31 Days of Organizing Tips: Day 18 (Teaching Kids to be Organized)

Welcome to Day Eighteen of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips series!  Throughout this series I’m sharing organizing tips that will help you on your journey from overwhelmed to organized.

Are your kids organized? Do they know where to find things when they are looking for them? Are they able to put things back so they can be found again the next time? If you answered “yes” to these questions then kudos to you! You’ve done a great job helping your kids learn to be organized. Forward this post to a friend who needs to read it and then go enjoy a cup of coffee.

If you answered “no” to the questions above, then don’t despair! You, like most of the rest of us, either struggle to stay organized ourselves (it’s hard to expect our kids to be organized if we don’t model it), or we find it difficult to teach our kids something that comes naturally to us, or else we thought we were just stuck with messy kids and that there was nothing we could do about it (but we love them anyway right?!).

Well, I’m here to tell you, there’s hope! Kids aren’t necessarily born with an organizing gene but they can learn to be organized (so can adults!). Today’s tips will help you learn how to teach your kids to be organized.

First, why is it important to teach your kids to be organized?

• So they can find what they need when they need it
• So they (not you!) can put things back where they belong (which is a big factor in being successful at finding things when they need them!)
• So you don’t have to constantly pick up after them (or nag them to clean up their stuff)

Sound good?  Wait, there’s more!

Helping kids learn the tools and strategies to be organized will help them to:

• Keep their desks, papers, and books organized at school
• Stay on top of homework assignments and due dates
• Be better prepared for tests
• Focus more on tasks they are doing because there is less clutter around them 
• Increase their self-confidence 
• Have a sense of ownership and responsibility over their suroundings
• Feel comfortable having friends over
• Respect their belongings
• Learn to let go of things they don’t need, use, or love

And, if that’s not enough, they will take these tools into adulthood and apply them in their work and family lives!

OK, so enough of the why… on to the how!  There are some great bloggers that have addressed this topic.

Here are a few of my favourite posts from other moms about how to help your kids get organized.  Don’t worry…they’re all pretty short so you can pick up some great ideas quickly 🙂

1. Teach them how to declutter. I’ve stressed how important it is to declutter before organizing already in this series but it’s especially important when you’re helping your children learn to get organized. They have so many incoming items all the time (birthday gifts, holiday gifts, loot bags, crafts, schoolwork, etc., that if they don’t learn to declutter, they will never learn to be organized. Even if your child is sentimental, they can learn to declutter. Here are some great tips to help sentimental children declutter, but they work for ANY child!

7 Ways To Help a Sentimental Child Declutter

2. Make sure everything has a place. Once children learn how to declutter, you can help them establish “homes” for each of their items (or categories of items). This helps them find things and put things away and it even establishes limits for how many things they have. Anna from Ask Anna stresses the importance of everything having a place so kids aren’t overwhelmed when expected to clean up. She also shares some organizing tools such as toy organizers, baskets, shelves, and storage ottomans that help kids keep their toys and books organized.

Kids organization

3.  Repetition and reinforcement are important. Once you’ve established “homes” for everything, help your children develop the habit of putting them there. Every. Single. Time. It may take awhile but it’s worth it. If you have a reward system in place in your family you could include putting things away to help establish that this is important. Chantol at The Power of Moms shares The “Karate Kid” method she used to teach her daughter to put her backpack, coat and shoes where they belong when she came home. It’s amazing… check it out!

Karate kid lesson

Please don’t forget – pin from the original source for all these pictures!

For Day Eighteen, think about how organized your kids are (or not!). Then, either go enjoy that coffee I mentioned earlier if yours are already organized, or, for the rest of us, use these ideas to help your kids learn to be more organized. You may not want to do all 3 of these tips at once (I don’t want you to overwhelm your kids!). Start with one new habit, and, once that’s established, come back and work on the next and the next. Keep building organizational habits and you’ll see the difference in your kids’ lives (and yours!).

How do you help your kids get and stay organized?  What do you think is the most important reason for helping kids learn to organize?  What’s the best organizing tip you’ve implemented?

If you need help decluttering or organizing, contact me for in-person organizing services in the Mississauga area, or virtual organizing services anywhere else. 

Happy organizing!