Blog: Organize This!
Helping Children Organize Can Be a Struggle
As a parent, it can be a struggle to create a system to help our children organize and deal with their stuff. But we also have an obligation to provide limits for our children on what comes into the home and set up a system for what goes out as well. Peter Walsh, author of It's All Too Much says that "Kids are so over stimulated by the sheer volume of stuff in their home that they lose the ability to concentrate and focus." When my son was very young, I started to help him let go of toys and clothing he no longer wanted after each birthday and holiday. With new toys and clothes in view, it was easier for him to give stuff to "boys who had no toys". We also had friends who were thrilled to get his Penn State hand-me-downs.
Here are a few tips to assist the little people in our homes to simplify their lives and make their rooms an oasis and not a quagmire.
Set the tone:
Children's room basics:
- Involve your children in organizing their room. Explain the benefits to them: can have friends over, a retreat from the rest of the house, and easier to clean up.
- Ask your children what they like and don't like; what works and what doesn't work in their rooms.
- Integrate as many of their suggestions to increase the chance the arrangement will work. Allow experimentation with the layout even if you don't agree with it; let them think outside the box!
- Use a big hamper and a big trash can. Don't expect them to leave their room to put dirty clothes in a hamper somewhere else.
- Go vertical when possible: hooks, shelving, book shelves, and shoe pockets on the back of doors. Leave free floor space for play and having friends over.
- Use open shelving and bins without lids and they will more likely be used. The less time spent on opening a lid, using a hanger, or opening a drawer, the more chance it will stay that way.
- Create zones in their rooms: sleeping, homework, reading, playing.
- Use coat racks as the "halfway" point for clothing: worn once, but not yet ready for the washer and up off the floor.
- Utilize toy boxes for big toys and bedding; otherwise they become a bottomless pit of rogue game pieces, doll body parts, and "I have no idea what that goes to" stuff.
- Use furniture as room dividers instead of lining the walls with furniture.
- Employ bed risers to provide space under beds in smaller rooms.
- For children, less is more. Too much stimulation isn't a good thing so agree on a system to let go of unneeded items: place a donation box in the hallway, clean out after birthdays and holidays, sell items at yard sales, etc.
- Ask (or beg) grandparents to limit what they give your children or ask them for savings bonds and contributions to a 529 savings plan (think college).
- Give your children experiences and memories instead of stuff.
My husband and I took my young nephew to a Penn State football game for his birthday and he started talking about going to college for the first time at home. You never know which experience you provide will change the direction of your children's lives forever.
Clutter Quote: "Your children need your presence more than your presents." Jesse Jackson
posted on: 10/29/2011 2:30:00 PM by Vali Heist
category: General Organizing Tips
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Vali Heist is a Certified Professional Organizer, the owner of The Clutter Crew for homeowners, and a Certified GO System Trainer for businesses. She is the author of "Organize This! Practical Tips, Green Ideas, and Ruminations about your CRAP. CRAP stands for Clutter that Robs Anyone of Pleasure! She writes a monthly column for the Reading Eagle called "Organize This!". Vali's bachelor's degree is in Business Administration from Shippensburg University and her Master's Degree is in Higher Education from Kutztown University. Vali has an extensive background of 24 years in Higher Education including training, administration, project management, writing, and editorial production. Her passion has always been organization and how it relates to the simplification of work and personal life in order to enjoy both to the fullest. Her ultimate goal is to continue finding simple, easy to implement ideas that work in the real world and pass them on to her clients.