I want my child to feel special.Divide and conquer. That’s the best strategy for organizing a child’s room. Provide your child with enough containers of all sizes and shapes to sufficiently hold their various belongings: one for the baseball cards, another for the rock collection. Keep toys and games separate from legos and reading material.
—MAXINE ORDESKY
If you have children, you know that organizing a child’s room is one of the most challenging aspects of simplifying your home. Why? Because you’re dealing with a child (or teen) who is naturally flighty, busy, and distracted—and his or her room is used for sleeping, study, friends, and personal time.
One client took me to her teenage daughter’s room and showed me what she saw every day—a “tornado” of clothes, toiletries, and piles of books and papers all over the room. After we talked through the five steps to organize this room, I noticed the teen’s closet: it was completely empty except for four hangers with blouses on them. I thought, You might as well give those away because she obviously doesn’t like them. Everything she likes is on the floor, and everything she doesn’t like is still hanging in the closet!
In this chapter, we will look at simple ways you can help your child stay organized.
Create a Plan
The things in a child’s room generally fall into one of three categories: clothes, books and papers, and toys, which are later replaced by sports equipment, music stands, and trophies or collections. You need to make each child’s room consistent with his or her age. Otherwise, your kids may rebel at having baby or grade-school items still displayed when they are in junior high and high school.
Our plan consists of five steps to organizing a child’s room. This should be done at least once a year, preferably before school starts. Pick a nonstressful time, such as when your child is out of school on the weekend or on a vacation day. Make it fun, and work together if your children are old enough.
Five steps to a clean room include:
1. Make the bed and clear the nightstand.
2. Clear the floor from the door to the bed.
3. Sort the room by three categories: clothes, paper, and toys.
4. Organize by sections: dresser, desk, and closet.
5. Set up paper and activity systems.
Simplify Your Child’s Room
Motivation:
I want my child to feel special.
I want my child to benefit by being organized at home.
I want the room to reflect my child and his or her achievements.
Supplies:
Wastebasket and recycle bin for items to be discarded
Clothes hamper
Labels for drawers, shelves, and boxes
Notepad with listed categories: “To Do,” “To Buy,” “Next Steps”
A memory book consisting of a three-ring binder, sheet protectors, and tabbed dividers
A nice memory box that fits in the closet
Time Estimate:
2–4 hours (depending on the condition of the room and collections needing organizing)
Reward:
A sense of order and appreciation so your child can succeed at school and face life with confidence.
Approach It by Sections
Five easy steps will get your child’s room in shape in no time. Whether you are just tidying up on the weekend or doing a seasonal cleanup, these are the steps to follow.
Bed and Nightstand
Start by making the bed, and 50 to 70 percent of the room will look clean immediately.
Determine what day and how often you plan to change the sheets. Weekly or every two weeks is normal. By fourth grade, most kids can pull off their sheets and put them in the laundry on the day you specify, though they may need help putting them back on the bed. Use a sheet and a comforter to make it simple for your child to make his own bed. The fewer layers of bedding, the better the chance your child will succeed at making his own bed.
It is useful to have a reading light attached to the headboard or on the nightstand so your child can turn it off without getting out of bed. A nightstand or bookshelf beside the bed should hold your child’s books, clock, and CD player to allow him to unwind at night. Also, I suggest that you place a comfortable chair somewhere in the room, so you can sit and talk or read to them at night. Your children will likely talk to you more at night than at any other time.
Floor
The next largest surface to clear up is the floor. Stand at the doorway and help your child clear a path to the bed (if things are in bad shape). Then clear the rest of the floor to the closet and to the desk. Soon it should be back to its normal state—nothing on the floor except furniture!
With a young child, you can play “Magic Pickup.” Everything that needs to be put away is put on the made bed. Then you ask, “Is this clothes, a book, or a toy?” Once the child identifies the category, ask where that goes and put it up together.
SPACE-SAVING TIP #25
Children are natural collectors, so help them display their favorite items on a dresser or shelf to show you are proud of them.
Clothes, Paper, and Toys
Clean clothes get hung up or put in a drawer, and dirty clothes go in the hamper. Put a clothes hamper in or near the closet to minimize piles of clothes on the floor.
Books go on a bookshelf with the spines lined up neatly with a straight edge. Papers go into binders or two-pocket folders at the desk or on a bookshelf. You can keep a three-hole punch in their room if you want them to place their papers in school binders.
Store sentimental or significant papers in a memory book—a three-ring binder that holds these papers in sheet protectors, sorted by grade level. Keep papers your children are particularly proud of or ones that represent their daily work. As mentioned earlier, your child’s papers, awards, and photos from birth through high school can be stored in approximately four memory books.
Toys go on shelves with the largest ones on the bottom, medium ones in the middle, and small toys like blocks or Barbie accessories in boxes or trays on the top shelf. As the child grows, the toys on these shelves will be replaced with collections, memorabilia, framed pictures, and trophies.
SPACE-SAVING TIP #26
Create a three-ring memory book with sheet protectors and tabbed grade-level dividers to hold special papers, awards, report cards, and photos.
Dresser and Closet
Now that the visible space is organized, it’s time to get inside the cabinets and closet. Get the bed made and floor clean first so you have clear space to work.
Start with the top dresser drawer and work downward. Each drawer should hold clothes with a similar theme, like play clothes, school clothes, pants, tops, or underwear. The drawer that is waist-high for your child should be the one he accesses daily. Top drawers should be divided with shoeboxes or jewelry boxes for small items like hair barrettes, jewelry, and keys. Bottom drawers hold larger items that are less used, like winter clothes, sweaters, and blankets.
Next, work on the closet. A child’s closet is important and relatively easy to organize if you adjust it to his needs. If he has a lot of toys, put them in shelves on one side. If your child is young, hang a lower bar so he can reach his hanging clothes. Install shelving up to the top of the closet if you need room to store an extra set of bedsheets, out-of-season clothes, and his memory box.
Remember, a child’s closet doesn’t just have to be for clothes. It can store toys, sports equipment, and laundry hamper. You can arrange your child’s hanging clothes by categories or organize them by outfits to make it easier for your child to dress himself.
SPACE-SAVING TIP #27
The best motivator for your child to clean up at any age is you! Ten minutes of your full attention and help will result in progress faster than hours of you nagging from another room.
Desk
A desk in the child’s room is a good place to organize his study time, even if your child seems prone to study at the kitchen table. But if your child studies in his room, it is important to have these items: a good reading light, a clear work surface, and a computer, depending on his age.
Follow the plan in chapter 10 for setting up the desk. Be sure to have drawers with a desk tray for their supplies plus a file drawer for folders and a space for binders. An easy way to keep papers until you have time to sort them is in a magazine holder. On the weekend, put them in file folders or into tabbed sections of the binder.
Be sure your child is not carrying excess weight to school with too many books and binders. Keep a binder for completed papers at home and arrange completed papers with the most recent paper on top in front. Label the front and spine of the binder with the subject.
Your children will have a better chance of succeeding at school if you regularly help them keep their room and papers in order for school. Some children need more help than others. Meet the needs of your child. Even in the same family, each one is different.
Lighten Up and Let Go
A child’s room needs continual sorting, so keep it fun and keep at it. Your child’s room is his retreat from the world and a place you can show him you care about him.
Child’s Room Checklist
____ 1. Is the bed easy to make with a reading lamp nearby?
____ 2. Is the floor picked up each night before bed?
____ 3. Do all my child’s clothes fit in the closet and dresser drawers with easy access?
____ 4. Is there a place to study and a place for my child’s backpack and schoolbooks?
____ 5. Do I have a memory book to organize my child’s best work, awards, and photos?
____ 6. Do the toys all fit on shelves, or do I need to put some away for a while?
____ 7. Is the closet rod organized and items organized on the floor and shelves?
____ 8. Is my child’s desk set up with light, supplies, and clear space?
____ 9. Have I given away unworn clothes and outgrown toys and books in the past four months?
____ 10. Is the room well organized and meeting my child’s needs for sleep, dressing, and study?
Tips from “The Decorating Coach,” Susan Wells
Walls serve as the perfect springboard to showcase your child’s individuality. If your child’s favorite color is too bold for the room, compromise by painting accents like shelving or furniture.
Transform a corkboard into a unique backdrop for artwork or photos. Glue fabric around the cork that matches the bedding. Frame with two-inch molding, and it will become a focal point.
Showcase your child’s interests with displays that also add storage. A shelf hung above the window or doorframe could hold a collection of trains or dolls. Paint the shelving and frame the same shade to become a unique architectural unit. Let your child add dollops of crazy color with pillows or baskets, and you’ll go from bedroom to dream room.
Manage It Simply
A child’s room needs to grow to reflect his age. Usually, organizing your children’s clothes before school starts in the fall and with the seasonal changes is adequate. On holidays, catch up on sorting toys or paperwork. Go through papers and tidy up the room for a fresh start to each school week on the weekends.
• Paul complained to his mother, “Mom, I have no socks.” She dismissed the continuing comments because she knew there was a drawer full of socks in his room. But one morning when she heard it again from her preschooler, she pulled out the drawer and the two sat on the floor as she held up each pair. he repeated response? “Those hurt, Mom.” And she promptly put them in a donations bag. When they finished going through the drawer, it was empty. He looked up at her and said, “See, I have no socks!” He was right.
• Gaby was in junior high and fairly organized, but her dresser drawers were never closed. I held up each piece of clean clothing and asked two questions, “Do you like this? Do you wear it?”
When the answer was “no” to either question, we put it in our donations pile. She had emotionally outgrown several items now that she was going into high school. The final outcome was she gave away thirteen items and all the clothes fit in the dresser. She then kept the dresser drawers closed.
• Jessica was a senior in high school when I went to organize her room. She and her best friend had gotten ready that morning for my visit. “What are these eight trash bags outside your door?” I asked.
Her friend spoke up. “We got ready for you by bagging up all the clothes on the floor. That’s just her dirty laundry, and she usually has about two feet of clothes all over the floor.” That was a lot of clothes!
We were going to start the laundry while we worked but discovered it hadn’t been sorted. The solution? Her friend taught her how to sort lights, darks, and delicates. Later Jessica’s mom bought her one big white hamper for whites and an equally large hamper for darks. Problem solved. She just needed laundry baskets and Saturday washdays to keep her room clean and neat.
Review: The CALM Child’s Room Approach
Create a Plan
Make the bed and clean the nightstand.
Clear the floor and organize dresser surfaces.
Organize by sections: sleep, dressing, play, and study.
Approach It by Sections
Organize the closet by hanging clothes, floor, and shelves.
Sort each drawer and shelf one at a time.
Set up the desk with everything your child needs to succeed.
Lighten Up and Let Go
Clothes to friends’ children or to a charity.
Toys, stuffed animals to charity or on the top shelf of the closet.
Books donated to the library.
Manage It Simply
Daily—Spend fifteen minutes with your child before bedtime putting away items and preparing for the next day.
Weekly—On the weekends, make sure laundry is caught up, assignments for the coming week are on the child’s calendar, and homework bag is emptied and papers in order for the coming week.
Seasonally—Go through your child’s closet and drawers to weed out outgrown items and replace with new ones.
When you help your children simplify their rooms, it teaches them skills that last for a lifetime and improves their academic success. My motto as a parent and former teacher is, when children learn to work orderly, they learn to think orderly.
To make sure you get everything, begin with the area to the left side of your bedroom door and work around the entire room.
—JOY BERRY