How to Help Your Tweens Organize Their Bedrooms

Chances are that your tween's bedroom is a complete disaster, or at least consistently messy. The reason kids of this age tend to have messy bedrooms is that they have not gotten the hang of organizing their things yet. You may still need to help them organize their bedrooms several times a year. Here are some tips you can use.

Instructions

1. Eliminate clutter. Tweens tend to forget that there is such thing as a garbage can. You will have to encourage them to throw things away. Give them 30 minutes to pick up everything they want to keep. When that time has elapsed, throw away everything that is left on the floor.

2. Consider the size of their room. Sometimes the size of your tween's room will not allow for storage of all the possessions that they have amassed. You may have to prioritize what should stay in the room, and what items might be better off in storage or in another place in the home.

3. Everything in its place. Once you are clear about what will fit comfortably into the room, you need to create a storage system that will hold all of your tween's items. This may mean bookshelves and baskets. This may mean using lockers with doors. This may mean building out their closet to better house their items. Once you have an adequate system, put the items away in a way that makes sense. Clothing and accessory items should be closer to the closet. Craft items should be closer to the desk. Seldom used items should be on higher or lower shelves. Once all of the items are in place, label the baskets and shelves so that when these things are removed, they will be put back in place.

4. Allow a messy area. Don't expect your tween to be perfect. Of course you need to set standards such as a made bed and no clean clothes on the floor, but you need to allow them to have a certain amount of mess in their room. If they are working on a project, then their desk should be messy. If they are working on a large project, you can expect to find things on the floor. As long as the room is reasonably neat and can be cleaned quickly then it has been organized well.