Teach Your Kids How to Clear Clutter

Trying to clear clutter all on your own is a frustrating and thankless task. I don’t think it is too much to expect our children to learn to declutter their rooms or their toys. They will learn valuable lessons that will last a lifetime as well as contribute to making more time for the family to enjoy being together.

Here are 12 ways kids can be a part of the decluttering task!

1. When children are given a new toy or object, get them to help decide where it will be kept. This habit of each item having a specific home makes it easier for children to clear clutter away after playing.
2. Limit the number of toys children are allowed to play with at a time.
3. Have a designated time in the day where kids help with packing away their things. I don’t let my children begin a new game until they have packed up the previous one. This is a handy declutter technique that prevents you wanting to just shut the door on a room because the task looks too big!
4. Put a laundry basket in the child’s closet so they can put their dirty clothes straight in there rather than leave them on the floor.
5. Clear Clutter by mounting hooks on the backs of doors at your child’s level so they can hang hats, jackets or bags there
6. Buy assorted clear plastic boxes for kids to categorise and store their belongings. These can be colour coded if your family designates a colour to each person in the family. This ensures you always know who is the one who has left their towel on the floor or their dirty cup on the sink!
7. Avoid toy boxes and trunks. Deep storage like this means that small items fall to the bottom and children want to empty the whole box to find what they are looking for. This type of storage creates a cluttered room!
8. To help clear clutter from toy boxes, set up low shelves on which to store children’s books, puzzles and games. These are the type of things that lose all their pieces or get damaged in a larger type of toy box or crate.
9. Organize clutter by labelling each box or shelf with what should be stored there. Combine words with pictures, especially for younger children to help them learn.
10. Establish food and no food zones in the home. For example, eating in the bedroom is not ok. This will prevent you having to do the type of clean you need to do in the kitchen, in the bedroom as well! It will also prevent items that create clutter, like odd cups or plates or lolly wrappers turning up in the bedrooms.
11. Create an unloading routine whenever you all come home from somewhere like school, church or your sporting activity. Designate where bags will be hung or placed and where jackets can be hung. It’s good to have this sorted out for the adults too as a good example to set.
12. Encourage a yearly ‘declutter’ routine for all the children’s belongings. Make sure kids are a part of this routine. Let them help choose what toys and clothes they no longer use or have outgrown and perhaps choose who they can help out by donating their belongings.