Organizing Tips for Kids - Part I

As a professional organizer, I often work with families who are over-run with toys...they just seem to keep coming in (while rarely leaving) and quickly fill up every basket, bin, closet, and floor space in the house (and basement, and garage). Let's face it, kids come with a lot of stuff and if you're like most parents, it's not like you had plenty of extra space before the kid(s) arrived. Thus, parents are often faced not only with figuring out how to grow a happy, healthy child, but also the organizational challenges presented by all the cute, fun, and necessary accessories. This week's posts will be dedicated to providing tips to help parents - new and experienced - set their families on the road to organization. So check out today's tips and stay tuned for more throughout the week.

1. Set Up Zones – Have a zone for each of your child’s activities (such as arts & crafts, toys, reading, etc.) and keep all of the items for that activity in its zone just like a kindergarten classroom.
2. Encourage kids to do one activity at a time. If they want to switch, teach them to put away the supplies for the first activity before taking out the items for the new one. This minimizes the amount of stuff out at any given time, keeps kids focused, and prevents overwhelming end of the day clean up, which everyone will dread.
3. Make it user-friendly! Use open, kid-friendly containers on low shelving so your child can take out and put things back with minimal or no assistance. This also applies to things like coats, accessories and back packs – use kid-height pegs and an open top basket.
4. Label storage containers or drawers with pictures so kids know where things go. Creating the labels could even be an art or photography project that your kids can help with!

As with all things organized, keep in mind that it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to work for you and your family.