Room Cleaning Cards for the Girls

We clean the bedrooms up on Friday night.  Reward is movie night.  Works great.  My son (age 9) likes to clean by the "clock face" method.  He picks a point to be 12 (usually his desk) and works his way around the clock face.  I say, "Is your room done?" and he says, "No, but I made it to 9 o'clock."

The girls, on the other hand, moan and weep and get overwhelmed.  The first step was to par down the gear a little bit (still have a ways to go) and to get rid of the box spring and get a platform bed to create easy storage under their bed.  But it was still a battle.  I tried the timer.  I tried sending them after one type of item at a time.  I considered boxing all of their gear and letting them live minimalist.  Then I decided to try a ring of cards.  Below are my cards.  There are 9 of them counting the cover.  I made each card a full-sized sheet of paper and printed them "8up" on cardstock.  Cut, hole-punched at the top corner and put on a ring.  Andulus font (my current favorite... along with Calibri, of course).  So far it seems to be reducing the battle. 

Time to Clean Your Room

Step 1

Get Ready

Put a smile on your face.

Start at the door and work around 

the room for each step.

Find all of the trash  and toss it.

If you see things that belong in other rooms 

put them in the hall.

Step 2

Bed

Clear out the toys/books.

Fluff the pillows.

Pull up the blanket and fold it back.

Turn off bedside lights.

Put away anything on bedside table that doesn’t belong.

Take water bottles to the kitchen.

Step 3

Clothes

Dirty clothes downstairs.

Clean clothes stacked for mom to help put away.

Step 4

Books

Put all the books away (in the right places) 

with spines tidy and facing out.

Step 5

Babies

Barbies

Pollys

Stuffed Animals

Baby Gear

Step 6

Kitchen toys

Dress up

Step 7

Desks

Legos

Step 8

Vacuum

Sweep

Dust

Done!

I love you. 

Thank you

for keeping your room clean.