Living in the headquarters of late-stage capitalism is nearly synonymous with having more possessions than we need or can easily manage, and our kids are prime examples.
Now that we are in a new school year, some semblance of organization will help you maintain your cool. Here are a few tips for keeping your kids’ stuff from taking over.
Store things vertically
The first best way to get clutter out of the way is to go vertical. This is particularly good for vast collections of lightweight toys. Try hanging a net from the ceiling or high on a wall to corral all the stuffies. They’re easy to put away and can stand guard to keep monsters at bay.
Shelving or tall drawer units can also keep precious treasures off the floor; just make sure to anchor them to the wall so they don’t topple over. Provide a stool if necessary so your child can reach their things without your help.
Because surfaces are magnets for clutter, think about having fewer tables, dressers, and desktops available. Instead, provide bookshelves and furniture with drawers.
Choose the right containers
If you’ve ever visited a Montessori classroom, you’ll know that every item in the room has a designated home, one designed specifically for it. To recreate that in your house, choose a container for every type of possession and avoid the dreaded black hole of a traditional toy box.
Kids are very good at organizing if given the proper tools. They might even think it’s fun; they haven’t yet learned to consider it a painful chore. Containers for toys should follow these conventions:
- They’re easy to open and close.
- They’re easy to access and put away.
- The contents are simple to identify.
If your kid can read, get out the label-maker. If not, get creative. Draw a picture of the item on a piece of masking tape, tape a photo, or glue an actual sample on the front of the container. Make it impossible to misunderstand what goes where.
- They should be the right size for the job
If you have 12 million Lego blocks, choose a box (or boxes) that will hold them all, or they’ll end up everywhere. If your collection of doll clothes only fills a quarter of the container they’re assigned, soon all kinds of other items will find their way in, and you’ve got another mess on your hands.
When my kids were little, a very smart person told me that they had no idea what I meant when I told them to clean their rooms. It’s just too broad a concept. Instead, ask the kids to put all their books back on the shelves, or to put their dinosaur collection in the box marked with a Triceratops. Specificity is the key to success here.
Always declutter
If you don’t have enough space or containers for all the things your kids own, it’s time to downsize. And it’s never too early to teach kids how to let go of their unused stuff. Even asking them to find one thing they no longer want is good practice; it introduces the concept. And it’s one that we, as a society, don’t generally emphasize.
As always, model the behavior you want to see. Putting your own stuff away when you’re done with it will help reinforce the message that life is nicer when you’re not tripping over your possessions.
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