TOYS AND MORE
Here’s how to tackle kids’ zone organization
Ready to get organized? First, look at your child’s room at kid’s-eye level, and you’ll get a new perspective. Their adultsized dressers may have drawers that are too heavy for little hands to open, and closet doors are rarely designed for a child’s height. To help, remove the closet doors as well as lids from all storage containers and toy boxes. Lower the clothes rod to your child’s height. Use kidsized hangers, and get baskets to house socks and underwear.
Let kids participate
Rather than using the bulldozer approach — where Mom or Dad comes through with a big trash bag and indiscriminately cleans up — get the kids involved. Help them survey and divide their things into three categories:
• Use now.
• Want to keep.
• Don’t want anymore.
Try to advise and not control the situation, letting the kids suggest ways to make a place for everything so everything can be in its place.
Hooks
are the way to create a place for all kinds of things that can so easily get lost and forgot-ten at the bottom of a junk drawer — or forever lost in a big pile in the closet. Place the hook at the child’s eye level, complete with a label or picture next to it for what belongs on that hook. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your kids begin to identify a hook and its color with
the item that belongs on it.
Sort and store
Rather than keeping every toy in their rooms, help the kids separate their toys and put some away in “storage” in another part of the house. Every month or two, swap toys in their room for some toys in storage.
Once you know what will stay in your child’s room, it’s time to sort according to colors and like items. Start with the clothes, and then move to the toys and games.
Plastic storage boxes
Clear plastic shoeboxes are great for all the little things like tiny doll clothes, crayons, LE
GOs, CDs and video games. They’re clear, so the kiddos can see what is inside and what is supposed to be in there. They’re also sturdy and just the right size; even when loaded to the top, the kids can lift to take them in and out quite easily.
Large bins with lids removed work the same way. Store picture books upright in a plastic dishpan.
Even preschoolers can flip through to find the book they want without pulling down an entire shelf in the process.
Inexpensive cardboard magazine holders (available at an office supply store) are perfect to keep magazines, comic books and other similarly sized papers
so they’re neatly stored but easily accessible.
Label everything
Once you have everything sorted and stored, start labeling.
There are lots of ways to create labels, and the important thing is that the label means something to the child, regardless of their age.
For little ones, cut out pictures that indicate what goes in this box or container.
For chil-dren who can read, make labels on your computer using big, bold letters that leave no question about what lives on this hook, in this container or on that shelf.
The secret to organizing a
child’s room is to make it at least as easy to put something away as it was to get it out. When you involve your child in the process of organizing and making decisions, you can be sure your child will be more eager to learn and exercise his or her organizational skills to keep it that way.
Go online to EverydayCheapskate.com for links and resources for column. Mary invites questions, comments and tips at EverydayCheapskate.com, “Ask Mary.” This column will answer general questions, but cannot be answered individually.