Organize + Energize: Organize Your Kids
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Does their room look like this? Might it look like this? Take hold and teach your kids some lifetime organizational skills.
When we arrive at most of these homes, the children have no direction in their space. They don't have a home for their toys. Their closets have no organization. There are no working systems set up in any of these areas, which is eventually why the parents call us.
We find that once children have working organized systems in place, they love it! They actually like putting things back where they belong. Everything has a designated home. They enjoy being able to wake up in the morning and pick out an outfit from an organized closet. The girls know where all their hair accessories are and can grab them at a moment's notice. The boys know where their baseball equipment is stored and can run out of the house in a blink of an eye. Just as you get stressed, or anxious looking at clutter, your children will feel the same.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIf you have children and don't have working (the key word here is working) organized systems in your children's space, your children are missing out. Give them the opportunity to see what it can be like to have these working organized systems in place and see what happens. You will be surprised with the outcome.
Here are 5 tips to get you started with the systems:
1. Label everything that you can label. Label clothes shelves, toy bins, bookshelves, and the inside of drawers. Anything you can stick a label on, do it! You can also use pictures.
2. Keep like items together and categorized. The easier the system, the easier it will be for the children to maintain.
3. Have a home for everything they own.
4. You can include them in the process or not. This is your preference. Most homes we have been in, the children are not there. If the children are teenagers, it's a good idea to have them there.
5. Once you have the systems in place, talk with your children about the systems and the process of what is going to happen going forward with their space.
It is never too early or too late to get your children involved in the process and get them in the habit of becoming organized. Organized children will grow up to be efficient and productive. They will thrive at work because of their impeccable time management skills, which stems from being organized. Set up those working organized systems now for your children! They will thank you later, trust me!
Kristin Carcieri-MacRae, the founder and owner of Organizing in RI, has always enjoyed finding creative ways to streamline the environment around her. Kristin spent several years working in retail management, medical offices, and was even a successful certified personal trainer for 4 years. She discovered that in each of these fields she had a natural ability to streamline spaces and processes. Through her organizing ability and her passion for motivating others to achieve their goals, Kristin created Organizing in RI. Kristin has appeared on air on www.talkstreamradio.com and Patricia Raskin's Positive Business Radio. Her articles have been published in the Rhode Island Small Business Journal and New England Home Life. She is also available for organizing workshops.
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