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Entries Tagged 'Kids Organizing' ↓
What I hear all the time from adults who need help getting organized: “I feel overwhelmed. I don’t know where to start.” Well, should kids be any different? Saying, “Go clean your room,” and expecting kids to run in there and whip up a clean room is probably a bit unreasonable. They get in there and take a look at all the stuff on the floor, they look at stuff that has spilled or gotten all mixed up and they get overwhelmed too.
As kids get older, they tend to want you to steer clear of their rooms since it’s their domain, it’s their space. That also means they probably won’t let you in to help clean and organize, even if they are overwhelmed. So, what’s a mom to do?
First, sometimes you just have to shut the door and let them have some space. But there comes a time when sheets must be washed, dishes must be removed and carpets must be vacuumed. When that’s the case, the best trick I have found to help my kids get their rooms in order is to make a list for them. This breaks down one big job into lots of little jobs. Some tasks that may be on a list:
1) Put away makeup
2) Bring dishes to the kitchen
3) Empty garbage
4) Put dirty laundry in the basket
5) Put sheets in the washing machine
If they are really overwhelmed, you can even have them break up the list over a course of a few days. And don’t forget to let them listen to music while they work too! A great book I can recommend for older kids to read themselves: “Where’s My Stuff?’ by Samantha Moss and Lesley Schwartz.
For tips on wrangling toys for younger kids, please read here about Bambino Toy Bags.
Tags: 1 Trick to Help Older Kids Clean Their Rooms, Bambino Toy Bags, DIY organization, getting organized, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing, organize
Bambino Toy Bags
Yesterday I was working with a wonderful SAHM/Homeschooling mom and we were sorting sets of toys (teas set, doctor kit, etc.) and placing them in labeled Ziplock bags. It worked, but wasn’t all that attractive. Then, low and behold, I was made aware of these Bambino Toy Bags this morning and I fell in love! I also emailed the link to my client ASAP! Sooooooo much cuter and stylish then a plain ‘ol Ziplock bag!
If you’ve got kids, then you know you’ve got sets of toys with lots of little pieces. Oh, I surely remember our Polly Pocket days! These zippered bags are a fantastic way to keep toys that belong together, together. It’s also a super way to store toys on shelves as well as make them portable. Going on a plane trip? Pack up ‘em up, zip ‘em up and keep your kids entertained while you’re on the go!
When kids toys are all mixed up, then they really get frustrated and won’t be able to play with them anymore. Follow these toy organizing tips to help your kids get the most out of their toys:
#1: Go through all the toys and place toys of the same type together-blocks with blocks, Legos with Legos, dinosaurs with dinosaurs, etc. When you see the volume, it will help you decide if you can let some things go. It will also let you know how much storage supplies you will need.
#2: Keep the toys that are “Friends,” these are the toys that are played regularly with and loved. Kids often don’t even miss half the toys once they have what they really want accessible.
#3: Store toy sets together so kids have everything they need at their fingertips to enjoy their play.
#4: Teach kids to put the toys away at the end of the play session or the end of the day while keeping sets together. Chances are good you’;ll have to help with this for a long time. Remember, you are teaching valuable skills!
Be sure to check out these awesome bags to keep toys organized while keepin’ it cute! For more organizing tips for kids, please keep reading right here! 
Tags: Bambino Toy Bags, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing, organized, Organizing Product Reviews, organizing tips for kids, toy organizing tips, toys organized
Usually kid’s clothes hold up longer than our kids actually fit into them. Wouldn’t it be nice to get some money back from those clothes as easy as 1-2-3? How does this sound: Order a bag, stuff it full of kid’s clothes, mail it for free, make money! Yippeee! OK, that was actually as easy as 1-2-3-4.
Thanks to an awesome site called DIGITWIRL, I recently learned about another great site called: thredup which allows you to do just this, stuff a bag and get money for kid’s clothes! Here’s what the site says:
When your child has a growth spurt, we can help turn your pile of outgrown clutter into cash! We send you the bag, you fill it up and send it back.
“Turn clutter into cash,” I love it! Be sure to check out the site when you are ready to let outgrown children’s clothes go. And if you are in the middle of purging and clearing, here as some tips to help you organize kids’ rooms!
Tags: digitwirl, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kid's clothing, Make Money on Kid's Old Clothes!, threadup, tips to help you organize kids' rooms
“Getting our houses in order and endowing our children (and ourselves) with a respect for and an appreciation of order is one of the most precious gifts we can give them and ourselves.” by Sarah Ban Breathnach
Love that quote, it’s so true! I like to think that teaching our children about organization is just as important as teaching them how to handle a budget and how to eat healthy. We sow the seeds and then our kids can take it to whatever level they are comfortable with as adults. Not everyone likes every surface “just so” and that’s OK. But hopefully our kids will learn how to have structure and how to avoid things getting out of control in their own homes.
Here are 10 tips to teach your kids how to be organized so you can give them building blocks for their future.
- Make sure kids understand where things go. Even toddlers can start to learn how to put things back with the help of parents.
- Help kids put everything away at the end of the day. Kids need help into elementary school. It’s not always fun for kids and they often like company while they work. Try 5-10 minutes of family clean-up each day.
- Kids may enjoy listening to music or listening to you read to them while they clean up.
- If you have toys that you want to keep but don’t have room for, box them up and rotate toys periodically so they seen new again to your kids.
- Toys can easily take over; you need to go through toys/belongings regularly with your kids to see what your family is ready to donate, sell or pass on.
- Consider letting your child earn money by selling their items in a garage sale or at a local consignment shop.
- Before your child’s birthday and before holidays is a great time to purge and make room for new items. Children may be more willing to part with things knowing they will be making room for something new!
- When you want to do a thorough cleaning with your child, it may help to take the room a section at a time and possibly spread the task over a few days so no one is overwhelmed.
- Be a good example for your child by being organized in your own home.
- Give kids lots of shelves, hooks and labeled bins so they can succeed by knowing where to put their things away.
If you are working on getting a handle on too many toys in your home, here are some great ideas for clutter-free gifts for kids! Your friends will appreciate clutter-free gifts for their kids too!
Tags: Attention Moms! 10 Tips to Teach Your Kids How to be Organized, clutter free gifts for kids, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organization, organization, organized, Sarah Ban Breathnach
Are you passing clothing down from one of your children to another or maybe someone else is passing their child’s clothing down to yours? This is an awesome thing when you can get a second use (or perhaps a third) from perfectly good clothes! My girls were born during the same season three years apart and I just loved being able to use the same clothes twice. But what are you supposed to do with all of the clothes during the “in between” when you are waiting for your child to fit into them?
Here are 10 tips to store baby & kids clothes for the future so you can keep them organized & in good shape:
- Make sure clothing is clean, dry and stain-free before storing.
- Store clothing in a sturdy container with a lid to keep out dust and critters.
- Store in a cool, dry place.
- Avoid storing clothing in an area that is subject to temperature and moisture fluctuations. It’s probably best to avoid attics and garages. Instead, find a place where you can add a shelf up high (laundry room or closet) and store bins there.
- Add an all-natural cedar block to help eliminate unwanted pests.
- Add a chemical desiccant to absorb moisture, just make sure you don’t let it touch the clothes. Tape it to the inside of the lid perhaps?
- Store clothing loosely so air can circulate a bit.
- Store clothing by size & season and be sure to label the outside of the bin so you can zero in on sizes quickly. Examples: Size 12 months Spring/Summer, Size 2 T Fall/Winter, Size 2 T Spring/Summer.
- Be sure to pull the bin down when you child is ready for the next size so you can go through it to see what fits and what doesn’t. You may have to try some items on your child for size.
- Do your best and realize that there may be a few items that slip through the cracks depending on how your child is growing and how the seasons fall. After clothes are washed multiple times, sometimes it’s just a little harder to judge the sizing as well. Just do your best to place items that look like the same size together. If your child misses out on wearing some items, you can pass them along to someone else.
If you have room to store clothing in a closet on hangers instead of in boxes, here’s a neat product from Baby Buddy, the “Size It” Closet Organizer.
Just think how nice it will be when you have kids clothing at your fingertips and you won’t have to spend money running out and buying new clothes! For a secret on how to remember which clothes belong to which child when it comes out of the laundry, please read my past children’s closet organizing post.
Tags: 10 Tips to Store Baby & Kids Clothes for the Future, Closet Organizing, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, kids organizing, organized, Organizing Product Reviews
I think kids can be both pretty darn egotistical and pretty darn giving and I’d like to think we can definitely nurture that giving side. Giving is good for the soul and good for the heart and even good for self-esteem. Don’t you feel super awesome when you have been giving and made a positive impact on someone else? I know I do! I’d like to share, from my own experience, 2 simple ways for moms to teach kids about being charitable:
Tip #1: Be charitable right along with your kids. When I was a stay-at-home mom with no one to watch my kids, I had to get creative on how I could help when I couldn’t actually spend time volunteering at a facility or program. So, I thought about what was dear to my heart at the time. Well, being in the middle of raising little ones, the answer was “kids.” So, every month I would take my 3-year-old to Target with a $20 budget and she was responsible for helping me choose as many items as we could buy with $20 for a pregnancy crises center. My daughter was learning about helping babies and budgeting all at the same time! Then we would go together to drop off the supplies so she could actually see where they were going. It’s pretty hard for kids to get the concept of helping others and where it’s going when you put your stuff in a bag and set it on the curb for a truck to pick up.
Tip #2: Give kids their own money for charity. As part of their allowance, my kids are allotted a certain amount of money to put in their charity piggy bank. As things come up, they have their own money to draw from to help someone else out. It may be through a coin drive at school or a “fill the boot” campaign from local firefighters. It doesn’t matter what the need it, what’s important is that your kids are learning to fill it.
Think of giving as another skill we must teach, just like budgeting, laundry and organizing. For more reading about helping others, you may enjoy my post, “How to find life balance by being of service.”
Tags: charitable, charity, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids
As parents, we can sow the seeds to help our children learn many lessons that will carry them through life. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention organizing, but today I want to talk about MONEY! I didn’t really have many lessons about money growing up, the only one that really stands out in my mind is a conversation with my dad when I was a teenager. I remember my dad talking to me about setting up a budget and to remember to account for gifts that I would need to buy for people that month. Well, as it turns out, there’s a whole lot more to learn than that and I had to learn by good example from others and by reading books on the topic.
Not everyone will agree with me on this one, but with my kids, I haven’t tied allowance to chores. I took a parenting class many moons ago, and the instructor felt that chores should be expected as part of living in the home together and teaching kids about money should be a separate issue. So, I went with that.
These are the steps I took to teach my own kids about money:
- I gave them 3 piggy banks: One for savings, one for spending and one for charity.
- I gave them a set amount of cash each month that could be divided into each piggy bank. If they received $20, then $9 would be to spend, $9 would be to save and $2 would be for charity.
- My kids could pull from charity whenever a need arose that pulled at their heartstrings.
- When they received a gift of money, they had to save half and could spend the other half how they wanted to. As they’ve gotten older, the percentages have shifted.
- We opened savings accounts that earned interest for the portions that they had to save.
- Now that they are older, they receive pre-loaded debit cards for school clothes and they have to make the most of it by looking for good deals and even through thrift store shopping.
- When they each received $1000 from a family member, they were allowed to spend $100 and then took $900 to a financial planner to invest in mutual funds. They could really make this money work in their favor if they just let it grow. Every other month they add a contribution.
Don’t overlook the opportunity to teach your kids how to be wise with their money at a young age. Even if they go broke in their 20′s by running credit cards sky high, at least you will know that you did what you could when you could.
To make sure I cover all my bases today, here are some bedroom organizing tips to help your kids too!
Tags: budget, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing, organizing kids bedrooms
Oh boy, oh toys! Toys, toys, a mixed blessing of stimulation for the young mind and clutter for the family room floor. A birthday rolls around: Toys. Christmas rolls around: Toys. A trip to Target: Toys. Quick stop at a garage sale: More Toys…
Let’s think outside the toy box today and look at options for 5 clutter-free gifts for kids:
Clutter-Free Gift #1: Buy a Beloved Membership
- This is something I wish more grandparents would do for young families, it’s expensive to go for fun outings!
- Ideas for memberships: Your local zoo, the local children’s museum, aquarium or a punch card for open swim sessions at the local pool.
Clutter-Free Gift #2: Pay for Lessons
- Again, another great one for grandparents, aunts or uncles to help young families. As a stay-at-home mom, I would have loved this!
- Ideas for lessons: Gymnastics, swim, dance, horseback riding.
Clutter-Free Gift #3: Books
- Ok, I’m on a slippery slope with this one since it’s “stuff,” but I love books for children, they are small and they can easily be passed on when they are outgrown or you can organize your own book exchange.
- For tips on organizing books for children, please watch my short video (under 2 minutes).
Clutter-Free Gift #4: Share an Activity
- This is what memories are made of, spending quality time together. Think about what the child in your life loves and do that.
- Ideas: Go to the movies, volunteer together, go see an Imax show, go to the auqarium, go to the park & then for ice cream or bake together.
- Being on a budget, I had my daughter and her friend bake & frost a cake for his birthday. His mom was a little skeptical, but he came home talking about how great it was and they actually did it two years in a row!
Clutter-Free Gift #5: A Pony-Just Kidding! Gift Cards for Services
- This option is more for older kids/teens, but gift cards are welcome for iTunes, massages, pedicures, manicures and movies.
Give clutter-free gifts this year when special occassions roll around and see how great it feels!
Tags: clutter-free, clutter-free gifts, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing, organizing books, organizing kids, toys
Dress up days in my house are long-over, but recently a good friend called me asking about dress up clothing storage as a gift for her two nieces. She had something very specific in mind that she was on the hunt for: a plastic storage container so she could paint a design on the outside and it had to have a hinged lid. It was the hinged lid that made it tricky because all bins I’ve seen have a separate lid. So, I was up for the challenge! In doing my research, I came across a variety of ideas that could work for storing storing dress up clothes so I thought I would share my favorites.
In general, I do not like toy box type storage as it turns into a black hole, but I do think it’s OK to use large bins for storing one type of item vs. a bunch of different toys. So, here are my top 4 and the links to the sites should you want one of your very own.
Kroom Storage Trunk through Amazon
KidKraft Storage Unit through OneStepAhead
DIY Dress Up Option from the site: ohdeedoh
The the final one that was plastic AND a hinged lid….
Woot woot for Organize.com
So there you have it, if you have play dress up clothes for your kids, you’ve now got some solutions! Easy access to hours of dress up fun!
Tags: Amazon, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, KidKraft, kids organizing, ohdeedoh, OneStepAhead, organize.com, Organizing Product Reviews
- Toys sorted & purged
- Closet doors removed
- Floor to ceiling shelving
- Toys of the same type stored together
- Easy access to toys, nothing stacked more than 2 high
Tags: closet, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing kids, purged, toys
