9 Ways to Teach Your Kid to Organize & Tidy-Up His Room

Has this happened to you?

It’s 3:00pm and you’re rushing to go to the grocery store to pick-up ingredients for tonight’s home dinner with the in-laws. With keys in hand, you shuffle past your preschooler’s room and boom!

You see that it’s in chaos. Utter chaos.

A few clothes on the floor. Toy trucks scattered. Crayons on the bed and table. Train tracks a few feet from each other.

While you grunt in frustration and head to the your child’s room for a quick clean up (read as shove everything under the bed), you decide that it’s about time to teach the kid to be organized.

To relieve you of some stress and teach your preschooler a lifelong skill, here are:

9 Ways to Teach Your Kid to Organize & Tidy-Up His Room

1. Scan his room

Before any teaching begins, inspect his room and its contents. Figure out where you’d like toys, art supplies, books, shoes, clothes and other items to go (if they don’t have their places yet).

OrganizedHome.com suggests for storage space to be suitable for kids and their height, instead of yours. If you need extra shoe boxes, big boxes, small boxes, shelves or trays, now is the time to run to the store.

Also, set specific areas for the following activities: play, work, reading and art, similar to a classroom’s set-up.

2. Set ground rules

Clearly state to your child what is expected of him when it comes to keeping his room clean.

Don’t rely on plain words so be as visual as you can. Take a picture of his room once you’ve tidied up and tell him that the photo is how his room is supposed to look most of the time. Post the picture somewhere he can always see it.

3. Sort, sort, sort

♦ Toys

Help your child sort toys according to type, shape or size – whatever you prefer. You can also have an additional category called “toys for other kids” to get rid of unused and unwanted toys that can be donated.

♦ Art Materials

Let him group crayons, pencils, markers, clay and other items that are similar together. Let him segregate sketch books, coloring books and other art-related activity books from story books.

♦ Shoes, clothes and other items

You get the idea. Group similar items together unless you want your child’s room to look like a hurricane just passed it.

And same as the toys, old shoes and clothes can be donated to those in need.

4. Designate “homes” for each item

Once you’ve sorted everything, designate a place for each one, whether it be a shelf, tray or storage box.

If you need to add labels to boxes or shelves for easy identification do so. Consider adding pictures under the words especially if your child can’t read or is just learning how to.

Designating a “home” for each item will help your child return and find items in his room easily. This ensures that nothing is misplaced.

5. One item rule

When your child tires of coloring, tell him to keep the book and crayons away before moving on to another toy. This will help prevent your child from pulling-out several toys at a time which leads to a huge pile of mess.

6. Set clean-up schedules

In case your preschooler forgets the one item rule and you become too busy to constantly check if his room is tidy, set a specific time and frequency for him to survey his room.

Let him scan his room once a day at the same time to see if everything is in order. You never know when an action figure will pull a Toy Story and intentionally move from their designated area. Creepy.

A Tip for You, Mom

7. Be patient

Depending on your child, you may encounter resistance but eventually, your child will adjust to the new set of rules.

If he happens to forget to tidy up a few times gently remind him to do so, masking your frustrations. Remember, he is in preschool after all.

8. Resist the urge

Fight the urge to clean-up the mess yourself. This will only teach him that “mommy will pick-up after me.”

9. Make the activity fun

• Turn this whole thing into a game. Some parents ask their boys to be quick like Flash the superhero, to get things done a little faster. Use your imagination.
• Implement incentives for a job well done and use this on days your child needs the extra motivation.

It may take a while for your child to get used to the concept but he’ll get there. By being patient and supportive, your kiddo will soon learn how to keep his room neat. Just the way mom keeps the entire home tidy (wait, you do right?).

Have other tips that work for you? Do share them by leaving a comment below.

Photo by Creative Commons:
Messy room – MattGrommes
Box of toys – puuikibeach
Toy Story – Loren Javier

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