When it comes to helping kids get organized, some kids require a lot of help, while others need very little help.
I remember a young girl at my church. I worked with her mom in the Children’s Ministry. Whenever we got to talking this young girl, around the age of nine or ten, would start opening the drawers in the classroom and organizing the content.
Organizing was second nature to her. Without a doubt, this little girl was born with the organizing gene!
However, she was unusual. The truth is few people are born organizers. For most of us, we need to help our kids get organized.
Notice I said help — teaching your kids how to organize themselves is an important life skill. I emphasize this because if you’re anything like me, the temptation is going to be to do it for them. Let’s face it, it’s a whole lot quicker and easier to do it yourself. However, your kids don’t learn anything this way.
Plus, you need to remember your kids are smart. If you continue to do the job for them, they will happily let you! After all, unless you too have a child born with the organizing gene, kids don’t find cleaning and organizing nearly as fun as playing or watching their favorite video. They have no motivation to get organized when they know you’ll eventually do it.
If you’re ready to get started, here are 6 tips for helping kids get organized!
I know it takes more time for you and the job won’t be done perfectly. But helping your kids learn how to organize will pay off big time when they take over the task. In the end, they will be so much more helpful to you, and cleaning days will be a lot less stressful for everyone!
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1. Build the Habit of Decluttering With Your Kids
Kids have a natural tendency to be hoarders. If you leave it up to them, they will rarely have the desire to get rid of things, even if they never use them. In the same way we need to teach kids to share their toys, we also need to teach them how to let go of their excess stuff.
If you want to know what happens to your kids when they have too much stuff you need to read this. I promise you are not deriving your kids by teaching them to get rid of their clutter. You are helping them, after all, they can’t organize clutter any better than you can.
It starts with involving them in the decluttering process. As you’re going through their stuff, ask them questions such as “do you play with this anymore?” or “does this still fit you?”. Let them know that by donating the items they are helping another child who has less.
As you do this regularly they will begin to see how much easier it is to keep their spaces clean and organized. In turn, they will naturally begin to ask themselves these types of questions, and decluttering their stuff becomes so much easier.
2. Create Space Limits
Establishing limits for how much stuff your child keeps in their room is one of the best things you can do when it comes to helping kids get organized.
Whether it’s clothing, toys, collections, or even school supplies, create specific places that the items are allowed to live.
Kids grow so fast they don’t need much clothing, one small dresser is more than enough. Limit the size of their toy box. Better yet, break items up into categories and use smaller bins to hold each category. When the designated space is full, that’s it.
By creating these physical space limitations, you teach your kids that if they get a new toy or other items they will have to get rid of an older one.
This will help them stay organized by avoiding the influx of too much stuff. As an added benefit, your kids will learn the importance of choosing carefully.
3. Create a Specific Place for Their Stuff
3. Create a Specific Place for Their StuffOur things need their own place to live and so do your children’s’ things. All toys should have a designated place that they belong to. Collections should have a separate home and even school supplies should have a designated spot.
Part of helping kids get organized is making sure they know where things go. So show your kids where everything is supposed to be stored. Whether it goes in a specific bin, on a particular shelf, or in a drawer, it will help them put it away when they’re done using that item.
It’s also a good idea to label any storage bins, that way they’ll know exactly what lives in that bin. For very little ones, use pictures to label their containers.
4. Make Storage Accessible
Helping kids get organized is difficult if they can’t reach to put things away. For this reason, it’s important to store things at the level your kids can reach.
When my kids were little, we had a second clothing rod hung in the closet. The rod was low enough to allow them to reach their own clothing. We also kept a crate on the floor for holding books. A small toy box allows kids to easily put away toys when they’re done playing.
There were some items I did not want them to have unlimited access to such as play-doh and craft supplies. These items were kept on a top shelf so they had to ask for me to get them down. These things would only come down if everything else was picked up.
This system helped them learn to put things away before taking out something else to play with.
5. Give Them the Right Tools
As you’re working on helping your kids get organized, set them up for success. To do this it’s important to make sure they have the right tools for keeping their things organized.
For younger kids, the easiest way to do this is by investing in a basket or bin that you keep in their closet or room. This will make it simple for the kids to toss their toys into the basket. You will eliminate any excuses for toys being on the floor or all over dressers.
An alternative is to use individual bins to store various categories of items. For younger kids, it’s best to go for see-through containers. This way they see exactly where the items go when putting things away.
However, when helping kids get organized that are a little older, cute canvas style storage containers work wonders. Check out these storage containers for boys, aren’t they perfect?
When it comes to stuffed animals, most kids have a small army of creatures they are very attached to. I know mine did. It felt like those stuffed animals were literally taking over their rooms. They often ended up all over the floor.
This number one tip I can give you when it comes to stuffed animals is that need a home of their own. A stuffed animal hammock is a good way to keep them up and off the floor.
Another option, which is my personal favorite, is this stuffed animal chair. It allows your kids to have their own special seats and keep all their stuffed animals close. You can even use it to store extra blankets and other items. Of course, the best part is, it keeps all those critters off the floor and beds.
6. Make it Fun
Kids are kids and they love to play. Turing organizing tasks into a game makes organizing fun for them!
I have a dear friend who would always share stories of the ways her Grandmother made chores so much fun. One of her favorite memories involves cleaning the floors. Her Grandma had her put on socks and dust and clean by sliding all around the floors. It created great memories for her.
You can do similar things with organizing tasks. Set a timer for five minutes and let your child see how many things they can pick up before the timer goes off. Have a competition between your kids, have them find specific items, and whoever finds the most wins!
Have a relay race, you kids run and grab toys and race to put them in the toy bin, then the next child goes. You can also turn on some fun music and have a dance party while organizing their stuff. For more ideas on how to make cleaning and organizing fun, check out this article from She Knows.
And by all means, don’t be afraid to steal my friends Grandma’s ideas. Go ahead and give your kids a couple of old, clean socks. Instead of their feet, they can put the socks on their hands and use them to dust baseboards, tables, or other non-breakable surfaces.
Helping kids get organized is something everyone enjoys when you turn it into a game. I promise your kids will never see this as work when you make it fun.
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