Shoes, books, papers, crayons, markers and toys and that’s just the family room. As you make your way through the kitchen and down the hall to the bedrooms there is stuff everywhere and it creates a feeling of chaos and frustration. Yet, you don’t know what to do to combat the ever increasing amount of stuff your children seem to accumulate week after week. 

When parents motivate children to keep their bedrooms and playrooms organized, the entire household functions better. 

Sometimes we tell kids to go to their rooms and clean up, and they don’t know what to do.  They end up shoving things under their beds and in their closets and come smiling to you and say ‘I cleaned my room!’  The problem is we haven’t taught them where everything goes. The best thing is to create zones, where you have a study zone, a play zone, and a reading zone, so that they know in what vicinity certain things belong.

Childhood is a time to teach your children the value of organization and purging. These skills will carryover into their teenage years and later into adulthood.

Being the mother of two young children and organizing over 100 families, I have found that even toddlers can grasp the concepts of organization.

Develop a bin system where they put all their stuffed animals.  If a child is 2 or 3 and can’t read yet, you can put pictures of teddy bears or dolls on the bins so when they’ve had friends over and their stuff is everywhere, they know where to put their teddy bears and dolls.

The effort to get organized, like most other commitments, requires discipline and repetition.  Getting and staying organized is a process, not an event.

Make kids part of the process consistently.  Show them how, then support them, and they will be able to maintain things themselves. 

If your family is struggling with clutter and disorganization help is just a phone call away. Contact Alisha Gray-Johnson at 804-399-6377 for a free telephone consultation today or visit us at http://www.messless.net.