Summer Organizing – Before It’s Too Late

Now that a new year has begun, it’s a great time to really clean out your children’s rooms! You’ve had a brief respite during winter break from the influx of papers, school notices, forms to be filled out, and school projects, that need to be constantly addressed, so before it starts again, take stock of your children’s stuff.

While a child’s room doesn’t need to be as sterile as an operating room, no one can relax, let alone study, in an environment that’s filled with clutter. To prevent you and your child from losing countless hours looking for things, trying to decide what to do with things, and moving things around, it would be extremely beneficial to get everyone involved and comfortable with having less. You can throw away, give away, or recycle the excess and overflow of stuff that you find hiding in all of the nooks and crannies of your little (or big) munchkins room, but whatever you do, its imperative to ruthlessly pare down if you want this year to start off to a fresh, un-cluttered start. 

Here are my top 10 tips for de-cluttering your child’s room.

1. You don’t need every scribble & finger painting. You don’t need the life size portrait or the toilet paper roll robot. You don’t need the diorama, the Lego airplane or the Play Do sculpture. If you or your child is really attached to one of these larger pieces, take a a couple of photos of the masterpiece & then let it go!

2. Assign a bin & or extra large artist portfolio envelope to each child & use this to store your child’s artwork through out the year. This helps keep everything organized & in one place. At the end of each school year, go through & keep the really special pieces.

3. Your child will learn how to read & write, add & subtract. You don’t need to keep every piece of the evidence. Worksheets, math problems, and handwriting practice sheets should be discarded once you’ve looked at them. Any type of creative writing and longer term projects as well as papers with clever quips & remarks from teachers are best to keep.

4. Assign 2 folder’s for each child, one for long term projects & school work and one for school work that you want to save.  Each week when your child brings home their work, its best to file it in the appropriate folder. You can review what’s in there from time to time & discard anything that doesn’t seem relevant.

5. Instead of storing the soccer socks, t-shirts and shorts with their normal everyday clothing, store sports clothing together in a bin or backpack, along with the shin guards and any other equipment you might need. Ditto for the ballet ensemble, football uniform & baseball uniform. Leaving the house before practice and lessons will be much faster & easier.

6. Go through your child’s closet, eliminating anything that doesn’t fit, is stained or in poor condition. If you travel regularly through out the year, packing is a wonderful time to review and eliminate whats seen better days.

7. Get in the habit of reviewing your chill’s bookshelves and toy shelves at least once a year. Your child’s reading level and interests change and s/he will outgrow books and toys frequently until about 5th grade.

8. With the exception of a train table and toy kitchen (multi-year, frequent use toys). there should be no toys that reside on the floor and can’t be put away at the end of the day.

9. Group like things together, so you’ll know how many markers, crayons and video games you actually have. Try to create broad categories, such as Art Supplies, Cars & Trucks, Musical Instruments, etc. Place each grouping in a labeled container that can be stacked to maximize space.

10. Clutter will expand to the space you allot it to. Instead of focusing on how much more space you need, consider how much more space you’ll have if you discard or donate the clothes that no longer fit, the toys that are broken or are missing parts, and the items your children have never used.