Helping Kids Get Organized

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By Mary Frederick

Many of the things that we learn early on in our lives help to create the good habits that we use throughout life.

An area where this is especially true is organization. If we teach our kids how to be organized, they are sure to stick with it for the long term.

Rather than viewing organization as a task, they can look to it as a helpful tool within their life.

The key is to helping kids get organized, and to help them create habits and a system that they will stick with.

This is obviously dependent upon the ages of your children, but it’s never too early to help them get into the organization habit.

Pick One Project and Show Them How to Attack It

If you hit up your kids with organization for an entire room or something larger in scale, they may tend to get easily frustrated.

Start small. Make them responsible for organizing one item each night such as their puzzles. Have them organize one area of their playroom as a starting point.

The key is to pick one small area or item and then make them responsible for it.

As you teach them what organization means in this capacity, they can learn from your example. They can then apply these lessons and learn to take ownership.

Reward Them for Their Efforts

No matter how seemingly small the area or project is that your child is responsible for, rewards are in order.

This is true at the beginning as you work to get them engaged and interested, as rewards can offer an extra incentive. The rewards don’t have to be large in scale, but rather can be a token to show them that they did a good job and you’re proud of them.

As they progress in their organizational responsibilities, make the rewards a bit larger in scale.

As they take on more and stick with their organization tasks, be sure that they know that this is good behavior and reward them accordingly.

Make Organization a Chore but Make it Enjoyable

The key to teaching kids about organization is to get them to feel a sense of accomplishment out of it.

If they see how nice a room looks after they have organized it, they will be sure to keep with it.

Make their little area their sole responsibility after you’ve taught them what to do, but let them take pride in it through their ownership.

This is what long term habits are made from.

It’s important as a parent to approach organization as something that can help you to keep on top of things rather than a boring chore.

Kids will certainly learn from your example! If you tend to be unorganized, all of your education in this area will be lost.

Additionally if they feel your frustration or lack of interest in the very act of organization, they aren’t going to take your lessons to heart.

Teach them just how much organization can benefit them throughout their lives.

Work with them so that they understand that good organization can carry them through every phase and aspect of their life moving forward.

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