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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
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
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
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
Cluttered Child's Room
How can you help your kids get organized if they are struggling to keep it together in their own room? Maybe they don’t even want to get organized. Actually, the odds are that they don’t want to get organized! I’m a mom and a professional organizer and no, my kids rooms are not always neat, actually they are frequently quite messy. And I have found that a lot of it is age-related. When they were really little I was right in there cleaning up and helping them put things away. As they get older they seem to go through a phase of being fine with a mess and then the next phase seems to be wanting a more mature room and cleaning it on their own as they see fit. Now I was a neat thing in my own room growing up so this is all new to me.
Follow these 5 organizing tips to help your own kids get organized as you see fit:
1) Teach children from a young age to put away items of the same type together. Keep a bin of blocks, a bin of dolls, a bin of dress-up clothes, a bin of Legos, etc. When it’s time to clean up, help them sort so everything doesn’t just get tossed together.
2) Give your children tools to succeed by giving them enough places to put things away so they don’t all end up on the floor. Give them shelves to display keepsakes and toys as well as labeled bins to put things away. Give them bookcases for books, hooks for coats, closet space for clothes and toys.
3) Maximize storage space: Don’t be afraid to place shelving up high just for display items that your child doesn’t need to reach. Move your child’s clothing bar down low in the closet and place extra shelves as high as you can go for more toy storage. Use the back of the door for hooks and use bins under the bed for storage. They have a lot of stuff in a small space, maximize it.
4) Cut them some slack. If you child is getting older, consider letting them have a mess but choose one day a week that order has to be restored. That’s what I did so I didn’t go crazy every time I walked into the room knowing that on Sunday it would be cleaned up so things couldn’t get too out of control.
5) Help kids go through old toys and clothing for a good purge at least twice a year. Allow them to sell items if they would like to get some money from their belongings. This will make room for the new stuff that is sure to make an appearance.
For more reading about organized kids and messy rooms, please follow me here!
Organized Child's Room
Tags: DIY organization, get organized, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing
Disorganized and Messy Floor
Can your kids be organized and succeed in school when they have a messy room? Well, it all depends…Some kids can function quite well in a room with clothes on the floor, dishes on the dresser and make-up strewn about. Even though their room looks like a tornado hit it, they know how to restore order from time-to-time, when they feel like getting around to it… These kids are usually self-motivated, they know where their homework is and they get it done on their own before it’s due. They may be messy, but really they know right where everything is and they are functioning just fine. Leave them alone.
Then there’s the other type of messy. The kids who have a room that’s blown up, a backpack that’s blown up, they’re losing papers all the time, turning in homework late and feeling a lot of stress and pressure. Those are the kids that are going to need some extra guidance, some structure and they will need you to help them with some organizing skills. It’s very important that you work with them in a way that works well for them naturally, not in a way that works for you. If you set up your child’s organizing system in a way that won’t work for them, you will both be frustrated. I featured a blog post on a super, duper book recently called: “The Organized Student,” by Donna Goldberg. This is an excellent book to help you help your child succeed!
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, homework, kids organizing, organized, organizing system, The Organized Student by Donna Goldberg
Homework Supply Caddy
As soon as school starts it hits: homework! Sometimes even on the first day of school, probably much to your child’s dismay. How do you stay on top of homework, get it back to school on time and reduce headaches? Follow the following five organizing tips to help make this part of your family’s day a little bit less stressful.
Organizing Tip #1: Stick to a routine. If you can, let your child have input regarding what time they would like to do their homework, I realize extracurricular activities may be the deciding factor here. Maybe your child would like to come home and have a snack and then complete homework right away. Maybe your child would rather relax, eat dinner and then complete homework. If they can have options, they will probably be more likely to not resist when you remind them what time it is.
Organizing Tip #2: Create a homework caddy such as the one above or you can even just use a handy dandy shoebox. The idea is to have supplies together in one place to make it easy for kids to move around to do homework in different locations. For ideas on what to add to the organizing caddy, please read more here.
Organizing Tip #3: Let kids work where they are comfortable as long as they are actually working. Not all kids need to go off and work alone in a quiet space. I have one child who is in advanced classes with awesome grades who can talk, listen to music or listen to the TV and work without problems. Of course this has caused many teachers to mention she ‘visits’ a bit too much. Some kids don’t like to be sent off to another area alone. I have another child who is also a good student but will get caught up watching the TV instead of doing the homework; all kids are all different.
Organizing Tip #4: Use stacking trays to store homework. This is especially helpful for younger kids who are bringing home packets that may be completed throughout the week. The stacker should only hold homework and be the go to place to retrieve homework and get it to return to school. Be sure to give each child their own tray with their name on it.
Organizing Tip #5: Teach kids how to break homework down into chunks to meet deadlines. For example, if they have a book to read for a book report, map out how many pages need to be read daily to be done with the book in time to write the report by the due date. Breaking down any task into manageable pieces is a valuable life lesson!
Help your child get organized this year while teaching them awesome skills that will last well into their work lives and beyond!
Tags: caddy, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, homework, kids organizing, organizing tips, stacking tray
Lockers-Barrett Robinson
Just like the backpack, the locker can become a black hole for many things large and small that need to be cleaned out. Kids are using their lockers every day, they don’t have a lot of space, they are in a hurry and often things get shoved in and never come out again. Having items stuffed in, tumbling out or getting lost in the locker can be frustrating and it can even make kids late to class, miss assignments or turn assignments in late. None of those are good things!
Follow these organizing tips to bust locker chaos:
1) Just like the backpack, the locker needs to be purged on a regular basis. You will have to decide together whether your student will let you help at the school, can do it alone at the school or if they need to bring everything home so it can be purged at home together.
2) Throw out obvious garbage and papers that can be recycled.
3) Have your student decide what is used the most and make those items the most accessible and easy to reach.
4) Be sure to use all available locker space by using magnetized mirrors, message boards and pencil holders inside the door.
5) Make sure that any items that should be stored at home are brought home or books that need to go to the library are returned.
6) Give items that belong together a home together: art supplies, gym equipment, books.
7) Have your child strive to put things back where they belong.
8) Set up an agreed upon schedule for maintenance to reorganize when things get messy or out of place. Just like our homes need to be tuned up, so do lockers.
For more reading, be sure to check out “The Organized Student” by Donna Goldberg-good stuff!
Follow these organizing tips to help your student stay organized this school year!
Tags: chaos, DIY organization, get organized, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing, locker, organizing tips, stay organized, The Organized Student by Donna Goldberg
Lunch Snacks
It’s time to get organized for the new school year and know your kids will need to eat lunch five days a week. How can you save yourself some time and also some lunch time hassles this year? Follow these 5 organizing tips for lunch time success!
Organizing Tip #1: Create a lunch making kit. Place all of the items you use regularly close to the area where you or your kids make their lunch. You may want to include lunch sacks, sandwich bags, snack bars, juice boxes and peanut butter.
Organizing Tip #2: Create a snack bin. Open up the individual boxes of fruit snacks, granola bars and fruit leather and dump them into one big bin. This will eliminate a bunch of half empty boxes in your pantry and kids will know this is where they can go for after school snacks too.
Organizing Tip #3: Decide if the person who is in charge of making lunches is a morning person or a night person. Usually you hear the tip that you should make lunches the night before. Well, I had a friend who is a morning person tell me that it is actually easier for her family to make lunches in the morning as they are all early risers. So, make lunch accordingly.
Organizing Tip #4: Use your school prepay system. You can pay ahead for all of your child’s lunches or just pay for a few lunches for those days that your child would like to buy or you really don’t have the time to make lunch.
Organizing Tip #5: Stock up on a variety of healthy choices to keep lunches interesting for your kids and so you will know that you always have enough on hand to pull together a good lunch.
When you are organized, you know your kids will always have a healthy lunch and you can reduce some morning stress too! Yeah for less stress!
Tags: DIY organization, get organized, get organized for school, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing, lunch, organizing tips
