OK - the kids are finally out of school for the summer, so why not take advantage of their labour capability, and get them involved in doing a total redo/purge/clean of their bedrooms with you?
No matter how little your children are they can and should be able to help. I find that the more involved children are when I go into homes to organize their rooms the more excited they are about the whole process. So don't underestimate how they will respond.
 
First of all I want you to have 6 boxes set up in their rooms - labeled as follows:
 
 
Often once kids get started with this they want to get rid of almost everything - so make sure you look over everything they have put in their Donate Boxes for the final say!!
 
OK - we will now break the room up into zones and tackle them one by one.
 
ZONE 1 - CLOTHES STORAGE AREAS SUCH AS CLOSETS AND DRESSERS
 
The same rules apply as for your own closet (which we covered in the March newsletter and which no doubt is still perfectly organized!)
 
Pull everything out of the closet and put all items in one of the 6 boxes. Clean the inside of the closet thoroughly and then put everything that's going back in just like you did for your own closet. Group like items together - sports related stuff, school uniforms, school clothes, dress clothes, etc. Do the same with their shoes and remember its much easier to keep shoes tidy and be able to easily find them if you use a shoe organizer of some kind. Put a hook behind the door to hang their PJ's or nightie on.
 
Consider installing another lower hanging rod in the closet, especially if you have younger children. This will make it so much easier for them to reach their clothes. You can buy these sorts of rods at hardware stores like Lowe's or Home Depot.
 
Keep a hamper either in their closet or their bathroom and teach them that is where dirty clothes belong - not on the floor. You can even make it fun by putting a child-sized basketball hoop above their hamper so they can try to make a basket with the dirty clothes!
 
Plastic stacking drawers also work well in children's closets and make it easy for them to get their clothes out and put them away. You could print out pictures of what lives in each drawer, laminate them, and then attach the pictures to the drawer front.
 
If they have a dresser that they keep their socks and panties, etc., in, go through all these as well. Only keep socks that are in good condition and that also have a mate!
 
REMEMBER - the more organized these areas are, the easier it will be for your child to keep them that way. This is their room, and they should take responsibility about keeping it respectably neat and tidy. If you designate a home for all the belongings in their room, then it will be easy for them to maintain. If they learn good organizing habits when they are young it will become a normal way of life for them and also provide them a real sense of pride in their room.
 
ZONE 2 - DESK AREA
 
The beginning of the summer is a great time to go through all the schoolwork that his been brought home over the year and to look long and hard about what is really worth keeping. (I have been into homes where NOT ONE piece of schoolwork had ever been thrown away!). Now hear this! YOU ARE NOT A BAD PARENT IF YOU DECIDE NOT TO KEEP EVERY SINGLE MATH SHEET OR SPELLING TEST YOU CHILD DID! Chances are that later on in life your child is never even going to look at their old work, so why would you want to keep it all? My suggestion is to keep the very best of their schoolwork - things that actually mean something - such as stories they have written, special projects and art work. Limit yourself to keeping whatever will fit into a large clasped envelope that you can then label according to Grade, and then keep each year of work in a specially allocated plastic storage bin. If necessary, purchase an art portfolio to keep special art work in. If there's room, store this bin on a shelf in their closet. Next school year, rather than dealing with all their school papers en masse at the end of the year, try to make decisions about what papers you are going to keep as they enter the house on a daily basis.
 
Help your child go through their desk and organize it so it is ready for the next school year. Try to limit how much stuff they keep on the desktop - a cleared surface is much more conducive to doing homework than a cluttered area. Limit the number of crayons and pencils - keep the very best and dispose of or donate the rest (often churches like these for their kids departments). Also make sure that you have a good desk chair and adequate lighting. I'm a big believer in having kids do their homework at their desk and not in front of the TV. That will help them develop good study habits while they are young which will pay many benefits when they get older.
 
ZONE 3 - READING AREA
 
If space allows, designate a special reading place in your child's room that includes a comfy chair or beanbag, good lighting, and a bookshelf to hold their books. Take all the books out of the bookshelf and sort through them. Books that they no longer read or have outgrown should be sorted into two sets. One set will be keepsake books that you want to keep and these should go straight into a keepsake book storage box. The second set that are not special or sentimental should be disposed of or given away. Your local "Friends of the Library" is a great organization to donate books to.
 
ZONE 4 - PLAY AREA
 
If you have a separate playroom in your home then you may not need a play zone in your child's bedroom, but for those of you who don't, designate an area in your child's room for playing. This play area should have some kind of toy storage receptacle to hold all their toys. I love the cubby-like ones that are quite reasonably priced at stores like Target or Walmart. What I love about the cubby system for toy storage is that it teaches children how to put toys away in an organized manner. By sorting and storing like items together they are learning the basic principles of organization.
 
Only keep toys that they play with, that are in good working order and for which you have all the parts (or at least have enough parts that it is a viable toy). Store toys like Legos that have a lot of little parts in Ziploc bags. This idea also works so well for jigsaw puzzle pieces. If there are toys that they have outgrown, put them in the Donate or Yard Sale Box, or if you want to save them as keepsakes, dedicate another storage box to keepsake toys and store in your attic until you have grandchildren!! (that's what I'm waiting for - waiting, and waiting . . .)
 
ZONE 5 - DISPLAY AREA
 
Kids love to collect all sorts of things. Consider buying a shadow box or shelf of some kind so they can proudly display their collections or their trophies. For things like sports cards, purchase the correct type of storage containers such as special boxes or file folders so they can really take good care of their collections.
 
 
OK, we're finished! Now be sure after all your hard work to reward not only your child but yourself for a job well done!!
 
 
DAILY MAINTENANCE FOR CHILDREN'S BEDROOMS:
 
1. Have your child make his/her bed every morning when they get up
2. Have your child put all their toys away before going to bed
3. Have your child put their dirty clothes in the hamper
4. To make the morning routine run smoother, encourage kids to select their outfits for the next day before they go to bed.