Organizing with Children
We all know that kids come with lots of things...clothes in every size, toys for every age, dishes that won’t break, and more. Picking all these things up can be a never ending chore. So here are some strategies that I used when I was a teacher, to get your kids involved, so that you don’t have to clean up after them every time.
Label Everything
We all know that our kids’ toys should be put away in containers, but the next step in that system is adding a label. It might seem silly to give kids labels for their things, but it helps them know where to put things so that you don’t need to supervise every time they are cleaning up. If you have kids who can read obviously standard written labels will do the trick, but you have pre-readers or kids who are just learning how to read here are some tricks. Give your kids stickers that match the category to put on the bin. If they have a lego bin, give them lego stickers to put all over it. If they have a shoe bin, give them shoe stickers...you get the point. Kids love stickers, and including them in creating organizational systems will make them more inclined to follow those systems. Another fun idea is to have a polaroid camera, snap a picture of the items that belong in the bin and tape it to the front! I always recommend writing a label to go along with the picture or sticker, even if your kids can’t read yet, because it will help them learn to read in the process!
Use Broad Categories
For younger children, create broad categories for their bins and labels. It will be easy for them to understand and make clean up time faster. Here are some examples; animals, dolls, music toys, outdoor toys. Most kids don’t care if their Barbie dolls get mixed in with their baby dolls. And if your kid does care, great! Teach them to use more specific categories for their things.
Books
We want our kids to view reading books as a fun activity, so try to keep the book categories fun as well. For young children try color organizing the books, as they won’t grasp categories based on the book’s contents yet. For kids who are learning to read, use broad categories that won’t overlap too much such as books about animals, books about people, or books about places. If you use categories like this, put the books in bins with labels and stickers! As your kids start to get older try to let them create their own book categories that match their interests, such as books about science, fantasy books, or mysteries.
Daily Reset
Schedule a reset/put-away time that is the same every day. I personally recommend not doing it right before bed, so that there is an immediate consequence if expectations are not met. Children (and people for that matter) are more likely to complete a task if there are immediate consequences. If the consequence is the next day, it is easy for them to procrastinate. For kids who have a hard time focusing, set short bursts of time throughout the day for reset/put-away, followed by something they enjoy. Set a timer so that you are not the time keeper (aka bad guy) in the situation. I recommend setting the timer for as many minutes as they are years old. So if you have a seven year old, set the timer for seven minutes. It’s easy for them to remember and easy for you to enforce.
Start ‘em Early
Kids are never too young to start learning how to clean up. If they can initiate their own play time, they can practice putting things away. Even if it’s only putting one thing back where it was or dumping all their toys into some container, that is a form of cleaning up.
If all else fails, and you are really stuck with where to start, copy whatever their teacher is doing! I can guarantee that your child has to do some clean up in their classroom.
