How to Organize a Child's Room

Children's rooms are overflowing and everything's a mess. Here's how to create a neat, organized space that your child can keep that way.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Trash bags
• Boxes for donations
• Organizers: baskets, bins, etc.
• Cleaning supplies: vacuum, dusting supplies, window cleaner
• Batteries for toys that need them

1. Make a list. Write down each type of item that should be in your child's room. Next to each one, write down a number for each type of item - for example, you decide your child can keep ten for each type of clothing item (ten pairs of pants, ten shirts, etc.) and five for toys (five dolls, five stuffed animals). These numbers are your magic numbers. Gather your supplies and go to the child's room.

2. Starting with the clothes, keep the magic number of good and desired items, and get rid of anything that needs to go (i.e., doesn't fit, stained). Put items that are in good shape into a box to be donated to a charity and throw away the others.

3. Repeat step 2 with all of the other types of items in the room - toys, books, collections, etc., and the magic numbers you decided on earlier. Do one type of item at a time.

4. Get everything out of the room except the furniture you plan to keep in there, then clean the room. Start at the top, and work your way down to the floor. Remove cobwebs and clean light fixtures, then go to mid-level and wash windows, light switch plates and doorknobs. Finish by cleaning the baseboards and the floor.

5. Place organizers in the room where they make sense (file sorter on the desk, jewelry box on the dresser), and begin putting the items that will stay in your child's room into the organizers. Let your child know where everything belongs, and help him to remember to put things back where they belong, every time he uses them. Get rid of the donations and the trash, and you have a neat and organized room.

Tips & Warnings

• Doing this without children present is faster, but you may want them to have input into what they are allowed to keep and what should be donated.
• Having fewer the items in the room, plenty of organizers makes it more likely that the room will stay neat.
• Incentives (rewards for a clean room) also make it more likely the room will stay neat.
• Do one thing at a time, and take it easy.
• Don't be frustrated if you have to clean and organize again soon - with some children, it takes many repetitions before they develop the habit of keeping their rooms neat.