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Amber’s Home and Office Organizing Blog index

Maintenance w/Mom’s Help is Key

Recently I found myself organizing the same space for the third time alongside an energetic mom. I was not bothered by the repetition of the organizing but not to my surprise, she was frustrated that we were back in this space, again and rightly so. She started to pick my brain by asking, “why does this happen and why do we have to constantly reorganize?” Both are very good questions. Here’s how I replied. Organizing kids rooms, toy rooms, play areas, and homework areas over and over are not uncommon. Kids grow out of clothes, loose interest in toys, and excel in different levels of knowledge/reading so it is common for these spaces to need reorganizing on a more frequent basis. However, maintaining order is what will make reorganizing less frequent and a whole lot easier. If there is a weekly or daily clean up and organizing time it makes a world of difference. I really think it starts with moms coming alongside kids when they are young to teach them how to organize and put things back when they’re finished with something. We can’t expect are kids to be naturally organized, we have to teach them and involve them in the weekly processes of picking up their bedroom and putting away their toys.  Here are some “Mom Maintenance Tips" 

• pick up the play room/toy room once a day together as a family 
• use a family calendar to write all school dates/events/parties down and toss the paper (review the calendar each morning before they head off to school)
• go through your kids clothes (with the kids) twice a year to edit clothes that don’t fit anymore. 
• toss unnecessary school work or school communication at the end of each week (again, with the kids)   
• for teens-institute a clean room rule- if their room isn’t clean by Friday night, they loose a privilege over the weekend
• before the kids come in from playing outside, have them put their bikes and balls away

These may sound like a pat answer or unrealistic but I’ve seen families do this and it does work. It’s not enough to just pick up after our kids or just tell them to do it. Teach them, engage them, and give them consequences and rewards so that eventually they will pick up or clean up when told.   

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