Sometimes even just looking in your teen’s bedroom may be… scary, to say the least. The mess you see might seem like it’s simply too much to handle.
Many of you parents out there face the frustration (degradation, even?) of occasionally having to clean a teen’s bedroom. It can feel like an endless battle. Here are a few tips if you decide to tackle this task.
Respecting privacy
Depending on how your household runs, you may allow your teenager to have a specific level of privacy. If you allow your teen to have full reign over their bedroom, you may need to delegate the cleaning to them. However, you should be able to enter the room to check the work when they are done.
If you don’t allow full reign over the room, you may just want to give your teen a warning. Give them time to remove anything they don’t specifically want you seeing, such as a journal or a cell phone. This allows you to respect their privacy, but also clean the room.
Pass the responsibility of cleaning to them, but help
Maybe the fight about cleaning their bedroom is the endless battle in your home. When this is the case, you may want to ensure they take responsibility for cleaning the bedroom, but you can certainly help. Set a few things you will do, as the parent, and have them do the rest. For example, you can take care of the laundry and vacuuming, but let the teenager do the rest.
Maintaining good hygiene
There’s a difference between a messy room with clothing on the floor and one with old dishes and food spread throughout. Teenagers need to learn how to maintain good hygiene in their living space. As the parent, you shouldn’t allow for bad hygiene in the room. Make sure they know the consequences of leaving dirty dishes and other items within their messy room.
Parents shouldn’t have to clean a teenager’s room. However, you may need to help with specific tasks and you will probably have to keep them on track. Set rules and boundaries to ensure they keep the bedroom clean.
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