My kids share a room and don't have much space of their own -- a couple of shelves in their headboards, a couple of drawers in a shared dresser. My twelve-year-old tends to keep all her treasures in her bed. She does her homework there, plays with her dolls there, and does art projects there (I have had to remove scissors from under her pillow more than once). The buildup of dolls, papers, books, magazines, and used Kleenex can be intense.
Cleaning it myself hasn't been successful, because a) every time I step into that room I see something that makes me furious, and b) she is fiercely territorial and will beg me not to touch her stuff. And I can sympathize with that completely. Making her clean it has not been successful because she doesn't perceive a problem until she doesn't have room to lie down, at which point it is a huge job, overwhelming for a 12yo (and too time-consuming for our family schedule).
About a week before Christmas, she came to me for help; she had lost something important (again). But I had to help without actually touching anything of hers myself. We came up with a "12 Days of Cleanup" list:
On the 1st day, put away all the Barbies.
On the 2nd day, put away all the Barbies, and line the other dolls neatly against the wall.
On the 3rd day, put away all the Barbies, line up the other dolls, and remove all clothes (including doll clothes) to the hamper, drawer, or closet.
And so forth, through books, notebooks, papers & newspapers, etc.
Each day's new task made a visible difference, and could be done the first time in 5 to 10 minutes and redone on later days in 1 or 2 minutes.
On the 4th day, my other daughter asked me to start a list for her.
On the 8th day, we changed the sheets.
Now, of course, she thinks she's done... But there's still time to nip that in the bud.
