Cleaning and Organizing A Kids RoomThis is one of the worst jobs in the world to attempt, broken pieces of toys, missing pieces of games, clothes that are too small or too big, not enough room and the list goes on. This is a job that actually won't take that long to do and is done when the child is not home or at least not in the room. It is amazing, a toy can lay there for months and not be touched, until mom is going to get rid of it and then it is the most valuable thing on the face of the earth! It kind of sounds like the miniature version of us, wouldn't you say? We have things that we don't use, that are stuffed in closets, the attic, basement and dresser drawers that we forgot that we owned; but when we find them, all of a sudden, they become valuable again. Then we wonder where the kids get it from! We look at things in the kids room as clutter and they look at it as their entire life's possessions. Which in reality, it is! Everything that is theirs is in this room and they guard it with their lives even if they don't play with it. So, it tends to reason that they are protective. This wouldn't look like clutter and junk in our eyes if it was organized and not laying all over the floor. So how are we going to tackle this job? Simple, we need to start with these methods of organization: Plan what we want the room to look like when we are through Keep in mind that it is easier to organize a room if you designate areas of the room as 'home'. Explain to your child that now everything has it's home and when they are finished with it, it has to go 'home' for the night. They will understand this context of thinking because they want to be 'home' at night. Give each area a name such as: Toy Area Some simple storage ideas that help to save on space and money are: Over the door shoe organizer-cars and small trucks, jewelry, hair accessories, Barbies, crayons, paints and books etc. These are just a few ideas that may come in handy and help to point you toward other ideas. Use your imagination and don't forget to ask the kids for ideas, they come up with some really good ones when they know that it is going in their room. |