Dear Jasminda,
What is the best way to get my teenage daughter to keep her room clean and tidy? Every time I go in there it is like a pig sty.

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Frustrated Mrs KJ, Boat Harbour

Dear Mrs KJ,
What is it about kids and their bedrooms? I don’t understand why they like to inhabit a hovel. I mean, how hard is it to hang up a few clothes, put the others in the wash and pull up a quilt? Not very. Since you have a teenage daughter, I have some useful suggestions.

Teenage girls love to hide notes and diaries and half-eaten chocolate bars, and overdue assignments, so what you need to do is tell her that unless she does the basics, you will be going in there and rifling through everything in order to make sure it is put back in the right spot. She definitely won’t want you fossicking through her things.

The next suggestion is to threaten her with device removal if she doesn’t keep her room clean. This is pretty much the same as telling her you are going to amputate one of her limbs, and should be successful.

The final option is to gather all the rubbish up from her room and put it into individual boxes – clothes, school work, perfume, clothes, shoes, jewellery, electronics, you name it, whatever is on the floor, put each item into a box, and then she has to barter chores with you to reclaim it, not knowing what each box contains. This could be a nice little bonding exercise. At the very least, it will be fun for you, though probably not her.

Hope that helps,
Carpe diem,
Jasminda.