How clean do you expect/require your kids' rooms to be?

[Aspasia]

Dd6 is just kind of a natural slob. For many years, I blamed myself for not being consistently on top of her every day to pick up her room. But then ds3 came along and his room is always pretty clean, with no nagging. He isn't necessarily cleaning it--he just doesn't make the same mess to begin with. You know, when he takes his clothes off, he puts them in his hamper because it's right next to the dresser and that's the easiest thing to do. Dd, on the other hand takes her clothes off and literally throws them to the other side of the room, AWAY from the hamper (which is also right next to her dresser).

 

On top of the clothes thing, dd has a tendency to collect "treasures" (junk) and build little shrines on every surface in her room. I can't even describe to you the weird stuff she collects and how she arranges it (seashells that she paints with nail polish, for example). And then she'll take cardboard boxes and build things that she absolutely cannot let go of for any reason. To anyone but her, her room seriously looks like a trash heap.

 

And here's the gross part. She still wets the bed so she wears pull-ups at night. So does ds. In the morning, ds takes his off when he goes to the bathroom and puts them in the trash. What does dd do? Stashes them in some hidden spot in her room for me to discover later. Today I found a stash in her bottom drawer! Yuck! We've had a million discussions with her about why that's gross and what she should do with her "night undies", to no avail. In a perfect world, I would monitor the daily disposal of night undies in the morning, but I have two younger kids to attend to, breakfast to prepare, etc.

 

As for the beds, ds's stays put together with no effort whatsoever. Dd's...oy. She pulls her blankets/sheets off every day to construct her creations. I bought her a nice quilt set and it is always on the floor or draped over some piece of furniture...other than her bed.

 

It's just amazing how nothing stays in its place with this child!!!

 

Anyway, the "treasure" collecting is kind of endearing. All the things she builds are part of what make her the very interesting person that she is. I've learned to embrace those things. Plus, she builds her weird creations all over the house and yard and we always make her clean them up afterward. Recently it occurred to me that she should have at least one place in the world where she can build something and let it stand for awhile, right? But fighting this girl to keep her room neat and tidy is making me crazy. She seems to enjoy living in filth. I'm getting to the point where I kind of just want to let go of it all. As long as she picks up once a week so I can vacuum, maybe I'm willing to let go of the rest.

 

So I'm just curious--do you guys require your children to clean their rooms daily or weekly, or do you let them have their pig sty if they want it.

[ChristusG]

You just described my 9 year old DD. I've been wondering the answer to this same question!

[Farrar]

The wetting the bed thing would get me too.  I mean, I have a high mess tolerance, but that's crossing a line.

 

I picked other.  We don't have a set schedule and mostly it's their rooms and they can have them messy if they like.  But I do come through and make them clean up when it gets to a certain point or when there's company coming.  Probably once a month.  But my boys have their rooms messy, not gross.  I draw the line at wet things or food or anything like that.  That has to be taken care of ASAP.

[Joshin]

DS13 has always been neat, while DS8 is a slob. He's an inventor at heart, and can't bear to part with anything that he envisions to be useful one day. To be fair, most of his hoarded goodies do get turned into whatever he is envisioning eventually.

 

We do an evening room inspection. It doesn't have to be clean, but dirty clothes must be in hamper, there must be a clear path from door to bed to window for emergencies, and there can't be any stray water glasses or dishes that have wandered in. We don't usually bother to inspect DS13 because his room is rarely an issues, but DS8 gets a quick peek every evening.

 

On Saturdays, rooms must be cleaned and swept. DS8 can keep his creations if he finds a "home" for them. He has a bookshelf just for creations. Usually older, less favorite ones get tossed into the recycle bin so he can replace them with his new ones. Often, he takes a picture of his creation before disposing of it, or mines it for parts for a future creation -- especially if it involves any electronic additions. He has a storage place for his wiring supplies. Encouraging him to take pictures and to mine for reusable parts was what it enabled him to finally part with stuff without becoming upset.

[LostSurprise]

There are some super creative types who love to build and see possibility in everything. (I have one who collected the cardboard leftover after you punch out board game pieces...and he actually got some friends of ours..adults...to donate to his cause!) It takes time, accountability, habit, and just plain having to face the consequences of their actions to get some of this across. 

 

I expect my children to clean their rooms thoroughly once a week. I also expect them to be able to exit the room in case of a fire. "Can you escape if there is a towering inferno in here?" I ask nightly. If they can't make it from the bed to the door in the dark then they remedy that. Every night. Well, every night I tuck them in. Oh, and I only take laundry in their baskets and return laundry if I can reach their dressers. Otherwise I'll lay it on their beds and it needs to be put away before bedtime. 

 

My 14 year old (the collector) recently was all shocked and thankful because he realized...after 4 years...that if he puts his dirty laundry in his basket I will wash it, and if his floor is clean I will put it away. It was like magic to him. He's been doing his own laundry the last 4 years because that just was not possible for him. It takes some longer than others. 

[OrganicAnn]

Other - it must be clean when we have someone visiting.   We don't have people over that often.   

 

We try to make it easy, but we don't get hung up on it.    I think part of most kids problems is too much stuff for the space they have.

 

I wouldn't describe it as a pig sty.   Mainly it is stuffed animals and books everywhere.  

 

We have rules about no food in the bedroom. 

 

 

[Amy in NH]

If they were messy about it, I would have them clean it weekly.  Because it is mostly tidy, we clean it monthly or so.

 

I did have a rule about nothing on the floor next to the beds after one kid got sick on a pile of legos in the middle of the night.  Ugh.

 

Oh, yes.  Also the no food upstairs rule.  We have mice from time to time, and I don't like the idea of them running around looking for food in the bedrooms while we're sleeping. 

[GSOchristie]

It's amazing how you just described my boys to a tee, minus the pull ups. Asher throws his clothes from where he is standing to the farthest point in the room, just like you described. I cleared out a walk in closet in the room for his special, ahem, creations, so I just don't go in there. I do make them clean thief room once a day, including making their beds, but we don't have any toys other than Legos on the top floor, and only their dirty clothes that they take off at the end of the day, all other toys and clothes at downstairs. I say let her keep it messy, except for the pull ups because that's yucky, and be thankful you can close the door on it :).

[Amy in NH]

OP, it sounds like your dd may have a problem with hoarding.  I might look into an OCD specialist if I were you.

[ThisIsTheDay]

I found it to be a losing battle.  They were supposed to every week, but it never happened.  I finally decided it wasn't a hill worth dying on.  :(

[Gentlemommy]

Your dd sounds like my dd1. Down to the weird collections and building with 'trash' lol. Because of her natural tendency towards messiness, we've implemented these rules and routines-

*Only water in a closed container can leave the kitchen. No food, milk, juice, ect.

*No shoes in the house. We have a shoe shelf thing by the door.

*Collections that are made with living things (or from living things, like acorns, feathers, leaves) stay in the garage or patio. This was started when I found maggots in her acorn collection box which used to be in her room. (Barf)

*Clothing and towels are picked up daily, I check when I tuck them in at night.

*Books are returned to the bookshelf daily, I check at night.

*Personal items are to be in their cubbies. Dd1 and dd2 share an Expidit (from IKEA) 4x2 shelf. They each have four cubbies. Since all three dd's share a room, this is also to give them their own space for their belongings. Siblings are not allowed to touch or take anything without permission.

*Beds must be made daily (I just use a fitted sheet and they have a fleece blanket, so it's easy to fold the blanket) and stuffed animals arranged at the foot of their beds.

*Bedding stripped weekly-they get all their animals off, take their blanket and sheet to the hamper, I wash, and put the sheet on, they fold the blanket and arrange their toys.

*While bedding is washing, we go through all their cubbies/baskets. They decide what to keep and toss, but I help them. My eldest will keep random bits of paper, wrappers, twigs, ect. I do make her throw those out. She will just shove trash on her shelf rather than take it to a trash can.

 

Ironically, dd2 is very neat and organized by nature. Her bed is always made, her clothes are always in the hamper, towel hung, ect. Just totally different personality.

 

As for the rest of the house, throughout the day, I'll pick up stuff and place it at the bottom of the stairs. When we go up for bed, they find their things in the pile and put them away. Anything that is left out is mine. I might confiscate it for a while, toss it, ect. Don't get me wrong, we still have kid stuff all over, but making sure these things get done daily certainly helps keep it manageable.

[MomtoCandJ]

I have dd tidy her room daily. She has to make sure there are no dishes in there, dirty clothes in the washer or in pile near washer, at least a path from the door to the bed and her bed cleaned off. Putting all toys where they belong and all that happens once a week or if people are coming over.

[Audrey]

Other.

 

I don't expect him to clean his room.  I expect him to maintain it at a reasonable level of cleanliness. The upstairs gets vacuumed every other day and his room with it.  I expect to be able to pass the vacuum along the whole floor that doesn't have furniture on it.

 

When he was small, I would show him how to pick up when finished playing, how to empty his garbage can downstairs, how to dust with a dust mitt (which was originally just a simple method for a small child, but he still uses one).  When he does that is up to him.  He isn't messy, but he isn't my standard of tidy either.  However, it is his room and I try to respect that.

 

 

[Gentlemommy]

With the pull up situation, I would tell her to bring it TO ME every morning. First thing I would say is "Good morning sweetie! Where is your pull up?" And send her back in to go find it. Every day. Urine is pushing the 'creative' limit for me lol.

[matrips]

My dd was going through a phase like this recently. Found dirty clothes stuffed behind her bed and in her closet, trash stuffed behind furniture. I mean, really? Anyway we put an end to that and I keep a closer eye on things now :). She is a keeper, loves to keep things, hates to throw things away. So we are working on that, making sure there is value to something we are keeping. Even if it's just a value in her own mind, that is fine. It's the process we need to take. And she has a treasure box. All those things that she doesn't want to part with have to fit in at. It's the same box she's had for several years so it requires going through it periodically to make room for new stuff and throwing old stuff away. She has a much harder time with this than her brothers, but I think it's important to learn or do. I wish I had kept less through the years and been better at discerning what to keep.

 

In general, if the kids get stuff out, they are expected to put it away, clothes go in the hamper, beds get made each morning. So while a creation or a major imaginative play scenario might get some leeway, stuff typically gets puts away throughout the day or at least before bed. And bureau tops are not for collecting misc junk. They have some stuff they display, but most goes in the treasure box or trash.

[Joker]

My girls like to have friends over and they can't if their rooms are messy. So, they usually clean them well every week or so (it never goes beyond two weeks). They're in charge of their clothes and things so if they run out of clean ones or they're wrinkled it's on them. They're in middle school now though so their clothes are more important than they used to be.

 

I will say my naturally neat dd became my messiest when she became a teenager, and my messy girl became more tidy as she has grown. I'm sure they'll flip flop again before it's all done.

[KrissiK]

Basically, my kids are slobs. They have to clean their room once a week. Sometimes I go in and pick up trash. Once I even went in after they were supposed to clean it and hauled out a garbage bag full of stuff, put it in the garage and they never asked for it back. Any of it. They have too much stuff. Anyhow, if they want to be pigs, that's their business. They just have to clean it up once a week.

[Alenee]

I voted "other". This is one battle I feel like I can't win. They do have to clean it if they plan on having friends over though.

[Carrie12345]

My kids' rooms are kept pretty messy.

The girls are told to clean up weekly-ish, but "clean" is subjective. I aim for them to get all the dirty clothes out and clear the floor.

I tend to do the boys' room myself, mostly on a weekly basis. The toddler is the one who makes most of the mess. He's also the one most willing to help, but I really don't need it to be a 10 hour affair!

We don't have any sort of playroom, so all of their worldly possessions are kept in these very small bedrooms. It doesn't take much to cause a big old mess!

[msjones]

I had had it with the squalor, so I put an end to it.

 

(My boys are 12 and 14, so bear that in mind, moms of little ones.)

 

We did one big cleanup, and they are required to maintain it each and every day.  I'm not too picky about specifics.  The rules are: clothes put away, no trash anywhere, bed made, no food or dishes in the room, no random junk.  This has to be done each and every morning before they are allowed to do anything else.

 

They can do this.  They have realized that if they just keep up with it, lo and behold, the room can be quickly tidied and be decent!

 

 I am so happy!

 

 They aren't nearly as thrilled, but seem to see the sense in it.  

 

No more squalor.

 

 

[SKL]

My kids are 6 and 7 and I don't have any regular rule for them to clean their rooms.  I have one like your 6yo and one who likes things more orderly, but since they share a room and most everything else, the contrast often gets lost in the chaos.  LOL.  Miss A has the top bunk and she likes to keep that "just so" and will straighten her bed at least once per day without my asking.  (She has a lot of stuff up there, not just sleeping stuff.  Good thing she's petite!)  Miss E is the one who trashes the place, but like you say, it doesn't really bug me, because I think it's nice that she uses what she has to create an imaginary world at this age.  I do wish she would pick things up when she is done with them, but she's not the type.  And it's incredibly hard for her to develop a habit.  I get tired of nagging.

 

In short, I pretty much just clean after them as I get the chance.  Sometimes I send them in there to clean up, but I know they will put things in wrong places etc., which makes me crazy.

[minuway]

For a 6 year old I would still be helping as needed - not doing stuff, but reminding as needed. I have mine tidy up their rooms at night generally, just generally picked up, but life will get in the way a few nights and it will get overwhelming fast. So I will swoop in and help at that age, no biggie. Does he know where to put the pull up? That's something I would check in the morning - like "hey bud, you folded up your pj's? check? throw away the pull-up? awesome!" That sort of thing. I did this kind of thing with my older girls and they are now faily good at keeping their stuff picked up, although they still need reminders sometimes. My 5 year old likes to collect cardboard for future building projects, so every few weeks we have to do an intervention with that...

[Forget-Me-Not]

I said weekly, though I really require it more than that but less than daily. We have a cleaning that lady that vacuums and dusts the bedrooms when she comes every other week, and so I require them to be clean for that, plus we try to stay on top of it in between. That means clothing picked up, toys put away, no extraneous garbage. They do have random little treasures they like to keep, so some of the surfaces get cluttered. Occasionally I surreptitiously dispense with some of it, or sometimes they take initiative and do it themselves. I like the main living areas and my room very neat and uncluttered, so sometimes I have to proverbially shut the door to their rooms and not think about it, haha.

[SKL]

I do sneak "projects" out after I've let them sit around for several days to a week.  By then there are several new projects and the older ones are forgotten.  I just generally try to keep the shrapnel only one or two layers deep, LOL.  Except when I just can't take it any more, or if visitors are coming.  Then I try to find a temporary home for the newest "treasures" and anything else hand-made goes bye-bye.

[Vida Winter]

Holy cow. I make my kids clean up their rooms every day. They'll either hate me or thank me someday, doesn't matter much to me.

[bettyandbob]

Night time diaper. She would have to show it to me daily. I might tell her to put it in the trash first and then come with me to point it out in the bathroom trash. I might decide to start writing in sharply on the outside of each diaper "Monday", "Tuesday", etc. because it could envision a child pointing to a diaper in the trash and just saying that's the one. So, I'd make it so she couldn't get away with that from the start. And since we are making a quick daily inspection of trash we would also eyeball the room for clothes not in hamper.

 

Inspection might be after breakfast. Or it couldbe after you get the others settled into breakfast, but before she is permitted to eat her breakfast. Or it could during a quiet time when the others nap and she normally gets to something without siblings.

[Laura Corin]

I require a thorough clean in each school holiday, so about every six weeks.  That's often enough to deal with any perceived health issues - neither is asthmatic/allergic, so there are no issues with dust.  If they want it cleaner/tidier than that, that's up to them.

 

I'm in the midst of the pick-your-battles-teenage years.  

 

L

[mom31257]

I said other because it varies. It always gets cleaned well when we have out of town guests (all of our family live out of town) because dd's room and sometimes ds's room become the guest rooms. It also gets cleaned when I feel that it's getting a little out of hand.  None of us are neat people, so I feel that it's hard for me to require the kids to do something that I don't really do. I try to keep the living room/dining/kitchen area presentable, but  our bedroom is messy, too. 

 

I have a good friend who says her most interesting friends have slightly messy houses. She thinks it's because they have so many interesting things to do with their time besides clean. Her mother kept an immaculate house, cleaning it every day. She didn't, however, have any hobbies or friends. I'll take a little mess if it means I don't have time for anything else.

[Cindy in FL.]

I really hate to admit this, but my boys share a very large upstairs room and it can be 2-3 weeks between my visits up there. They are supposed to clean it weekly and keep it picked up all the time. Sometimes when I go up there everything is in pretty good order. Other times, not so much. They don't let it get too bad, though.

 

I think that you are going to have to spend time daily, or a couple times a day, with your dd in her room having her clean up. Could you limit her creations/collections to one area, like a bookcase?

[Ripley]

I don't mind messy, but I mind dirty. There's a difference.

 

I make them keep rooms clean, but not organized.  So messes are fine, dirty diapers are not and that's something I'd address. We're past the diaper stage, but at our house it's spilled nail polish, smelly washcloths piled on the floor, and sheets that can walk themselves to the laundry room.  I expect spills to be cleaned up, towels hung or laid flat to dry, and linens washed weekly.  My one stickler is that no doors may be blocked; they must all easily open/close. My kids have doors to their bathrooms and to their shared balcony, and I want all points of egress kept clear.  Also, we don't do food or drinks (excepting water) in the bedrooms, which helps.

 

I'm a messy person by nature. My dad sounds like Vida Winter, and he fought my messy for my entire life - unsuccessfully. I like seeing everything out, he likes everything in its place. We're just different personalities with differing priorities. And that's okay, and even more interesting ... from my POV, any way, not so much from his, then OR now!

 

My bedroom is my space. Same goes for my kids. They used to share a room, which changes things some but not completely. One is more naturally organized, and the other isn't. We do make sure all common areas are kept picked up - daily. No messes left in the playroom, the living room, the dining room, etc. To me that's a reasonable compromise between being a natural-born messy who has to (learn to) live and function with people who aren't.

 

One way I dealt with the endless trinkets, collections, and crafts was to make a dedicated work area - it's a huge table and an open bookshelf with supplies. Since it's in a common area, the discards and work get picked up daily. The completed project is displayed elsewhere and the project-in-progress has a spot on the shelf.  Each child's bedroom has a dedicated bookshelf- mine has jars full of shells, rope, etc. That space is limited, so mine became more choosy about what (and how much) she collects. When it gets over-run, we purge. That happens about once a year. If I couldn't tolerate a messy bedroom, I'd allow them one space to keep messy (maybe a desk and bookshelf) with the understanding that once it became unmanageable it was subject to a purging.

 

 

 

[grantmeawish]

It makes me feel better to read these posts because whenever I visit friends the kids rooms look like a pottery barn magazine. Every am my kids are required to make beds, pickup dirt clothes and trash. Every Friday is clean up day so after school they have to make it look "beautiful", so I can vacuum. I hate carpet by the way and would love to put hardwoods down in the bedrooms. I recently ripped out dds carpet because of grossness. Her floor is now plywood. It looks bad but the carpet needed to go. Even with the am chores, my kids rooms are still a wreck. Lots of books, Legos, paper, creations you name it. I just close the doors and try not to think about it.

[clarkacademy]

Pick up is every night at 8. The whole house just stops, I don't care what your doing or anything else you must pick up at 8. Nothing comes out after that except books maybe. Usually they are taking showers getting ready for bed anyway. Yes it was annoying at first they grumpled they moaned but now it is part of life and I don't live in a dump. If I were to ever find anything gross anywhere there would be severe consequences. Trash is a massive NO!!!! Dishes do not leave the table at all. If you are caught with food away from the table it is thrown into the trash. I did it once never did it again. This protects my home from crumbs destroyed carpet from spills and ants. I check every night. I help every night. Every kid has set chores. Consequences include loss of things they like or losing somewhere they wanted to go things like that.

 

I have no tolerance for living in a dirty house. I don't care if it sounds harsh that is the way it is. I don't want to be the mom is ashamed of her home when people visit.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Unfortunately my slob is also my severely dust allergic. Her room is picked up daily and I clean it weekly.

 

Ds's room isn't too bad. All clothes, diapers, wet bedding is dealt with in the morning and that's about it. Weekly he'll help me dust and vacuum. He likes to rearrange his statue/collection shelf while I dust.

[Soror]

I have them clean up every day, especially dd 6.5 and 4 as otherwise it gets too messy. DD6.5 does pretty good but dd4 is still not the best about picking up after herself. We do deeper cleaning every few months/6 wks or so. I help dd 6.5 sometimes as needed since dd(recently turned)4 is not the best help yet. The kids prefer their rooms clean and they like it when I help them organize and such.

[Luckymama]

I pick my battles :D

 

As long as the downstairs is kept neat and clean (all things put away before bedtime) and all bathrooms are company-ready (within a five min pickup--hair things etc), I really don't care what dd13's room looks like.

 

We do have some family rules concerning bedrooms:

--no food upstairs, period

--only water goes upstairs

--if your dirty clothes are in the sorting bins in the hall closet, I will wash them; if not, you do your own laundry w/o complaints

--if you want to invite a friend over, your room must be picked up and cleaned, including dusting and vacuuming

[*Lulu*]

Other

 

Daily they are expected to do a basic tidying. (Pick up dirty clothes, toys, trash, make bed, etc.)

 

Once a week they are expected to do a more thorough cleaning. (Vacuum, dust, etc.)

 

I have two that tend toward hoarding of things so we have given them containers. They can have as much paper/project items as fit in their project bin. When it is full they have to clean it out and choose what stays and goes. (Usually by the time it fills they have broken the optional attachment to enough of it to get rid of some.) We do the same thing with a couple of other containers. It allows me to keep the house from being overrun with stuff while still allowing them some freedom to choose what is important.

 

ETA- I don't usually fuss about it though. If the rooms are not tidied, anything left out can be picked up and put in the basket of unclaimed items. (Then they have a month to do a chore and redeem said item or it gets donated/trashed.) Also, if the rooms are not totally cleaned before we leave for our Saturday activities then those with unclean spaces cannot invite friends over or accept invitations to friends' homes for the weekend.

[mytwomonkeys]

Daily. But I admit I help. I can't stand an unkept room, so unless you are physically in there playing, I expect it to look nice.

[AimeeM]

Daily.... but I clean the bedrooms. I know my expectations are unreasonable for the children to meet.

I clean the 12 year old's room, lol. Why? It's a battle I choose not to pick. She enjoys helping around the house in every way - BUT her bedroom for some reason; she'll sweep, wash the bathroom, watch the boys for me, etc.

There's a more practical reason for me cleaning my 4 year old's room (and he'll help if I ask or require) - he shares the room with his 17 month old brother and I want to make double, triple sure that any and all choking hazards are put away tightly and out of reach of the babe... which means out of reach for my 4 year old too, by default.

 

I do clean the rooms daily - DD12's once a day, DS4's several times a day.

[elegantlion]

At 6 he was picking up daily. We created the habit of where to put things. He's a neat child anyway. Sometimes he'd have piles or projects. 

 

At 16 I don't clean his room. I rarely go in his room, he has a dormer attic. He's meticulous about part of his room, part of his room is project piles. 

[Chris in VA]

Uggh.

 

I need to go clean my room. 

[Pawz4me]

I voted other.

 

Except for making beds, we've never had any set-in-stone rules for cleaning.  However, DH and I have always taught and modeled basic neatness, so the boys don't know anything else.  That means, with few exceptions, nothing left on the floor but shoes or perhaps athletic equipment, dirty clothes always put in the hamper immediately when they're taken off and things kept basically neat all the time.  We've never had to enforce it, it is simply the way things have always been done.  They don't know any other way of living.

 

I do vacuum their rooms, dust any empty areas and keep the windows/blinds/curtains clean.  They're responsible for occasionally moving everything on their dressers, chests and desks and dusting underneath stuff.

[AmandaVT]

DS is pretty tidy by nature thankfully. We have a very small house and we have to stay on top of stuff, otherwise it would look like an episode of Hoarders after about 24 hrs. :-) 

 

He is responsible for putting his clothes in the hamper before bed and to throw away his pull up in the mornings. 

 

He cleans up his toys before bed - they're usually downstairs in the main living area and everything gets cleaned up unless he has a good reason to leave it out (unfinished lego or block project). Then we set it aside a bit and clean around it. DH and I will sometimes help - and we definitely help if we were part of the mess making. 

 

He also strips his bed once a week and brings the sheets/blanket to the washer. 

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

DD12 has an every growing assortment of projects and "scenes in progress" (Daaaad!  You can't move that, it's a STORY!).  I figure that if my kid can go an entire weekend afternoon of solo imaginative-ness in her room, listening to Narnia for the gazillionth time, then I'll only intervene if clearing a path from bed to door reaches snow-shovel extremes.

 

That room will be really empty when she goes to college in five years.

[cottonmama]

I have much higher expectations for the kids' bedroom than for the playroom.  The bedroom is bare-bones, though... nothing but clothes and beds and a little treasure basket stored under the bed.  Dirty clothes are expected to go directly into the hamper (kept in the room) and toys aren't allowed in the bedroom except for a couple of stuffed animals to sleep with.  The beds can be left unmade (though dd likes to make hers), and fairly often I will leave a basket of clean, unfolded clothes in the room somewhere.  (But that's on me.)  I'm also bad about dusting and vacuuming.

 

The playroom gets picked up maybe once a week.   We try to keep toys to a minimum, but even then the blocks or legos can get scattered around the room and make it *look* bad.  Doesn't take too long to pick up in reality.

 

ETA: My kids are all 5 and under.  Once we split up girls and boys, we won't be able to keep a separate toy room, and I don't know how we'll do things.

[Heidi]

5 kids share a room and one if them is scheduled to clean it daily and vacuum it weekly. My dd9 makes those projects too. I let her keep them for about a week and then they go in the trash. Sometimes I will take a picture of it to make her feel better. Or if it is small enough it goes in the art box.

[Parrothead]

Pretty much what Audrey said above.  I do expect the vacuum to be able to go in and cover the majority of the floor. If I've done laundry and she has a pile of it in her room it becomes her responsibility to wash it.  There is also the twice a year decluttering that takes place.  Otherwise it is her space to do with as she pleases.

[MysteryJen]

In the middle of pick-your-battles years here as well.

 

They are in charge of their rooms and pick them up when we have people over or when I insist. The girls share, two boys share and ds1 is in the basement.

 

I would prefer that the kitchen and living areas are clean, so I make them do those everyday. I can just shudder and close the door to their bedrooms.

[Aspasia]

Just for the record we don't allow food outside the kitchen. We don't have any problems involving food or dishes in bedrooms. Our only grossness--and it's a big one!--is the pull-ups. She'll go through phases where she does a good job properly disposing of them (usually after a good reaming from one or both of us), so I think we're moving in the right direction, and then one day I find a pile of wet pull-ups in a corner. Arghhhh!

[*Lulu*]

Would it help to give her a place within her room to dispose of the pull-up each day? Then you could come by and take it to the main trash. It would let you see daily if she wasn't doing what she needs to with them and give her some more consistent accountability while she learns to be responsible for this.

[SKL]

I would say that some of the adults in this house are no better than my messy kid, so it's hard to pretend we have some sort of neatness standard around here.  ;)  I do try to keep their crap out of the rest of the house, but their room and play area are allowed to look like kids play there.