Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Clean Your --No-- MY Room
Kendra's mother Janelle sighed as she looked at Kendra's room. Kendra had just gotten on the bus for school, and her mom was doing her routine sweep of the house. She checked through it every morning to straighten things up before sitting in her home office to do the bookkeeping that she provided for clients on a part-time basis. As she looked into Kendra's room, she saw clothes on the floor, a bed unmade, and her wastebasket overflowing.
Kendra's parents had tried a variety of things to get Kendra interested in cleaning her room. She had lost privileges. She had earned allowance money. She'd been given extra chores. However, nothing seemed to work consistently. Kendra was a creative girl and generally could find what she needed when she needed it. She seemed content to live in clutter and hated to be nagged about cleaning her room.
Kendra's mother shut the door and walked toward the master bedroom. As she turned on the light, she noticed a few piles of things against the wall. She had to admit that she and her husband weren't the neatest people, either. In their case, piles of books or other items were more concealed. They were in corners or against the wall as opposed to spread throughout the floor. However, it was not any different from the way Kendra kept her room...just less noticeable. How could Kendra be made to care about her room when she saw some of the same careless tendencies in her parents?
Janelle sat on the chair facing the window that looked out onto the backyard. Maybe an approach with Kendra would be to let it go and instead work on quietly being a good example herself, thought Janelle. She could simply tell Kendra that she was responsible for her own clothes and room, and she should keep her door shut. Then Janelle would concentrate on her own things and work on getting rid of her own clutter. As she kept things neat, perhaps that would inspire the rest of the family.
For the next few days, Janelle quietly cleaned other rooms in the house. One by one, she took piles of clutter and went through them, often discarding most of the items. Some things she put in a basket to give away to charity. She didn't say anything to Kendra. She didn't talk to her husband about it. Slowly but surely, each room looked a little neater. The rooms became easier to clean. Janelle could dust quickly since there were not as many small items to dust around.
