What I Learned From Organizing a Child’s Play Kitchen…
What I learned from organizing a child’s play kitchen… I learned that organized parents sometimes raise very disorganized children. This was confirmed by a class I took from ICD.
A lot of my clients complain that their children never pick anything up. Then I asked, “what is your clean-up routine?” They look at me as if I was speaking Portuguese. Then, they confess, “I don’t have one.”
I love organizing with children. They love my P-Touch label maker, the picture labels, they love being part of the process, and they love taking ownership of the organization of the room. Okay, I hear parents up in arms saying, “not my kid!” Well, that is true of some children but not all children are into systems and organization.
However, when given a modest amount of toys to manage, and good systems to keep their toys, most children can keep their space organized.
My suggestions are:
Label everything: bins, shelves, drawers, etc.
If they cannot read yet, use pictures. This can be a great project to work on with them. Get them to draw the pictures, then take the pictures to FedEx Kinko’s to be laminated.
Save a couple of minutes at the end of every playtime to clean up. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time. Five minutes will make a tremendous difference in your workload.
Have a home for their toys. If they have too many toys, and the toys don’t have a place to live, it will be impossible to keep the space organized.
Donate regularly. As they receive new gifts for their birthdays and holidays, ask for the same amount to be donated. I know this is really hard!
Have rules about taking care of the toys. If the toy is left in an inappropriate place, the toy must be earned again.
Okay, it is tough to be strict with the rules, but it can only improve your systems. My client that thought her children were the messiest children on the planet, now has a constantly semi-organized playroom.
Happy Organizing!