Organizing Your Child’s Bedroom
Brought to you by Joan Kosmachuk,
Professional Organizer and Personal Life Coach

“What we desire our children to become, we must endeavor to be before them.”
—Andrew Combe

Summertime is the perfect time to re-organize your child’s bedroom. Plan this activity for a day when the children will be stuck indoors and a little bored. Approach it as a fun task designed to create a fresh new personal space for them. Start early so that they can have time left to enjoy their organized rooms at the end of the day. Prepare lunch ahead of time, have plenty of fun snacks and drinks ready for breaks, put on some music and follow these six easy steps to an organized room.

Step # 1. Set up activity zones:
First, you need to arrange the furnishings in the bedroom into clearly defined zones. A separate area for sleeping, grooming/dressing are the basics and then depending on the age of your child, size of the room etc. you may also have a zone for studying, reading, playing, entertaining friends, dress-up, hobbies and crafts, computer, TV or video games etc. The key is to make sure that you have a zone for EVERY activity that takes place in your child’s room on a regular basis. If your children are young, you may opt to do this task without them as it may involve moving heavy furniture. However, be sure to include their preferences as you set up the zones.

Step #2. Gather all the Items belonging to each zone:
Place a box or bin or designate an empty space on the floor next to each zone where you will gather all the items belonging to that zone. (Do NOT start putting stuff away at this stage; it’s important that each group of like items can be seen in its entirety). Take each child’s attention span into consideration so that this remains a fun activity rather than an onerous one.

Start with gathering items from inside the bedroom and when that is done, the kids can go on a treasure hunt to find any additional items for each group from other places in the home (under the couch, in the family room, hallway, stairwell etc.)

Don’t forget a display zone for artwork, awards, trophies etc. and a storage zone for other treasured souvenirs.

Note: If your child has a large volume of clothing or you are behind in your laundry, you may wish to set that zone aside for a separate day. Tips for setting up a dressing zone are found at the end of this article.

Step #3. Time to Purge:
Now that you’ve gathered ALL the like items together, it’s time to look at each group as whole. This is the time to make sure that no single group of items is “excessive” and also that all the items in a specific group are things your children actually use. Check too for broken or damaged items or items you want to repair. This is a great time to spot duplicates as well.

Together, look at each group and decided which items you will keep (things they really use) and which ones you will toss (broken, worn or torn stuff) and which items you will give to others (duplicates, clothes they’ve outgrown, and excess items in any one group).

Step # 4. Give Away:
If at all possible, involve the children in preparing and delivering the items for donation. They may want to write a note or say something in person to the recipients of their donated clothing/toys etc.

Step #5. Creating a place for everything:
Here is the step where we put EVERY group of items in a “home” of its own within an assigned Zone.

To get the best mileage out of shelving, use open storage containers on the shelves to house individual groups of small items. Small plastic pails, shoe boxes, plastic bins, are all good options as long as they will fit on a shelf – some overhang is okay but not so much that the container is in danger of tipping if the contents all slide to the front of the bin/box.

It’s really helpful to label storage units/containers. For younger children use a “large typed/picture label.” This will help children and parents know where to put things back and over time, younger children will develop their sight-reading as they identify the word with the object.

Seasonal items and out-of-season clothing may need to be stored in a less accessible place such as the top shelf of the closet, in under-the-bed storage bins, or in another designated storage area in the house. Make sure to set up your summer storage bins/locations now so that it will be easy to put things away when the kids have returned to school.

Step #6. And everything in its place:
Once the bedroom is completely organized then it’s time to put into place some rules to make sure that everything is put back in its place at the end of the day. Choose rules you are prepared to follow-through on and be sure you give your children ample “tidy up” time before bed. Set them up to succeed.

Good tidying of the bedroom should ALWAYS get rewarded. Whether that’s a weekly allowance, getting to stay up an extra 15 minutes, a special outing at the end of the week or time to play a game with the family. You know what your children value so choose a high value reward to encourage them to keep their rooms organized.
Another reward can be to add decorative touches of your child’s choosing in return for keeping their room tidy. A perfect month of making the bed may earn the new comforter or sheet set they’ve been wanting or a tidy bookshelf may earn a new bedside reading light.

Likewise, if an item is found on the floor after they’ve been asked to tidy up a rule should apply. Perhaps that item goes away in a box and doesn’t get returned until the next time they tidy their room. If the same item is left out several times it may be taken away for a week or a month. This can be a good consequence too for items continuously left in other parts of the house.

TIPS FOR THE DRESSING ZONE:
It is important that you take all your child’s clothing out of drawers, closets, and laundry hampers so you can all see exactly what they have. Sort like with items with like and if you have a large number of any one category sub-sort them according to color or fabric (for example you may choose to separate jogging pants from jeans or dress pants). Also separate out clothes (such as shorts or heavy sweaters) that are only worn in a particular season. Be sure to have a place to store these items when the season is done.

Make sure that all clothes still fit, feel good, and look good. Most of us wear 20% of our wardrobe and kids are no exception. Pass down or pass on any items your child has outgrown. Repair or toss any ripped, stained, or worn items.

• How many clothes does your child need?
• Socks and underwear: a set for each day of the week plus a few extras just in case
• Pajamas – 2-3 pair for each season
• Coats – 1-2 coats for each season
• Pants/skirts –one for each day of the week and 2-3 extras for a “special occasion”
• Tops – twice as many tops as you have bottoms

By keeping your child’s wardrobe to a minimum, it will be easier for both of you to maintain it.

Place the clothes you are keeping into storage units that work for the age of your child. Traditional storage for clothing has included dressers for folded clothing and hangers on rods for clothing that should be hung. However, visual children will need pictures on the drawers or open bins/shelves instead of drawers so they can see where to get/put away their clothes. Younger children find may find it easier to hang clothes on hooks rather than on hangers. In the closet, make sure rods are at the right height for your child to reach and use one single style of hanger. Some children will benefit from a unit that allows you to set out their clothes for each day of the week. Be sure to have a laundry basket or bin in each child’s room where they can deposit dirty clothes.

If you need help organizing your child’s bedroom, consider getting the input of a professional organizer. To hire the services of Joan Kosmachuk, please email your request to info@simpleeffects.com or call 617-784-0707.

If you found the information in this newsletter to be of value to you, please feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues; you'll be helping them organize and simplify their lives.

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