It may seem impossible now but teaching your child to enjoy a clean room may not be as hard as it seems. Children truly do enjoy feeling grown up and by utilizing this feeling you can teach them how to keep a ‘grown-up’ room while still having a ton of fun.
Begin by scouting out your child’s room. Look at their closet space and compare that to the amount of space in the open area of the bedroom. If your child has a large sized closet you may be in luck. If not, don’t fret, you can build an inexpensive organizing cubby-wall that will work just as well (you may have to put in the extra effort to make the cubby-wall look decorative to maintain the appearance of the room).
The general idea is simple, and easy to alter according to the taste and individual needs of your child. You want to create a floor plan that will include a closet-size or semi-wall-size cubby area. Remember the cubby-station in kindergarten? Those neatly placed individual cubbies for each child that were incorporated together to make a cubby-wall. This is what you are shooting for. You will need to make the specifications work with your surface area (closet or one wall of the bedroom) so individualizing the project is a must.
Measure the area you have to work with; width, length, and depth. Head to your local department store and seek out plastic cubby grids with optional fabric drawers, which fit your work area. Assemble the cubbies within your available space; place your child’s belongings in the cubbies directly, or in the optional fabric drawers. This is when you will need to instill the grown-up lessons.
Be sure to inform your child that all of this ‘renovating’ was done especially for them. Be sure to tell them that you made this decision because you know that they are grown-up enough to handle this special arrange that you made. The cubby-holes are there as their “special-space”; they have your full permission to organize their belongings however they wish to organize them, within the cubby space. They have full range to organize their important toys, books, and special items according to their own decision as long as they make the grown-up choice of putting their special things back after they use them. Make sure to reinforce your trust in them, and show that you believe they can do this like a true grown-up. This simple freedom can make a big difference and it is inexpensive enough to give it a shot.
Whew. Just saying the word laundry can create a tired feeling within you. If you are like most people you do laundry one day a week and that day is a very full day.
Is there a way to minimize the time spent, the hours of laboring over the washing machine? Absolutely. Not only is sorting the clothes from whites to dark a good idea but there is a way to make the whole process easier and less nagging.
On your next laundry day begin to implement this process. If you have a large family this will help tremendously. Begin washing and drying your clothes as usual. Go to each family member and find out what outfits they prefer and what articles of clothing go with what other pieces. Once you have matched the outfit ideas to each person move ahead. If you are starting the process with many loads to clean proceed by washing each load and folding them in a temporary way.
If you have small children, six and under, you can be a little more leisurely with the way you group the outfits. Since you choose their outfits for them you can decide on how to group the items. According to the outfits requested by the other family members gather these particular items together into sectioned outfits. Include underwear and a pair of socks with each shirt and pant, or short, combo. This will create an entire outfit.
If you are cleaning one weeks worth of laundry then you will have 6-7 outfits already in front of you for each person. For the parents and older children you will want to arrange the prepared outfits onto hangers or neatly folded piles. This will keep the need for ironing work clothes to a minimum and ward off wrinkles from school clothes. For smaller children you can gather the outfits as stated above, but with less attention to detail, and by simply placing a shirt, pair of socks, and one garment of underwear inside of a pair of pants to roll up into a compact outfit. This keeps clothing your younger children almost effortless when it comes time to prepare them for the day.
Using this prepared outfit plan you will eventually have each outfit laid out for each person. If there are multiple ways to wear one shirt or pair of pants then be creative when laying out those items. This will help save you time and patience.
There is a paradise city where elves and leprechauns come in the midst of the night and clean the dishes, vacuum the floors, and dust the armoire. But we live in the land of the chore-list. When families become swamped, and Mother’s go into overload, we devise plans to create a balanced way to ensure that the house stays clean and Mom’s stay sane.
The land of the ultimate chore list is a land of cleanliness and organization. By devising a single, master plan your life can become that of simplicity. Begin with the main chores of the household. Dishes (daily), bed making, vacuuming, mopping/sweeping, laundry, etc. Make a preliminary list and divide the ‘main’ chores from the ‘secondary’ chores. Then divide those chores into daily, weekly, and monthly categories. You may even want to add a section for yearly chores such as cleaning the gutters, or organizing the hallway closet.
Once you have the household chores divided into specific sections you will want to organize the chores into responsibility and capability sections. This is when you decide who in the house is old enough, responsible enough, and reliable enough to perform the different duties. Determine whether it is an adult chore, teenage chore, or a possible child’s chore. Make a list of what each person absolutely hates and work with compromise. The chore’s that will be set toward the individuals (such as making your own bed) will be divided into personal sections. When it comes to laundry you will make a personal decision as to who is responsible enough to wash their own laundry, or if you will rotate the duty all together.
The point is to make the duties easier on everyone. Especially mom. The point of the chore list is to promote compromise and equality throughout the home. Make it a point to focus on the list for a few days. Take the time to talk about it. Don’t let one person assign all of the chores. You will want to spend a week or so developing the perfect plan and then as children begin growing or you begin feeling more confident in one person’s capabilities then you may add more to their list. If an older child is taking up more chores than younger children, then you may want to allow for an allowance for that child.
Sit down together, make some snacks, and enjoy the time together even if it is to develop a chore list. This will instill within the family a sense of togetherness.
The most seemingly difficult task to most and yet the simplest concept for others; organization. More specifically home organization. With a family of 7, two parents, three kids, and two pets, how does one keep the whole house in a freshly swept appeal? Even if the family size is smaller or maybe even larger this is possible through simplistic ideals, small routine changes, and a firm belief in “We Can Do It!”.
The number one problem wit the task of home organization is the pitfalls that come from a lack of drive. Slacking off. Beginning a project with no follow-through. Not only is it a bad concept that helps you get no where but the children see this act of falling off the proverbial horse and see it as an example. We must be here to show our kids how to follow through on our goals.
The task begins with small changes. And it is suggested that when you begin to undertake such a task be sure that everyone will have enough time to pitch in. During the summer seems to be the best time. The kids are available as helping hands and the animals can enjoy some time outside while you work. In this process lists are your best friend. You will want a small, ninety-eight cent, notebook named “Spring Cleaning” available at your disposal. Begin with one corner, one designated area, a focal point. The worst thing to do is have everyone attack separate areas at one time. You will only end up with an even bigger mess and a complete loss of motivation. Find a hallway closet or a specific corner to begin in, start small. Have at least fifteen file boxes, with lids, and one giant permanent marker ready to begin. You will need a box for “Must Keep’s”, “Unsure”, and “Definitely Must Go’s”. These preliminary boxes will be broken down into categories once the initial area is cleaned to your highest standards. This way you have cleared the clutter, allowed yourself to reach surfaces for cleaning, and semi-categorized the objects from that area.
Do not attempt to organize the Must Keep’s and Unsure items yet. You will need to keep moving around the room, pace yourself, but set a goal of one room per week, or one area per day. When you have generalized the objects that are in each area to the three categories and you feel comfortable with the cleanliness of the rooms, then move on. Always have an ‘Unsure’ and ‘Definitely Must Go’ box available for the main sorting. Label the other boxes into specific categories and go from there. To be truly organized everything must have a place.