If you have children you are in constant struggle with over cleaning their rooms and helping around the house, read on!
Children learn from their parents. If the parents are at least trying to be organized, the children will learn from it. Even if their room is a pigsty growing up, they will appreciate the lessons they learned for keeping a home, when they are grown.
The main lesson for teaching children organizational skills is to involve them and guide them, but be careful not to just issue orders and expect a perfect follow through.
An example: your canned food cupboard is a disorganized mess. Let them organize it with just 2 “rules”: throw out cans past their good-until dates, and to group foods by type (fruit, beans, etc), you might even look at getting a canned food organizer like this one (also shown to the left). Tell them they can pick how the food goes back in. Even if you end up needing to move a few things around later, your child will have gotten sorting skills practice, and done so on their own terms.
Another example: your young child has enough toys to play with for the next decade and can’t keep their room clean no matter how much you remind them. It’s time to get rid of toys and make a system for keeping the rest easy to keep put away. Let your child know what the plan is and then let them decide what toys to get rid of. Get 2 boxes: one for donating/throwing away, and one for “not sure I can part with this.” Knowing they have a choice is key in this.
When the toys have been sorted, immediately remove the donate/throw away box from the house, and let your child know the “not sure” box is going to hang out in the closet for a few months. The remaining toys can be sorted by type into bins (again, let your child decide what goes where!) and labeled so your child knows what goes in them in the future. In a few months, go through the “not sure” box…chances are there will be more to donate/throw away, and a few that can be added back into their bins. The ability to toss what they don’t need is a vital skill to prevent hoarding, but they absolutely must have a say in it or it will backfire and they’ll want to keep the stuff even worse.
So the little tips that go along with this:
- Patience is an absolute must.
- Be upbeat and cheery if it kills you.
- You can’t take over if you want your child to learn anything.
- Set a timer and work for 15 minutes at a time, then get outside and play some ball or make cookies, something far removed from cleaning and organizing.
- Remember when children have a say, they gain confidence and skills that they might otherwise not learn until they are grown.
- Even if their results aren’t as perfect as you wanted them, praise their efforts. If they look to you for guidance (“where should I put this?”) offer suggestions to help them pick for themselves (“you could put it here, or here, or over there – which place do you think it would look best in?”).
I hope this post helps you and your children gain some peace and organization in your home! Good luck!
