Remind your kids that 5 or 10 minutes of effort a day will keep their rooms in pretty good shape. If they save all their straightening up for Saturday, it will take an hour or two and will surely be met with groans and complaints.
Modify children's rooms so that they can help maintain them. Supply child-sized features, such as low dresser with nonstick drawers and a closet with hangers and hooks at a child's height.
Once you've helped put a child's room together, the room and the objects in it "belong" to the child. If you take over too much responsibility for keeping it neat, the child will feel the room belongs to you and not to him or her, and he or she may not take care of it.
A child as young as 4 can at least "spread up" a bed-it doesn't have to be perfect! Using comforters or quilts on beds will make the job a lot easier.
Ideally, older children's rooms (especially those belonging to adolescents) should be off-limits to any adult interference. Unless the room has reached a level of messiness that threatens to infect the rest of the house, the best policy is hands-off.
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