How often do you have to tell your kids to tidy their room?
As parents we see the benefits of a tidy room but unfortunately the kids are not always on our side. Here are my top 10 tips on how to keep your kids’ room organized for good:
- Start by sorting and de-cluttering
The first step when you organize any room is de-cluttering. Are there any damaged toys or half-finished art projects that you can throw away? Have your kids grown out of some toys or clothes? Go through all the toys and clothes in the kids’ room and decide which ones to keep and which ones to let go. Letting go of old toys will give your children more space for new toys and their room won’t look cluttered.
- Let them go
Sort the items you don’t want to keep into 2 piles, one pile that you throw out and one with items you can donate or sell. It’s important to take care of those 2 piles right away, otherwise, they might make their way back into your kids’ room. So throw the rubbish out. Consider a professional rubbish removal service to dispose of unwanted items efficiently. This ensures that the rubbish is properly handled and disposed of, leaving your children’s room clean and clutter-free. Bring the items that you want to donate to Vinnies or Mummies Paying it Forward and take pictures of the items that you want to sell. You can either sell items on Facebook, Gumtree or eBay or maybe you have a friend who might want them.
- Back it goes
Now it’s time to find a space for all the items that you decided to keep. Every item in the room needs to have an allocated space so that the children know where everything belongs.
- Group together
To have an organised room it’s important to store like things together. So you store all art supplies together, all Lego goes together and so do the dolls. This makes it easier for the children to find their toys and clothes.
- Make it easy
Select storage solutions that children can reach. To help little children to find the correct box for toys you can put a picture of the toy at the front of the box and for older children you can label them.
- Rotate
Rotate toys in the room. If you have an attic or spare room put toys away for a while and return them to the kids’ room later. This makes the toys more interesting and the room will look less cluttered.
- Teach them to tidy
A good rule to teach the kids is that they need to tidy up one toy before they take out another one. You need to be persistent with this rule for a while.
- Make it a game
For small children you can make a game out of tidying. Set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes. Your children will love seeing how many toys they can clean up before the bell rings.
- The Sunday Box
This is a great and simple tool that really works. When there are toys that haven’t been tidied up you put them in a box. The kids can’t access the box until Sunday. On Sunday they get a chance to tidy up all their belongings that are in the box. Anything that is left in the box gets donated or thrown away.
- One in – one out
When a child gets a new toy, one of the old ones has to go. The “one in –one out” rule keeps the room clutter free and also teaches your kids how to make decisions.
If you follow my top 10 tips your kids’ room will look organised and tidy in no time. You will love it and the kids will love it if they can find their toys and clothes easily.
For more info or help from Cate contact www.littlemstidy.com.au
