My 13yr old struggles greatly with cleaning her room. I ask her to do it once a week on Saturday morning, she won’t get her laptop (or other device) till she has done it.

My kids receive a small amount of pocket money weekly. No chores, no money!

Depends on their age but toys in the bin if they aren’t packed up is generally a winner for me.

This really is the million dollar question! My 16 year old son will have clothes every where! I just close the door now and don’t stress over it. Eventually I believe when they can’t find anything or there is no more clean clothes they will then start to clean up and hopefully keep putting their clothes away. I guess consistency is the key, good luck!

I would suggest some sort of reward system.

I used to put on some music for motivation and help my brothers clean their rooms. It really helps set a fun mood! A rewards chart came in handy aswell and eventually it just sank in

Hi June. Think my answer was a bit confusing. We have tidy up time before dinner from the shared living spaces like living room, play area etc. and do this all together. Dinner isn’t served until this is tidy.
In regards to the tidying of the bedrooms, yes this is a learning process from years. Starting with more instructing and helping my kids, guiding when they’re able to do it, to maybe a wee reminder when they are older.
When the kids were very young we had a wee tidy-up-song and sometimes we made it a competition who’s ready first. Just to make it fun.
My 11 yr son is a natural, is organised and always keeps his room tidy. Gets on own initiative his washed clothes and packs it neatly away in the cupboards. Whereas my daughters (12 and 7yr) are far more messy, they need reminding and the younger one instruction/guiding.. My youngest is 3yr old and has Down syndrome, although she loves to help with tidying the livingroom and we encourage her, I do not have specific expectations towards her that she does it.
I see tidying as a life skill (just as we teach our kids to dress, brush teeth, brush hair, go to the toilet, make their beds), we teach them to tidy up the mess they make. Since the kids were in Kindy, it was something they also had on their homework grid. So at that stage you could see it as part of their homework.
Personally I think that’s part of life, something I don’t give them money rewards for.

My son has had a reward system since the age of 2. Little money bags from the bank with a chore written in them and a monetary amount. Eg. Make your bed and it has 40c in it. He is now nearly 7 and the money for his room has stopped and we give rewards for other stuff. But it ingrained tidying his room. Good luck! You are doing an awesome job

Ellen, Does that mean that if the child doesn’t put his/her clothes away the meal is delayed for everybody? I hope you have actually taught your children how to do it and supervised a few times, not just expect it to be done. I have seen that happen in a few families. I was staying with friends and discovered socks (not matched either) had been pushed inside a uniform jumper by a 9 year old. They need to learn to put the dirty washing in the right place too. I know one child(not in the same family) that used to throw hers in the bottom of her wardrobe and sometimes the clean ones with them.

We have tidy up time before dinner. Dinner is not being served until it’s tidy. It really works for us.
I also work with a weekly reward when they have listened well.

We have a roster and of jobs and they get completed and everyone gets rewards – so incentive seems to work well.

With difficulty! I do try to put them out in piles -shirts, undies, pjs etc. This makes it a=easier for them to just pick up a pile and put it in the correct section.