Help me tackle my teenagers bedroom !

onomatopoeia99

mumofthetwins wrote: »

They are going on a trip at the end of the month so I think I will pull room apart and give it a deep clean

If this was 1987 rather than 2017, I'd have said warn him first so he can move his !!!!!! stash, but nowadays that's probably on computer rather than print. ...

mickeymouse303

Oh wow, I feel for you! Banning food from being upstairs definitely makes a difference from my experience. I've had issues with bedrooms smelling strongly of pets and couldn't get them smelling fresh even after we'd stopped them coming upstairs. I ended up throwing away all our bedding and starting from scratch, which was somewhat better!

TBagpuss

Have you spoken to him about it? I think actually saying "This room smells. That's not OK, so you need to air it / change the sheets / hunt for any dirty laundry" is actually a reasonable thing to say to him.

Is there any reason why they don't change their own beds and clean their own rooms?

It may be worth introducing that and setting house rules about how frequently it must be done, and make clear that there will be consequences if they don't do it.

Depending on his interests (and your budget) letting him chose some new bedding or otherwise personalising his room might help to incentivise him to keep it in a reasonable state.

heartbreak_star

Also check his shoes! I've found Converse in particular develop a bit of a whiff if they're not aired out regularly (i.e. not worn for a day or two).

HBS x

SunnyCyprus

I'd like to suggest a couple of Neutradol thingies placed around the room, the little plastic balls where you peel off the top and leave it to do its thing.. I placed one in my sons wardrobe, and one under his bed. It definitely helped take away the initial 'sting of the eye' feeling.

Also, I'm sure my son had a few sweaty nights where the smell just went into the top layer of the mattress and just stayed there.. ended up replacing mattress.

Now we use a removable mattress topper, fleecy thing that can be washed in machine at home, (no dry clean stuff), change his sheets once a week and remind him about the importance of pant changes.. not easy and it gets a few grunts in return but there we go.

Actually, I'm wondering if any male readers of their forum can remember going through a smelly stage, or if they didn't notice it and it was only Mum who moaned at them?

P.s. Good luck! I'm thankful I have only one male teenage creature in the house! Although his smell is equalled by my female teenage creature's attitude, so Swings and Roundabouts, as they say!!

gsymoo

Have you tried a moisture trap? I put one under my teenage sons bed and I did find it helped. I found air freshners did nothing.

Robisere

As a granddad of 2 boys and 2 girls, I have read this thread with a smile. We had a ds and a dd, son being oldest. His room was a tip and his mum just could not get through to him, so I took over Nagging Duties. There was simply no way to tell which clothes were for the wash and which were not, as all were piled on the floor. I gave him 2 warnings. Second was accompanied by an intention to throw it all out of the window, which was obviously not believed, as I came home for lunch from work, checked his room and it not only hummed like a top, but there was an even larger than usual pile. So I opened the window and ejected the lot onto the lawn. had lunch, went back to work.

He was ballistic when he returned, but it worked. As I am ex-Army, I appear to be OCD to others: my belongings are always tidy and stored neatly. Not something I can help, but the result of 12 years service. I had taught both ds & dd to fold and store stuff neatly and dd did so - her room was tidy, so is her own home now she has her own family, which she has passed on the lesons to. Ds became tidy and clean when he realised that he could not get away with stuff as he could with mum.

Fast forward 30 years and ds is a single parent of his own dd and ds. He is facing the same problem in exactly the same way as I had with him! I was roped in to teach my grandson better ways, granddaughter does not need it. Gson's room was even worse than I remember ds's, but I taught him how to fold and store his stuff and he has actually become houseproud, now nags dad about his inability to keep the shed that they both use, tidy!

And they say revenge is a dish served cold...

suejb2

Watching this with interest. My 12 year old D.S lives in his pyjamas at the moment, don't mind if there's nothing planned for that day and it does mean less washing.
I remember when I got a bit untidy in my youth. If anything, and I mean anything wasn't put in its proper place by the end of the day it was in my bed the next day. Cups, bowls,apple cores.

System

Theres always a smell that comes from a hormonal male no matter how clean they are. Of course its stronger if they are allergic to water. When that smell of testosterone turns into a stink though its time to chuck them in the shower and strip their room.

Primrose

Maybe you just let a stink bomb off in his room shortly before he returns from school and shut the door. When he complains (even he will notice) just say " well I,m always telling you that your room is untidy and stinks. NOW will you believe me and do something about it !