With kids at home, irrespective of how old they are, getting them to tidy up their room is a challenge for most moms. The very thought of kids room reminds one of a war zone. Toys strewn all over the floor, pack up taking hours and the thought of having some ease in this space seems impossible!
What if all this could change. What if pack up just took a few minutes?!
Here are some step by step quick tips to get the kids room in order:
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Dedicate a chunk of time to decluttering their room:
This could vary from 30 minutes to three hours but do it in one go. When you tackle it in one go you handle the whole space for once and don’t get exhausted doing it over and over again. Plan to declutter your kid’s room only when you have adequate time to spare.
Get all their toys, art material, books etc in one space:
Do a quick check in all the other rooms before you start decluttering for their belongings. In most cases, books and some toys are always found in all the rooms in the home!
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Categorise the toys :
Begin by segregating all the items into different groups such as – blocks, train sets, role play items, cars, art, kitchen set, board games etc. This is actually the most critical part. When one takes all the items out and gets a birdseye view is when one realises how much we have collected over a period of time. Stay calm and keep going. I find getting the kids involved from here on makes the process quite quick and easy.
Keep, Trash, Donate:
Go category wise and review every single item. Items with missing pieces, broken and damaged ones, art material that’s dried up etc can be put in the Trash bin. Ask your child if he or she enjoys playing with the item still, if they would really want to keep it and if this is something that they would love having. If its yes for all, then move the item to the Keep Section.
Always remember it’s about the child! More often than not, it’s the parent who wants to hold on to things cause of memories or the amount paid for a particular toy or any other emotional reasons. In my experience kids even as young as three years are quite clear on what their favourite toys are, which ones they would like to have and which ones they would like to donate or recycle to other friends.
This is also a good time to introduce or reiterate the concept of donation and recycling to kids. My kids love the idea that they can help other children who have lesser toys by giving away toys they no longer play with. They are extremely generous while decluttering their space.
The whole process of decluttering is really about keeping only things that the kids love to use and play with.
Store them the right way:
Once you have identified what you would like to keep, store the items of the same category together. Like put all the blocks in one box, the barbies together, paints in one unit, drawing sheets in the same drawer etc. Have a clearly identified space for every item so you and the child know exactly where to put the things back.
I like using simple storage boxes for my kids’ toys. They tend to take out the boxes they wish to play with and when its pack up time all they need to do is put the pieces in the right box. This makes cleaning easy for us and the kids! Also whenever we find something we know where exactly it goes.
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Things to remember:
A few other things that you need to remember to keep your child’s room clutter free.
- Always have a donation box for the kids to put toys they would like to give away
- There is so much artwork that comes home or gets created these days. You can either have a folder where you file everything or click a picture and store them digitally. Don’t get emotional about discarding your kid’s art!
- I find keeping a memory box for all sentimental stuff an easy way to store things. Their medals, letters to me all go in here.
Once you have got the room decluttered just spending a few minutes once in a while should help keep it in order. Keep the kids involved and make the process fun for them by letting them choose what goes in their space. Also, do take them to donate the toys which will always encourage them to be generous.
Image source: Eastern Suburbs Mums
KSP Team
Parul Gupta
Rati Ramadas Girish
