It is time to roll up your sleeves and get down to the business of making sense of your kids’ rooms again. It may be a mystery to you how no matter how many times you convince yourself that this time you have managed to perform a comprehensive and satisfactorily thorough cleaning of your children’s rooms, they still manage to remain looking cluttered. This may stem from the tendency to keep purchasing things, from toys, to clothes, shoes and school supplies, and simply keeping them without eliminating the older things. This is the only reason your kids’ rooms seem to defy your best efforts to keep them tidy.
Now that you find yourself at the point where you are prepared to make it better by getting rid of some things altogether, you do not have to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of beginning the project. Simply take a deep breath, find your patience, and follow the handy guide below to get you achieving the most that you can in the little time you have available.
Step One: Do a Walkthrough
Take a thorough and keen look around the rooms to get an idea of what you are really up against. Please note that getting your children involved in the overall de-cluttering process is also advised. Therefore, encourage your kids to take a look around and take note of what they would like to keep, and what they can do without. This has the added advantage of getting them into the right mindset so that they are more agreeable to the prospect of giving ‘their things’ away than feeling railroaded once you are done. They might even have fun doing it!
Step Two: Sort
Once you have a complete sense of what is what, it is time to begin sorting. Create three separate piles labelled keep, trash and donate. Place each item in its corresponding pile as you move along.
The things you keep can be those that are currently in use and older items that bear some significant sentimental value. The trash pile might contain those things that are beyond repair or are unlikely to be of any use to anyone else. The donation pile can hold the things that your children are not using anymore, or have not made use of in a long time, but are still serviceable and useful.
Having a donation pile also serves as a good teaching aide for your children as they learn how to share and to avoid unnecessary waste.
Step Three: Organise
Now that you are left only with the belongings that are to remain, it is time to put them away in an orderly fashion. You may make use of plastic bins with lids and decorative baskets to add, not just storage space, but also an extra decorative dimension to the room.
Step Four: Educate
You should not just call it done and leave it at that. Take the time to teach your children how to tidy up and the importance of maintaining a clean room as much as they can.
Finally, be sure to set reminders to carry out the process more often. This way, you avoid creating a situation where you are simply back to where you started all over again and the process becomes more tedious than truly beneficial.
