Right at the end of this month of organizing, I was asked to write a post about easy ways to declutter and organize your kids’ playroom. Boy, do I have a lot to say on that subject!
Let’s start out by saying that my seven-year-old’s bedroom and playroom are THE MESSIEST ROOMS IN THE HOUSE. Worse than the mudroom. Worse than my teenage son’s bedroom. Worse than my craft room. They’re bad. But because they are consistently messy, I have developed some tips for dealing with the clutter and disorganization. Here they are:
1. Clean with your child. Teach them how to sort and containerize. Contrary to popular belief, these skills must be taught (unless you’re someone like Geralin Thomas, who was probably born sorting and purging!)
2. Declutter when your young child is not home. This suggestion might seem contrary to the tip above, but it’s hard to toss outgrown clothes and toys and broken bits of wood and screws (we have tons of those around here –Callie calls them “quality items”) when your dear child is hanging on your leg and begging you to please not toss her toys. Trust me: Clean WITH them, declutter WITHOUT them (as they get older, you can teach them this skill).
3. Decide on an amount before you start purging. Set the ultimate limit on how many books, games, dolls, cars, etc. you will keep, either by number or space, and stick to it. If you don’t set the limit first, you’ll try to convince yourself that you can keep “just one more.”
4. Know where the stuff is going. Goodwill, a younger friend down the block, the school library… knowing where the items you purge will end up helps with separation anxiety — for you AND your child.
5. Get it all out of site. Put it in a sealed bag or box. When you see the items you’ve decided to let go of, you can start to have second thoughts. But it truly is “out of sight, out of mind.” Hiding them from view helps prevent backsliding.
6. Do it in chunks. Trying to convince your child to spend a few hours cleaning and organizing is tough. But if you say, “let’s spend 15 minutes hanging clothes in your closet,” that seems do-able. Set a timer and go!
7. Make it fun. Have a contest, turn on loud music, race to finish… the more fun you make it, the less your child will whine and cry.
8. Have the right tools. One of the reasons my daughter’s room is such a nightmare is that we don’t have the right infrastructure for her to keep things clean. We need another bookshelf, some bins for her closet, and hooks for her dress-up clothes. We just moved a few months ago, so it’s coming… but I can’t really expect her to keep things neat and tidy if there’s nowhere for the stuff to go!
9. Remember whose room it is. My daughter is never going to be as anal as I am (I HOPE!). So I don’t expect her to keep her spaces as neat as I would like them. But we do have some minimum requirements she needs to adhere to. Come to an agreement what “clean” is, and then let go. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
10. Keep on top of it. 15 minutes every evening is much more do-able than 4 hours once a month. Make picking up a natural part of winding down at the end of the day.
P.S. I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hot Wheels® blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here.
Welcome to Day 30 of 30 Days to an Organized Home, our 30-day journey to sanity and cleanliness. 
