The summer vacation is great for your kids but not always so great for their rooms. Being stuck inside all day whining almost always ends in mess and clutter and dealing with this can be even worse when you see the state it’s in. So here are 5 great tips on how to organise your kid’s room without giving up on first sight:
- Sort, Store and Simplify
If your kid’s room is lacking in storage, buy some boxes or shelving. You could even ask them to go with you to choose something they like so they’ll be more inclined to help you (see point 4 and this article by Gtech on getting your kids involved with cleaning). Sort through all the mess and divide into subject piles (e.g. one pile for games, one for books, one for clothes, etc.) and then store accordingly.
- Make it easier to put away, harder to get out
Shelving is a great way to do this as your kids may not be able to reach the shelf so they won’t be able to take out everything at once. Also consider getting storage solutions that offer padlocks or child-lock technology. This will force your kids to ask you for which toys they want rather than cluttering up their whole room with unused toys and other mess.
- Label, label, label
When you’re sorting through the different piles, make sure you store things in boxes or draws that are clearly labelled. Having a colour coordinating system could also work for you (e.g. the red box is for books, the blue for games, the green for dolls and so on). Labelling will also make it much easier for you when it’s time to clear up the mess from around the house or your kid’s room. theartofcleanliness.com has a great post on a closet organiser system to make your kid’s closet much easier to keep tidy; you could label each section of the closet for even clearer organisation.
- Bring the child into the process
As I mentioned before, you could ask your child to come with you to choose some storage they like (e.g. boxes with their favourite characters on them) or make cleaning a game. However you decide to bring them into the process, it’s important to get them started in helping you. You could even offer a reward at the end if they’ve done a good job.
- Build a maintenance routine
This will help you stay on top of things without the mess getting too hard to control. Set out a weekly cleaning schedule and allocate a day to organising your kid’s room. This is a good habit to get into especially if your child is also getting involved. See this maintenance checklist by Lowe’s Canada for the monthly maintenance you shouldn’t be avoiding.
See more ways to keep your kids busy on mumstheword.me.
