to ignore my kids mess in their rooms, and it just gets under my skin so badly!!!!! I have 2 DS in one room ages 8 and 4. And a 7 yr old DD in her own room, and then a soon to be 1 yr old in our room (heaven knows where I am going to put him when the time comes!) LOL Anyways, I get so tired of being the mean mom, that says clean up your room clean up clean up clean up. SO I decided to ignore it and let it get to a point where they wanted to clean up. All this has done is to frustrate me, as it has not reached that point for them, but their mess is spiiling out into the rest of my home and my bedroom. SO I have just had my vent with them, and have told them the room *will* be cleaned today. What a way to spend a Saturday eh? Ideas Opinions commiseration appreciated! LOL

 

[Lisa L from MI]

My DDs 10 and 8 share a room...and NOBODY"S room is messier than theirs!!!! I have even taken pictures and threatened that I would take them into school!!!!!!

I always say I won't clean it....and it gets to the point where I can't stand it anymore too!!!! AND its an all day affair!!!!!

 

[dzneprincess]

YEP...all day affair... that is what I am looking at right now........I am dreading this too because I kow it will put me in a sour mood when I get in there and see some of the the things they have in their room. I guess it is payback for the messes i made my Mom.

 

[msdznyduck]

I just close the door.........

 

[Tiggeroo]

I think I have you beat. I have twin 16yo boys sharing a small bedroom. It gets so bad. There are empty food containers, soda bottles, clean and dirty clothes together, skateboards, surfboards and wax, and I don't know what else. And they don't seem to care if their friends come over, and their friends will go into that room and sit and listen to music. Scary stuff. And their friends all tell me that their rooms are worst. I go in spurts of ignoring it and yelling at them to clean, to occasionally cleaning it myself. It gets tough because their schedules are so full. They are both running spring track which means practice after school til 5:30, races and practice on the weekends.
When the clean it it's never really clean. They still shove clothes into their closet. Once I checked their room and it looked really good and their closet was even clean. Then I had to do something and found that they had lifted their mattresses up and hidden all of their clothes under their mattresses. It seems to me that cleaning it up would have to be easier then trying to get around it.

 

[Lisa L from MI]

I know I have to have you all beat!!! We should all post pics!!!

I am going to think of some stuff I have found in there while cleaning....I won't be back until later tonight...going to my moms for her BD...she will be 75 Monday

 

[amid chaos]

Room in a bag.

Get the biggest garbage bag(s) you can find and toss everything that doesnt have a place in there. clothes (clean and dirty), all those dishes, homework, garbage, books, CDs, the works. Do the old arm-across-the-desk and into the bag. take the bags to the garage or basement. Give the room a vacuum and a dust...and there! it looks great!

Now, for the bag(s). You can have them earn the stuff back, give them the bag and have them go thru it or they can even live out of it for all I care.

All I care is The room is clean and it wasn't so bad after all...felt great as a matter of fact.

 

[dzneprincess]

Well I have tried something like that before. It didn't have much effect. I got so frustrated one time, that I took everything out of his room excoet the matress. AND I MEAN EVERYTHING, boxsprings to. You know what???? It didn't phase him! LOL It just put his junk out into the rest of the house. I let him earn back one thing at a time, but it still didn't seem to have an effect on him.
Another time, my DD had me so frustrated with her room that I bagged up all her toys and tossed them. All of them. That was one instance where it really did hurt me more than it hurt her! OUCH! That was a doozy. Didn't phase her either.

 

[hercamore]

My DD WAS the messiest girl alive till she got to college.

Now she shares a l,000 sq foot apt with two other girls. She is cleaning the kitchen floor, vacuuming the hall and liv rom, her br, cleaning the kitchen and does dishes every day. She loves it, she says now, LOL.

It is a miracle! There is hope for you moms.

herc.

 

[dzneprincess]

Originally posted by hercamore
My DD WAS the messiest girl alive till she got to college.

Now she shares a l,000 sq foot apt with two other girls. She is cleaning the kitchen floor, vacuuming the hall and liv rom, her br, cleaning the kitchen and does dishes every day. She loves it, she says now, LOL.

It is a miracle! There is hope for you moms.

herc.

Whew thanks for the sight of the light at the end of this tunnel. Really, it doesn't bother me as much as it does my husband. It really bothers him that our home is in such a state of chaos. I have tried to explain to him that we have 4 children(no not that we have 4 kids silly) less than 9 years old and people expect to see chaos when they enter, but none the less it bugs him.

 

[CBRorBust]

OMG! I'm dying to see pictures of these messy Rooms! It would be so funny!

 

[Nancy]

I have chosen to pick my battles over rooms and messes. I choose to ignore them! I refuse to clean anymore for them...and sometimes they will pick things up on their own, especially if friends are coming over (I have girls) My latest battle is clothes. I wash, dry and fold. I expect them to get the clothes upstairs to their rooms. So for over 1 week I have not put anything upstairs, so there are 4 baskets of clean clothes on my basement floor and guess what??? I went downstairs into the basement to find over 5 inches of water down there because the sump pump stopped working over night! YEP..now I have to rewash everything! Of course they are all hearing it today..."if you would have done what you were asked I wouldn't have to redo all of this......"

 

[grinningghost]

I don't know, I think MY daughter has the messiest room. It was so bad last night, that she had to sleep on the floor (after pushing some junk out of the way). The bed was HEAPED with stuff - there was no room for a person.

And she doesn't care at all. She's not embarassed to bring her friends over and sit in that pig pen.

I also go in spurts. I'll close the door for weeks, then finally, I can't take it, and I go in and clean commando-style. I throw out everything that isn't nailed down. I can easily fill a couple big trash bags every time.

She's almost 15 - and I think it's getting worse instead of better.

 

[Otto's Doll]

I kind of ignore it, except for a few things:
1) on Sundays after church they must clean enough so the floor is visable
2) no food wrappers/dishes or cups may be left in there (no food either!)
3) dirty clothes must be put in the laundry basket in my room every other day.
4) it may NOT spill into the other rooms of the house. If they have toys in the bathroom (?WHY?) or in the living room, they must be put away when they are done. They might not mind living in a pig pen, however, I do!

Other than that, I would be screaming at them every day if I wanted them clean, the way I picture clean.

 

[buzzlady]

I have DS11 & DS7 who share a room. There room was so bad you couldn't even see the rug. DS11 would never keep a sheet on his bed. One day he was not allowed outside until he had a sheet on his bed and it had to be on correctly. Within the past week or so they did clean the area so that you could walk but pretty much everything went under the bed or in the closet.

 

[zurgswife]

I'm feeling alot better about the state of my kids rooms....whew...

 

[Val]

And I thought MY 4 kids were the worst.....sometimes my DD16 sleeps on the couch 'cos she can't find her bed.....I swear the health department would shut my DD12's room down for health threats and my DS8 and DD6 are trying hard to compete with their older sisters.......

.......guess I deserve it. My dear grandmother who raised us has cursed us all. She says that God is getting us back for our childhoo. I keep thinking....was I THIS bad? And I don't like the answer!

Good luck to all of us. May God get THEM all back by giving them messy children!

 

[MsDisney23]

What was the family that had something like 6 or 7 kids at one time. I think their name is Dilly... I would do a research on that family, I have seen them on TV and I have to tell ya, they are the most organized family. The kids all have daily chores, they earn what is called Dilly dollars, they even have a discipline chart. Look them up, sure they have a web site out there somewhere.

 

[Kallison]

My rule is there room and floor must be picked up every night before bed. Nobody has a problem with it except middle son. So I started with if not picked up -- no tv, computer, playstation for the next day. If you forget again, then the same for 2 days, then 4 days etc. It only took one 2 day suspension for him to get his act together. I still have to remind them, pick up your floor before they go to bed. If not done before bed then first thing before they come down in the morning. I can't stand clutter, it makes me crazy!

 

[froglady]

I made the rule that no friends can come over unless the room is clean.