Is your teenager reluctant to tidy their room? To make him understand that he doesn’t really have a choice, use the IKEA bag method, recommended by a therapist.
“You clean your room now!” Many parents say this phrase every week and sometimes even on a daily basis. It’s simple, most children have a knack for turning their room upside down in no time. All it takes is for them to take out toys, books, a few clothes from their wardrobe, or rummage through their school bag, for the floor of their room to be littered with all kinds of things. Obviously, seeing such a mess, any parent reacts by asking their child to quickly clean their room. But very often, on the other hand, they encounter either a refusal or a “yes, yes, I will do it later”…But, two hours later, nothing has been done.
If this is the case in your home, there is a solution to try so that your child listens to you and understands that it is in his interest to tidy his room. This method, therapist Emmanuelle Juillard, alias @psy.education.pedagogy.child on Instagram, called it “the IKEA bag technique”, which uses the notion of a contract with the child-teenager. Concretely, the parent warns his child that he is going to act and that he is going to take a large bag, IKEA type or other, to put all the things lying around on the floor. This same bag will be stored in a place to which the child will not have access, and it will be returned to him or her after a week. The goal is for the child to commit to tidying up their room during the day to be able to collect their belongings. If he doesn’t do this, he will be deprived of his belongings for a whole week.
Of course, the specialist advises, before applying this technique, to check that your child is old enough to tidy up their room on their own. Usually it’s around the age of 6. You should also not be too demanding of your cherub. There is therefore no need to demand that he tidy his room every day, this can be done once a week or every fortnight, depending on the level of clutter in the room. Furthermore, it is important to give meaning to your request: explain to him in simple words why he needs to tidy his room (for example, so that the cleaning can be done, so that he can find his things more easily, etc. ). And if, despite everything, he persists, try the IKEA bag technique again without giving him any other choice. You are now ready to ensure that your teenager cleans his room regularly!