7 Little Things That You Can do to Organize the Kids' Rooms
Editor's note: Every child reacts well to an organized, peaceful
bedroom. Try some of the tips below and see the difference it makes!
by Karen Fritscher-Porter
1. Sink to their level. Get on your knees in their room to view
things from a kid's level. Convenience is an important factor in getting
anyone to organize or put things away. Lower clothing racks in the
closet. Put most frequently used items on the lowest shelves and in the
lowest drawers. Set up decorative, short open bins, crates, baskets and
boxes in corners, on closet floors and at the foot of the bed.
2. Hide stuff under the bed. Use flat, rectangular storage bins on
wheels that are made for under-the-bed storage. Designate one of these
for Barbie dolls and another for mini toy cars. Store your children's
artwork including construction paper and crayons in one of the bins.
Older children can store schoolwork and notebooks here. Got music
lovers? They can keep a pile of CDs handy here.
3. Make organizing fun. Organizing can be a drag even for "big people."
Imagine how your child feels at the thought of clearing away his toys,
clothes and school work. Get your children involved by letting them
creatively label their own drawers and bins. They can make personalized
drawings as labels. Or you can take photos of your child with an object
that goes in the drawer and tape it to the front of the bin or drawer.
Is the drawer supposed to hold small toy soldiers? Tape a small clear
plastic pocket to the outside of the drawer that's stuffed with an
example of the contents such as one toy soldier. You can buy notebook
plastic sleeves (also called sheet protectors) from any office supply
store. Then just cut them to the size needed. Use clear shipping tape to
attach labels to bins. Put a laundry hamper under a kid size basketball
hoop.
4. Keep drawers shallow. The deeper the drawer, the more kids will fill
it. With a few exceptions for big bulky items, use shallow drawers. Some
narrow storage carts on wheels come with five or six shallow drawers.
You can roll the cart into the closet if needed or line several in a row
against a wall. Fill deeper drawers with mini-organizers such as small
trays, tins, recycled cardboard boxes and more. Don't use lids on the
mini-organizers; that's just a hassle for kids to find their items and
remember to put the lids back on each item. Use makeshift cardboard
dividers to separate things in drawers--like socks.
5. Color code it. Buy blue bins for Barbie dolls and red bins for fire
trucks. Put summer clothing on green hangers and Sunday dress outfits on
blue hangers. Or use different colors for different children. Suzy gets
blue bins and hangers and Sandy gets red bins and hangers.
6. Hang it. Your children might view their collection of self-created
artwork in much the same way as you view your collection of store-bought
artwork. Buy inexpensive frames and hang drawings in a clustered
artistic layout on one wall in your child's room. It adds a decorative
and personalized element. Put up a cork/bulletin board for the kids to
hang ribbons and medals from field days, school spirit events and
competitions. Another cork board can be for photos. Or hang a
rectangular vertical homemade fabric organizer with pockets beside the
door to hold photos, souvenir card collections and birthday cards
through the years.
7. Set ground rules. For example, before you play another board game,
you must first put this board game away. Before each gift-giving season,
you must pick one item to donate to a non-profit organization; it brings
a smile to the face of a child with less than you. You can only keep
things in your room that have a place. So if a drawer is full and you
want to keep something new, you must discard something from the drawer
(for example, an old piece of artwork for a new piece of artwork or an
old broken toy for a new one).
About the Author: Nationally published freelance writer Karen
Fritscher-Porter writes about home organizing solutions at
www.EasyHomeOrganizing.com.
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