Wondering how to get kids organized?  Are you dealing with a messy kids room, wondering how to avoid a lifetime of disorganization? How do you get toddlers and children on board with getting and staying organized? 

Even babies take in their surroundings at all times.  Everything they see is a new experience.  Therefore it's important to be mindful when deciding what to surround them with. If they are inundated with nothing but visual stimulation they are often times fussy and hard to calm.  Just like adults, when a child's environment has too many things, it can become overwhelming. 

Now with toddlers it becomes even more important to start the early steps of organizing. A child may instinctively knows how to play with a toy, yet knowing how to put it back is a completely different matter. When the child is overwhelmed with options, it's easy for them to get distracted from one toy to the next, leaving a mess on the floor.  

As the parent it is your job to maintain the flow of toys your child has available. Keep out only 4-5 toys at a time. Make sure each toy has a home the child can easily get to. If they take care of these few items then add 2 more at the end of five days. If they have a hard time managing 4-5 toys, but want one that is out of reach, then have them give up 1 for a few days in trade. If your child wants a new toy at a store discuss with them which 2 toys they will donate to make room.
 
Getting organized should always be fun. If your child is having a hard time putting their things away, it might be because they don’t remember where it goes. One idea for organizing kids toys is to put pictures on baskets, tubs, or boxes. This will give them a visual que to know where everything belongs.  

If you're saying to yourself that you would have to take 100 pictures to organize everything your child owns, then you child has too much stuff.  Take a step back and realize if it's too much for you to handle, then it's definitely too much for them. Sounds like now is the perfect time to discuss the fine art of de cluttering. 

A great way to get a child excited about the idea of letting their unused/unwanted toys go is by creating a fun themed kids room. If the toy does not fit the theme then out it goes. The theme can be as simple as a pink fairy room or green forest. Yet some whimsical room decorating ideas for kids might be ponies in space, trains in the sky, or deep sea princess explorers. Now take your child to drop off all their discarded toys to a donation center. Families whom de clutter and donate together stay organized together. 

Now that you’ve de cluttered your child's room it's time to make organizing fun!  Making it fun and less of a chore will allow you and your child to enjoy organizing together. Turn it into a game. Who can find where the toys go the fastest?  How quickly can you match the toy to the picture? Make it a nightly ritual before bed.
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Moving out of their room and into the house with organization starts with small chores. Their job can be to line up everyone's shoes at the door, or to help sort socks.  Starting simple when your child is young will make a world of difference when they are older (teens).  Even if a child has a messy room, that doesn’t mean they are unorganized if it can be whipped into shape in under 15 mins. 

Taking the time to teach the skills to be organized will make a difference in your child's life.  If you struggle with getting organized yourself just remember one thing, you might just need a little help too. So don't be afraid ask for help from a friend, family member, or professional organizer today.

In the battle against creating a clutter free home, one of the biggest challenges is shopping. From now on, shop with a purpose. Just like weight loss. If you leave the junk food at the store, it is allot easier to fight off those five pounds the next time you get a craving.  A shopping addiction can lead to a cluttered home and an empty wallet. 

Buy only what you need, not what you are desiring. If you didn't need an item before you entered a store, leave it where it lays. If you need one thing from the store, only bring home that one item. If you go to the store and pick up 10 more unneeded things, then you have just officially fed the clutter monster a turkey diner. 

  When you go shopping ask yourself the following questions: 

• Do I need this? 
• Where will it live? 

• Do I love it? 
• Is this what I am here for?

Just because it's cheap doesn’t mean it's a good bargain. Don't let most "bargains" add to your problems. Stop and ask the previous questions. If you can't answer all of them (honestly), then leave it on the shelf. It's ok another bargain will be around the corner, when you need it.

Everything in your home takes up personal space. Everything you own has energy and mass. If your drawers, cabinets, closets, and dressers are filled to the brim, where will new items fit and function?  A good rule of thumb for every new item in take 3-5 old items out. Here is a good tidbit, not all the items out have to be the same. Buy a new shirt, then get rid of a salt shaker, flower pot and book.

Maintaining an organized space will become easier once you realize half the battle starts with how you acquire and release items in your home. Release as easily as you acquire, and learn to acquire only what you need by shopping with a purpose. So next time you shop online or in a store, think about how it will fit, function, and flow into your life. 

You’ve had it, you're ready to declutter your home. You want it done now! But, your home didn’t become overwhelming and out of control overnight. If cleaning and organizing hasn’t made it onto your radar for a year, or five, you can't expect to live in an organized home in a week. That’s unrealistic. So what do you do?

First off some of us have never been taught how to get organized. Most of us are raised only knowing one way to go about things, which turn into hard habits to break. Trying to change a habit instilled in us from childhood takes time. Remember you are learning something new. Change is never easy, quick, or accomplished without effort.

If you've always struggled with staying organized, a wave from the Organizational Fairy Godmother, would be nice. Unfortunately, magic wands are only in fairy tales. So, it would be silly to expect in just one day everything would magically "become organized." It's going to take time, effort, and a willingness to learn how to organize your life. New good habits need to be practiced everyday. Otherwise, it's very easy to fall back into old bad habits.

We are quite used to beating ourselves up for everything we haven't accomplished that we forget to applaud ourselves for all the things we have done. If you get off track don’t just give up and crash. Refocus and remember where you are going.

Little daily efforts add up to big transformations. Put one foot in front of the other, nothing great has been achieved overnight. Rome was not built in a day. Personal transformations happen over time. Pat yourself on the back when you’ve been doing something right.
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It may be daunting at first to declutter your home but if you start with small steps and goals a happy, healthy home is within your reach. Give yourself time to learn how to be organized. Living a simple life is a challenging thing. Just like losing weight or learning a new language it takes focus and energy. Don’t give up because if you continue to fight the battle it's only a matter of time before you conquer the clutter.  ​