Don’t we all just wish we had a magic wand to get the kids’ room in order? It may not be that easy, but check out our helpful hints in making a little less of a challenge.
- Get down to your child’s level to see what they do. You’ll view organization in a whole different way if you see how high baskets and bins should be set up to make them easy access.
- Eliminate ways to hide the mess. Remove closet doors so things can’t just get tossed inside. This also helps little ones put things away without pinching their fingers. You can still put up a shower curtain on a tension rod to dress up the space, but it won’t hide nearly as much of the eyesore.
- Get rid of large toy boxes and oversized bins. These just become a catch-all for extra junk, small toys become lost, and things get tangled into a giant mess. Instead, use smaller bins to divide toys into groups, like Legos, Barbies, Match Box cars, etc.
- Label your storage units. Use pictures and words for smaller kiddos and words for the older ones. It’s easier to put things away when everything has a place.
- Use a checklist of tasks. Don’t just say “Clean your room,” which can be overwhelming. Divide the room into simple tasks like “Make the bed,” “put laundry away,” and “pick toys up off the floor.”
- Have a rainy day or excess bin. Place toys that don’t get played with into a rainy day bin and pull it out to swap with other toys on a rainy day to get some use out of forgotten toys, or put forgotten toys in the box and if there hasn’t been a request for them in 2 weeks, donate them.
- Create nighttime routines. Make quick work of straightening each night with a quick checklist so the task of cleaning the whole room never becomes too overwhelming. VIew our nighttime routine checklist here.
- Talk to your child! If something is routinely not getting done, maybe there is a reason why. If you can pinpoint why, you can work together to find a solution. It could be as easy as not knowing how to hang something up properly, or being unsure of where to put something.
