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Teach your Children Not to Clutter Up Their Bedrooms

4 minutes
Children need to learn how to clean, tidy and decorate their rooms. You need to teach them not to clutter up their bedrooms with useless and unnecessary items.
Teach your Children Not to Clutter Up Their Bedrooms
Last update: 28 January, 2021

Children and their messy bedrooms are a common source of family arguments. Children can end up bringing home useless objects, until they have a whole collection of junk in their bedrooms. So, it’s really important to teach your children not to clutter up their bedrooms.

How many times have you walked into your children’s bedroom to find the place a complete mess? Things strewn over the tables, shelves, the floor… even the walls are covered with posters.

To stop it ever reaching this point, you need to teach them that the most important thing is “clean decorating”. There’s no need to fill the entire room with decorations and objects, only half of which are ever going to be of any use. In this article, we’ll give you some practical advice that will stop your children from cluttering up their bedrooms.

No more clutter – education is everything

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If you’re thinking of having children, or you already do and they’re still young, it’s important to teach them these three fundamental principles from an early age:

  • Order is everything: If you can teach your children that their bedrooms should always be organized and tidy, with the bed neatly made and nothing lying on the floor, then you’re already half-way there. They need to understand that everything should have its place, instead of letting chaos and confusion reign.
  • Cleaning is another important factor: From a young age, children need to understand that they have to keep their bedrooms clean. Keeping your own private space clean and tidy is a basic part of daily life.
  • Decorative harmony is very important: Why? Because your children’s bedrooms are not the only rooms in the house, and there needs to be a certain decorative harmony between them all. You can’t have one room that is radically different from the rest.

Being a parent means being a role model, observing and teaching in equal measure.

Identify the issues

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The biggest problems usually arise when children become teenagers. This can be a really difficult time for everyone in the family. Children start to rebel, there’s conflict, arguments break out, and children start to distance themselves from their parents.

Bedrooms can be one of the main casualties in this fraught period. Untidiness starts to become a common topic of arguments. For teenagers, questions of order and cleanliness tend to become less important. However, it’s important to remain on top of things, without getting into arguments.

If you’ve noticed that untidiness is becoming an issue, the first thing you have to do is remember to be patient, think about it, and come up with a solution. An open dialogue can help solve pretty much anything. At times your teenager will be reasonable, while at others they will probably act like they couldn’t care less. But don’t give up.

Teach them some basic rules

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Untidiness can be an issue whether your child is only little, a teenager, or at university. It’s important to teach them basic rules to follow so that their bedroom doesn’t fall into disarray. Everyone knows that coming home to a tidy bedroom makes you feel so much better.

  • The first thing you have to do is set a good example. Your bedroom should always be spotlessly clean, nicely decorated, and well-organized, with nothing out of place.
  • Secondly, you need to approach this subject tactfully. Talk to the child, and make them aware how important it is not to clutter up their bedrooms with useless items which are only going to make it look messy.
  • Every time they bring home an object or decorative item, it’s important to get them to show it to you, so you can decide together whether it’s something they really need. You can almost always substitute one item for another, so that clutter doesn’t start to build up and get out of control.
  • It’s important for them to tidy and clean their rooms themselves. You can help, but they need to learn how to do it and get into good habits early on.

A clutter-free room is good for your well-being

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Everyone loves coming home to find everything in its place. Young children also need to understand this, as it can actually make them feel better in their day-to-day lives. So, having a tidy room is actually good for your personal well-being. If you don’t clutter up your bedroom with useless things, your room will feel fresh and clean, with no unnecessary decorative items.


All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.


  • Arango Cálad, Carlos: Psicología comunitaria de la convivencia, Programa Editorial Universidad del Valle, 2006.