Jennifer Rouse | Posted: Saturday, July 28, 2007 10:00 pm
I think the animals are breeding.
Surely that's the only explanation for the veritable zoo of stuffed animals in my daughters' bedrooms. If we acquire any more animals, we may have to build an ark to hold them all. And that's not even mentioning the Legos, toy cars, pretend food, crayons, books and approximately 200 tiny plastic Happy Meal toys that also call their bedrooms home.
If your house is anything like mine, you know what I'm talking about. Kid clutter has us in its clutches.
But don't worry. You may not be able to get your kids' rooms looking like a Pottery Barn catalog, but after talking with professional organizer Stephanie Haines of Corvallis, comparing notes with fellow moms, and trying a few ideas in my house, I have some tips that can help tame the jungle that is your child's room.
1. Reduce
This might be the toughest step of all, but it's essential. Parents know that with every birthday, Christmas and special event, more toys accumulate. They're all wonderful, but taken together they can create chaos.
"If you have more toys than can fit in the room, then you probably have too much stuff," Haines said. The sheer accumulation of material goods is one of the biggest problems she runs into as an organizer, she said, and the urge to collect affects all ages. Parents can do their kids a favor and teach them to live more simply while they're young.
"Get your kids involved with giving things away to charity," Haines said. "You can talk to them about kids who are less fortunate, who can use this toy more than they can."
Garage sales can be another way to clean out lesser-used toys; kids might be able to sell several old toys and use the money to save up for something new and special.
2. Rotate
This is a strategy that several moms mentioned to me: take a portion of your kids' toys and store them in an out-of-the-way place like the basement, attic, or garage. Once a month or once a season, rotate which toys are in storage and which are out for everyday use. This way, the toys always seem new and exciting, and the kids' rooms aren't crammed with every single item they own.
This has made a big difference in my daughters' rooms. With approximately half their toys stowed away in a Rubbermaid container in the corner of my bedroom, their stuff fits in their toy baskets much more easily. Out of all those toys, my kids have only noticed one of them was gone. I retrieved that particular purple puppy dog from storage, and since then my kids haven't even seemed to miss any of the others.
3. Organize
Half my kids problem is that their toys come in sets: farm animals with the toy farm, tiny plastic pots and pans with the toy kitchen, and so on. But when it comes to clean-up time, we often just scoop everything up, dump it in the two toy boxes in the corner, and call it good. Then when they want to play with something later, they can't find what they're looking for-and they dump out every single thing they own in the process of searching for it.
Kids' stores and department stores are full of stylish, attractive organizers with multiple compartments for different types of toys. One friend of mine swears by the shelf-and-bin system she got at Ikea. Haines had some ideas for even simpler solutions.
"I love those over-the-door shoe organizers," she said. "Those are great for a kids' room. They have lots of clear plastic pockets, and you could put anything small in there." Craft supplies, small cars, or doll clothes are some possible uses she mentioned.
Haines also likes the sweater shelves that can hang from a closet rod-they're cheap, require no tools to install, and they instantly provide more shelf space.
She suggests getting kids involved in making labels for shelves and boxes so that they know where everything goes and it's not just Mom and Dad doing all the organizing. Kids too young to read could draw pictures of cars, dolls, or stuffed animals, so that they know where everything goes.
"You have to make it their own space, or they're not going to want to be a part of it," Haines said.
4. Create routines
Even the nicest set of shelves or toy boxes won't do any good if it doesn't get used. Try setting a aside a certain time of day, such as 10 minutes after dinner, and make that clean-up time. If every single thing doesn't get picked up each day, don't worry about it. If parents and kids both consistently work for a few minutes each day, over time things will start to look better.
5. Set a good example
"You can't expect kids to do it if your bedroom is a war zone, too," Haines said. Most kids don't enjoy tidiness on their own-it's up to parents to teach them how to take care of their possessions. If you find the prospect of cleaning up your own act overwhelming, take it a step at a time; sort through a single drawer one day, toss out two old pairs of shoes another day.
"You've got to be able to pare it down to what you really love and cherish," Haines said. "And when you can find all your stuff and you know where it is, that's a good feeling."
And that's true whether you're 3 years old or 30. With a head full of ideas and hands full of cutely labeled pink storage boxes, my family and I are off to conquer the wilderness of clutter.
Jennifer Rouse is a freelance writer. She lives in Albany with her husband, two daughters, one dog, and about four dozen stuffed animals of various shapes. She can be reached at rousejen@gmail.com.