Top 10 Picking Up Tips for Kids
- Shannon McGinnis, Author of the 10 Minute Tidy
Here are ten tips for making pickup more routine instead of a massive chore. With school starting, here are some tips for keeping home an inviting place to be!
* Create homes for all of your children's clothes and toys, both in their room and throughout the house and garage. Make areas for containers for their toys and spaces for larger items to be stored so that everything has a home to be put back into.
* Choose containers that are easy for your child to use. Allow your child to choose containers, baskets or toys that are easy for them to pick up and put away. Hooks, shelves or over the door pockets create spaces for things to be put away easily.
* Label each area. You can together draw pictures and write the words to label each area. For example, DOLLS go in this basket, BLOCKS here, CRAYONS in this bin, and LEGOS in this container. Also label dresser drawers for socks, t-shirts, and pants.
* Make clean up time FUN. Play music or sing a song and have their containers colorful and easy for them to use.
* Schedule daily clean up time and expect your child to completely clean up every day, either before dinner or before bedtime.
* Be a great role model. Parents can pick up their things while the kids are organizing their room so that the entire house is clean and tidied within minutes.
* Build teamwork for mutual support. When the entire family cleans up at the same time, this creates more harmony in the household. Also, this alleviates resentments or arguments about who should do what rather than everyone picking up the entire house all at once. Each child can take responsibility for their things throughout the house.
* Create a memory box for each child. They can keep all their artwork from the school year, knowing that at the end of the school year they may need to make decisions about what to keep and what to let go of. This also keeps the volume confined to what will fit in the box.
* Schedule major cleanups every few months. It's especially important to do this before or after birthdays and holidays when a large number of toys are coming in and at the end of the school year. Then you can teach them that there must be room for the new toys to be put away so that there isn't so much clutter.
* Celebrate that your child is learning excellent life skills! By teaching your children to be more organized and how to do this quickly and easily, they are learning life long skills that will help them be more successful in all that they do.
The Reasons We Clutter
Home-Based Business Mom, a Guide to Time Management and Organization for the Working Woman
--submitted by Juli Shulem, 805.964.2389
For many, hoarding clutter is a way of life. While this is not typically the initial desire, things just end up becoming this way. As a Professional Organizer of twenty-one years, I get to see more than my share of clutter in this world and have the opportunity to assist others to get rid of theirs.
I have outlined four main reasons people generally have cluttered environments. You may identify with one or several of these areas so I have included some ways to help combat the issue.
Why we Clutter:
1.Fear of never being able to get something again: Most people who have this fear have had it since childhood and are afraid that their things? will be taken away. Sometimes they didn't have much as a child and are afraid that they will not get these things again. This is also referred to as the Depression Era Mentality? where people who grew up during that time may have had very little and their material goods were indeed valuable to them in a way unlike today. When an item is useless and the decision to throw it away is made, it is important to understand that almost everything can be found again. Since our world is filled with so many items and such efficient ways of getting almost anything it is unlikely that we would be truly unable to get something again should the need arise.
2.Inability to make a decision of whether it is still needed: Many times the inability to make a decision about keeping or discarding an item can be overwhelming to some. It can be learned though. It is like a muscle and with regular exercise, the decision-making muscle? can become stronger and easier to use. I have some questions from my book Home-Based Business Mom? which help guide one through that decision making process to determine if something can be discarded:
a. Do you like it? While this may seem obvious, many times we need to literally ask ourselves if we even LIKE the item in question.
b. Will you realistically use it again?
c. Have you ever used it? (If not you can probably safely get rid of it)
d. Have you forgotten what it does or that you even still had it?
e. Do you own another better one?
f. Is it old, ugly, not working, out of style, out of date, or inefficient?
g. If you throw it out and need another, can you get it again? (If yes, you don't need to hold onto it)
h. Has it been over a year since you have used it? (For most items, if you have made it through all four seasons and haven't needed it, chances are you just don't need it.)
i. Does it make you feel bad, ugly, stupid, or guilty? Often we realize that something we have is no longer useful, but we either spent a lot of money on it, it was given as a gift, or it once served a purpose, and we feel guilty getting rid of it. Actually, holding onto it just keeps bringing back the negative feelings associated with it and thus prolongs the agony. Just get rid of it.
3. Not asking, "What will I actually DO with this?"? at the time you are considering making a purchase. Stop the cluttering? before it even gets started! Don"t buy things without some real purpose in mind. Getting something because it is on sale, or you were out shopping is not a good enough reason to buy it. Ask yourself what you need it for and if you can"t come up with a good enough reason don't bother getting it in the first place. Your home will thank you.
4. Not having enough space for everything to have a home? and keeping it anyway. One general rule of thumb to apply is that everything needs to have a home. If something doesn't have a place to be put away? then either create a place, or don't keep the object. It's really that simple. If you don't do this, it is a guarantee that it will be tucked under something, lost behind something and otherwise rendered useless and it will become lost among items it has nothing in common with (therefore you won't logically think to look there to find it again) or forgotten. Then you will waste time looking for it in places it shouldn't be, and if you don't find it, you will most likely end up buying another one! .
Clutter can take control with even the best intentions, so spend time regularly to purge through areas of your home/work so it doesn't get out of hand. It also takes far less time to do this periodically versus waiting until the issue turns into a major problem. Take little bits at a time and do small time increments versus tacking an entire room. You will have much more success and be inclined to go back to it at a later date.
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