House Clearance With Teenagers

Posted on 28/10/2020

Tips for House Clearance With Teenagers

Doing a house clearance is a big undertaking, especially if it’s for the first time. When you add to that the fact that your teenage children don’t feel like helping out much, the stress levels go even higher. What is it about house chores that make teenagers so reluctant to help their parents and be cooperative? You can sit around and contemplate on this, or make a checklist of tasks that have to be done and set a deadline. Inform your children that they must be home while the house clearance is happening. Think which tasks to appoint to them – cleaning, uncluttering, sorting out items or simply helping you out with whatever you need. House clearance is a process that affects the whole family. The fact that it is done once every few years is enough to show that as soon as it finishes, you can forget about it.

Here are the steps that you can follow when you are facing a house clearance and you have to involve your teenage children too.

• Give them tasks that they can cope with. For example, make them clear up their rooms and wardrobes of old stuff and unused items. This way they will feel like you respect their privacy which is much better than you going through all their belongings. Ask them to sort out the items they don’t need according to their condition and what can be done with them. If they want to, they can sell or donate some of them and junk the rest. This way they can earn some cash and feel motivated to do small clearances more regularly.

• Ask them to clean: Cleaning is usually done on the go, especially if there are some big issues like rust, spots, pests and bugs, mildew, mold and damp areas. Make sure your children have the right detergent and clean their rooms properly.

• Consider their opinion: During the house clearance there will be items that you decide to part with, such as old sport equipment, collectables, toys, upholstery. Consider that some of the items you are planning to throw away may have sentimental value to your children. Don’t junk them behind their back, but talk to them first. It may slow down the process, but it’s much more thoughtful than simply ignoring their opinion. Moreover, teenagers are quite creative and imaginative, so they could come up with an interesting idea and a way to utilize an old item.

• Work as a team: Even though everyone should have their own task to focus on, you can still do the house clearance as a team and discuss the issues on the go. This way your children won’t feel like this is just another annoying house chore that you make them do. The more involved they feel, the more mature they will act. Moreover, it’s easier to finish within a reasonable timeframe if you help each other out, instead of everyone doing things their own way and shutting themselves out.

If you think you can’t manage with the house clearance entirely on your own you can hire professional service for the whole process or a part of it. This way your teenage children won’t feel like this is some kind of trial and error chore that you have just come up with out of nowhere.