Easy ways to keep your child’s room neat

If your child’s room is always cluttered and untidy, it can become a real eye-sore in your home – and a room that neither you nor them will want to spend time in. As moms, we know there are times when you walk into your child’s room and it looks like a bomb exploded in there but their room shouldn’t look like that all the time! Here are a few ways you can keep your child’s room clean and tidy:    

Get them into the habit of making their own bed

When you walk into your child’s room, the bed is the first thing you’ll notice because it’s the biggest thing in there. When the bed is made, the room already looks neater. You can already teach your child from a young age to put their pillows and soft toys neatly on their bed when they get up in the morning. As they get older, you can move on to teaching them to smooth out the sheet and tuck it in (if it’s not fitted), and put the duvet on the bed.

Invest in storage containers

Great looking storage solutions that have clear labels or simple pictures to help them identify contents can help motivate your child to keep their space organised. Keep things simple by using storage that’s not complicated to access. You can even keep lids off containers if they’re in the way when your little one is trying to find or put toys away.

Ensure everything is in its place

Teach your child that it takes only a few seconds to put something away. So, instead of leaving their books on their bed, for example, teach them to put them in the bookshelf. Finished a drawing or a craft? Put the paper and crafting supplies back in the box or container where they belong.

Out with the old first – before getting the new

If you buy your child a new dress, T-shirt or sweater, encourage her to give one away that she hasn’t worn for a year, or has outgrown. The same goes for toys – encourage them to select and donate another toy in their room to a child that doesn’t have one or a charity when she gets a new one.

Close the circle

Encourage your child to complete the cycle of the task they’re busy with from an early age. So, when you ask them to bath, for example, they need to put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket and hang up their towel, too, to finish the cycle. When it comes to homework, to complete the cycle, they need to get you to sign their homework diary and notices, they need to pack their books away in their bag and put the bag on its “launch pad” (a designated area at the entrance of your home) for the next day – cycle finished.

Donate items your child no longer wants or needs

Pick a spot that you and the kids will use to put things that you no longer use, need or want. It could be a box or a bag in your garage or in a cupboard. This way you are always reminded to keep clutter at bay. When it’s full, take your kids with to drop it off at your local charity. This approach will encourage generosity in your family too.

Encourage daily tidying habits

At the end of the day, go through your home with a basket, collecting everything that’s not in its place, and put it where it belongs. You can teach your kids to do the same – that is, collect their things and put it away where it belongs in their room before jumping into bed at night.