December 20, 2013
5 Tips to Raising Tidy Kids
Keeping a child’s room clean is a full time job in itself. When you add cooking meals, cleaning floors, doing laundry, washing dishes, your actual full time job and the rest of your parental duties…it’s basically impossible to keep up.
So what is a mom (or dad) to do? Let the kids take care of their own room! We know this seems…unrealistic at best, but it actually works. With the right set up and the proper tools, your child is more than capable of keeping their room tidy.
How to Set Up Your Child’s Room
Follow these 5 guidelines to create an environment that is easy for your child to manage on their own.
Garden Baskets: Storing your child’s toys in bins and on shelves is not only unappealing to look at, but it isn’t kid friendly. Toys on shelves are out of reach for little ones. Which not only inspires climbing habits to form, but it also means your child is incapable of putting their toys away when they finish playing. Bins clutter up floor space and are typically unorganized. So, what’s the solution? Garden baskets! All of you Pinterest junkies are going to love this DIY project. What you do is simply, purchase a couple rot iron garden baskets (the ones without the grass inside, and with the flat side), put a couple nails in the wall, hang the baskets, and voila! You now have storage space for stuffed animals, building blocks, cars etc. Hang the baskets at an appropriate height for your child to easily access them. This will give your them a place to put their toys when they’re done playing, and you will easily be able to see if the correct toys are in the correct baskets. No more cluttered mess or toys left on the floor.
Hanging Shoe Organizer: Kids love to do art projects. It’s a fact of life. Whether its coloring, painting, gluing things together, or spending an hour cutting a piece of paper into a million pieces, they love it. Art supplies have the tendency to accumulate over time, and fill drawers in your kids room, in the kitchen, in the living room and sometimes even your room. We have found that a quick and easy solution to this problem is hanging a shoe organizer on your child’s wall or somewhere in their room where they can access it. This gives children the freedom to be creative, and also the responsibility of cleaning up after themselves.
Coat Hanger: Hang a coat hanger a little above your child’s height. It is important to hang it a little higher up to prevent your child from potentially poking their eye or bumping their head on the hooks. This will give them their own space to put away their jackets and school bags. No more cluttered mess at the front door or backpacks lying around the house.
Art Display: As we were saying earlier, kids love art. As a result of this infatuation, stacks of art projects tend to accumulate around the house. One way to keep the clutter away is to give your child a place to hang their artwork. Your child will be thrilled that they get to decide what is displayed in their room. A simple DIY art display can be made by placing two adhesive hooks on the wall and stringing a line of ribbon between them. Then add about ten clothes pins and let your child at it.
Kids Closet: Aside from toys, the biggest cause of clutter in a child’s room is clothes. Typically the rod that clothes are hung on is too high for children to use. Add another rod within your child’s reach and stock it with hangers. Also make sure there is a laundry basket in their room for dirty clothes. Now you hanging up their clothes or putting them in the laundry basket can be your kid’s job instead of yours!
Many parents feel bad about having their children cleaning up after themselves. In reality, kids enjoy having a routine and being able to access their toys.
If maintaining the cleanliness of your household has become too much for you to handle, let the staff here at Green Apple help you out. We are trained and highly knowledgeable about home cleanliness and make it our mission to provide you and your family with a healthy environment. Contact us at greenappleclean.ca to schedule your first appointment now!
