I have two daughters that share a room. For the most part they do just fine and have no issues…that is, until it’s time for them to clean their room!

“Ashley keeps telling me what to do!”

“Brianna is just playing and not doing any cleaning.”

It was a given; whenever I sent them to their room to clean, it was like inviting them to join in on a “bicker-fest.”

To combat this problem, I brainstormed a bit and came up with an idea that has, for the most part, worked quite well.

I now have a Room Cleaning Chart that dictates the responsibilities that each girl has with regards to cleaning their room.

For instance, both girls are responsible for making their own bed and putting their own laundry in the hamper. After that, I divide the responsibilities as even as I can between them.

One daughter is responsible for organizing and cleaning off the top of their dresser, picking up ALL trash in the room, putting all books and other “non-toy” items away, and cleaning UNDER the bed (they share a bunk bed).

The other daughter is responsible for cleaning and organizing their closet, putting all toys away in the room, vacuuming the room, and bringing the laundry down to the laundry room. This daughter is also responsible for finding all hair ties around the house and putting them in their designated receptacle (“hair ties around the house” is a big pet peeve of mine).

Once each daughter was given specific tasks in the room it was easy to find out who was cleaning and who was not. This also eliminated A LOT of the bickering that was once a part of the room-cleaning experience for them.

Another idea might be to write down all of the responsibilities then have each child take turns choosing the responsibilities they want. This eliminates the likelihood of each child claiming that they got stuck with all of the bigger tasks.