Nature Vs. Nurture

Welcome back, my fellow organizers! Last week, we introduced our guest blogger, Amber, who is taking us on a very organized journey. Today it’s all about the kids and why THEY need an organizer!

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Let’s discuss children’s bedrooms and playrooms.

How is it possible that the organization gene didn’t get passed on to at least one or all of our kids?  I have an eleven-year-old daughter. Despite the fact her mother and father both have way too many organization genes that gene somehow skipped right over her.  And when a child collector meets head to head with a minimalist parent sparks are sure to fly.

Stuffed animals are my sworn enemy. Most people see cute little animal toys. I see dust collectors, space invaders with eyes. So, I ask…How many stuffed animals should you allow your child to keep? How long should you keep these dust mite homes? I mean, try throwing away stuffed animals belonging to an eleven-year-old girl…you will likely have a better chance of getting your hands on the Declaration of Independence!

Like many other mothers, a small wave of anxiety comes over me every time I decide to grab a rake and go into my daughters’ room to clean. She loves little things, erasers, barbie shoes, pieces of paper, and slime, oh the slime, so much slime. I literally have a panic attack thinking about cleaning her room worried I will accidentally throw away the most important thing in her life.

This my friends are times when a professional organizer could come in to help me.

Someone to declutter and clean with my daughter. Someone more effective than her parents. An organizer can help find ways to store stuffed animals and all the little things while guiding her through the keep, donate, trash steps. Sometimes a simple suggestion to donate a toy to someone for next year’s Mardi Gras parade float is all it takes to get it out of your house.  

This is the gift I want to give my daughter. This gift will give her power over her space while teaching her the value in her space. The best part?? It is achieved with the help of a professional not her mother so the eye rolling would be cut at least 50%!

This is also a great gift for a teen. Mom is off their backs and they end up with a clean space to study and work all while feeling in control of the decisions being made leading to a better chance of the space staying organized.

WIN-WIN!

The College Kids are Coming Home for Summer Break

The college kids are coming home for summer break! Did I forget to mention, they are coming back with all of their stuff. Now what?

Sending your kids off to college is the topic of many discussions. There are check lists complete with enough items to furnish a small home. We painstakingly shop for the perfect comforter and sheet set complete with matching accessories. We purchase mattress toppers that once out of their original packing barely fit in a midsize sedan. We research how to hang pictures that leave no marks on dorm walls. We worry about food sending a dorm fridge, microwave oven, and coffee maker. Our children insist on bringing ALL of their clothes to school then throughout the year they add sorority and fraternity t-shirts and formal attire to this clothing collection as well as game day attire.

Yes, all of this is coming back home and if you have several kids in college you can multiply this scenario. (By the way, this is why so many parents quickly agree to the off-campus apartment or house!)

The question is where do you store these items until the next semester. I must admit, one summer I rented a small storage unit. This particular year, my oldest daughter graduated from her undergraduate program in May and had plans to work as a sorority house director during her first year of grad school. She basically needed the same items she needed when moving into her freshman dorm room. My son lived on campus at the university he was attending and my youngest daughter was feverishly collecting items for her first college dorm room. It quickly became apparent that we had a problem as the items collected in our formal dining room.

I used plastic bins labeled for each kid to store their college items. I placed linens in one or two bins, coffee pots, mugs, etc. in a bin, accessories and décor in yet another. Then I took everything to an off-site storage unit. The storage unit might seem extreme but you can rent these by the month. They typically cost around $100 a month for a climate-controlled unit. The sense of calm we all receive from the two hundred dollars spent was well worth it in my book!!

If you have the space, you can store these bins in your kid’s closet, bedroom, or even in the garage. It is important to have your kids go through the stuff they bring home, sort items, and label everything. A lot of unwanted things get packed away in the mass exit after exams, like half eaten pop tarts, dirty coffee mugs, etc. Don’t judge. You know you raised these kids well but when the stress of exam week falls so do the cleaning standards!

HAPPY SUMMER! Enjoy these days as they pass way too quickly.

Use the CHAOS Method™ for Tidying Up the Playroom

Louisiana children have several days off of school this week thanks to the Mardi Gras Holidays and Texas children will be out of school celebrating spring break over the next few weeks. When my children were of school age, we would use these holidays to kick start our spring cleaning saving the warmer summer months for beach trips because who wants to be at the beach in 40-degree weather? Well actually I might…LOL. At any rate, today we are talking about cleaning and organizing the rooms your children use.

Between Christmas, birthdays, and the ever-doting grandparent, it doesn’t take long for toys to take over a home becoming the main décor element. Ask any new parent about their home life and the first thing they will tell you is that their home is overrun with toys.

For years I kick started my spring cleaning over Mardi Gras or Spring Break holidays by decluttering and rethinking our toy situation. Most years it was simply too cold and wet to plan outdoor activities so getting my kids onboard with the interior spring cleaning was relatively easy. Enough time had passed for their Christmas toys to settle in and for the older toys to embrace their new status as either a classic favorite or destiny with the donation pile. By encouraging my children to participate in the process of sorting and purging I taught them the valuable lessons of decluttering, organizing and donating.

Some years we even used this time to redecorate their bedrooms or play spaces which was a fun bonus! This is a huge motivator to adolescent girls ages 9 – 15 whose tastes flip from pink and green to orange and turquoise like a young gymnast learning how to do a back handspring. It’s also a huge motivator for a junior high boy eager to get rid of Thomas the Train décor!

If toys are your home’s main decor theme, stick around to see how our CHAOS Method can help you take control allowing you to take back at least part of your home.

C – Clear, Categorize, Clean

The first step in spring cleaning your children’s play spaces is to gather all the toys into one room. Then sort them into categories. Toys oftentimes fall into these categories:

• Dolls

• Stuffed animals

• Puzzles and games

• Blocks and Legos

• Cars, trains and trucks

If you don’t wish to see the huge pile of toys, which I must mention is quite beneficial in getting your child to understand just how many toys they own, then pick a category like dolls for instance and make a game of gathering every doll in the house. Set a timer to keep your child on track.

H – Helpful or Hurtful

Now that you have gathered and categorized the toys it is time to decide whether the item is helpful or hurtful. We do this through questions like:

• “Do you still play with this toy?”

• “Do you have all of the pieces to play this game?”

• “Is this toy broken?”

• “Have you outgrown this toy?”

I’m sure you can add to this line of questioning.

A - Action

If it’s broken or missing pieces it is ready for the trash pile. If the toy is in good condition but your child has outgrown its usefulness, put it into the donation pile. Discuss how helpful your children are being for freeing up space in your home for new treasurers and how excited some kid will be with this new toy.

We have a saying in our home…”It’s not new but its new to me!” This encouraged our children to embrace the idea of recycling and upcycling.

O - Organize

Evaluate whether your existing storage solutions are working. If not, why? Colorful bins and fun containers can be a motivating source to get your child to put their toys away properly. Scroll down for some examples of how we incorporated storage bins.

S – Simplify

Create age appropriate labels that your child can interpret. Notice I said interpret not read. The goal is to teach your child from an early age that putting their stuff where it belongs is part of playtime. Pictures work well for young children.

The process of decluttering and organizing the playroom can be very overwhelming. It’s important to teach your children the lessons of living an organized life as this will impact them in their schooling and throughout their adult lives.

Please don’t hesitate to call us for help. We have many strategies to get your kids on board with this process. Taking care of your home is a family responsibility and should not weigh heavily on the shoulders of one or two people.