Organizing your home is a task in itself but getting your kids involved is an even bigger task – in fact, some may say that it is impossible. Fortunately, there are ways to get your home organized WITH the help of your children and they will enjoy it too. Check out some of our tips to help get your kids involved in home organization.
Break Down the Tasks
You do not want to overwhelm your child when it comes to organizing the home because if you do, they will not want to do it. The best way to approach home organization for kids is to break the tasks down for them. This means that you will need to break down the tasks into smaller tasks that they can easily understand and do.
For example, the main task may be to organize your room. From there, you want to create several steps or tasks for them to do such as 1) make your bed, 2) pick up your toys, 3) fold your clothes, and so on. The more you break the tasks down, the more your child will feel like they accomplished and the more they feel accomplished, the more they will do.
Make it Fun
Who wants to organize a home in a boring manner? No one. After all, isn’t that why you hate doing it too? If you want your children to become involved, you need to make it fun for them. The best way to do this is to turn it into a game and offer some type of prize at the end. For instance, you could create a race to fold the most clothes and whoever wins gets an ice cream cone for dessert. There are many ways you can make it fun for them.
Listen to Their Input
You like to be heard and so does your child. Before you just ignore them and tell them where everything goes, let them have a moment to share their thoughts. For instance, you may be tempted to tell your child to put their toys in a specific bucket, but they may want to store them somewhere else. By allowing your child to have a say in where things go, they will take pride in it and they will be more likely to follow through with it.
Create a Daily Routine
A daily routine is needed to get your child in the habit of organizing and keeping it that way. While you do not have to do a big organizational cleanup each day, you should make sure that your child is at least picking up his or her things daily and putting items that are on the floor away. The more that your child does each day, the less they will end up having to do as their area will remain organized and free from clutter.
Get the Kids Involved and Have Fun
Getting your child to help organize the home and keep it that way can be challenging but by making it fun, you will find that they are more involved and more willing to not only help but keep the home organized too.