Helping Your Disorganized Child At Home
One thing that drives most parents crazy is when their kids are slobs — when they’re asked to clean up and they only get half of it done. Well, that is how the disorganized brain works. They honestly don’t “see” all the mess, and more importantly, they don’t know where to start most of the time. So instead of yelling at or punishing them for not cleaning correctly, you can help them by creating spaces that reduce clutter and by making smaller tasks out of larger ones.
Bedrooms. A disorganized kid can have the messiest room on the planet. The following tricks are ones we came up with over the years. Each one drastically reduced the amount of yelling and begging I did to have our kids clean their rooms.
Platform Bed: Get or make a platform bed (essentially a bed that has no “under”). Enclose the existing bed frame with wood, or purchase a new platform bed frame. This will close off the area that allows things to get shoved away and out of sight. Walmart, IKEA and others make very affordable ones, and there is nothing wrong with just putting the mattress right on the floor.
Horizontal Surfaces: Next, remove as many horizontal surfaces as possible. Things like desks and shelves seem like a great idea to help a kid get organized, but they tend to just collect junk. If your child needs a space to study or use a computer, keep it simple and avoid knickknacks and other things that don’t serve an actual purpose.
Sort and Store: Have kids help sort out their stuff into a few large piles that make sense to them, then put the piles in bins, boxes or other easy-to-use storage. Label everything, even the drawers with their clothes. Put a piece of clear tape on each drawer and write what is in the drawer. The tape can be easily removed if things are rearranged.
Closet Doors: Remove closet doors and put up a curtain. For some reason, this prevents things from just being shoved in the bottom of the closet. At first, this drove my son crazy, because he couldn’t just shove junk in his closet to clean his room. He has to put things where they belong or they just fall right back out.
Hooks: Use hooks in closets and try not to use too many hangers. It makes putting clothes away so much easier for kids.
Seasonal Stuff: Keep clothes that are out of season stored somewhere else. Remove what isn’t used frequently from kids’ rooms if they aren’t ready to part with it, then store it in plastic bins in another part of the house. If they haven’t looked for it after six to 12 months, help them decide if they want to sell it or donate it to a good cause.
Play/Game Rooms. Same drill. Purge what kids don’t play with. Sort things into groups and store them in bins, boxes or containers. Label everything. Have kids clean up every day before they go to bed. This keeps messes smaller and more manageable. Don’t let toys and things accumulate into huge messes; it’s too overwhelming. But if it does happen, give them a hand. Tell them to pick up all the Legos while you pick up all the action figures. More hands make less work.
Make Lists. Lists are great for things kids need to do on a regular basis, like chores or getting ready for bed or school. Make a simple list for them to reference. Then to make sure they did each step, ask them one by one about each task. Don’t ask, “Did you take care of all your chores?” Be specific. “Did you load the dishwasher? Put your clothes away? Feed the dog?”