If you are tired of constantly cleaning up your children’s messes, the solution is simple – teach your children to clean up after themselves. When children clean and organize their belongings by themselves, you’ll get more free time to do the things you want to do.
Keep in mind like most of us, they are not usually motivated to organize on their own. You will have to motivate them by making it fun. Here are five ways to make organizing fun for your kids:
Reduce Excess Clutter
If your children’s rooms are stuffed with toys, books, clothes and games, your children may be too overwhelmed by the mess to even know where to begin. 
Remove some of the excess in order to make the job more manageable and less intimidating for small children. You can store rarely used belongings in a place like Extra Space Storage in Elk Grove, California, sell them in a garage sale or donate them to Goodwill.
Find an Organizational System that Works for Your Family
There are plenty of storage options available, but not all of them will work well for every family. Find the one that works best for you. You may consider storing toys in large tubs, on shelves, or in toy boxes. You may store books on a bookshelf, in a box, or in rain gutter shelves attached to the wall.
Make it a Game
Turn organizing into a game, and your children will be excited to help out. You can have races to see who can pick up their toys first, or you can have contests to see who can pick up the most toys. You can toss toys in bins in silly ways, or you can pretend the toys are going to sleep for the night. Consider your children’s personalities and interests and get creative.
Make it a Habit
When cleaning and organizing are used as punishments, they quickly begin to feel like punishments. Instead of teaching your children that cleaning is a task for naughty boys and girls, make tidying up a part of your everyday routine.
Adopt the motto: “In our family, everyone helps.” Then, organizing will become second nature and they will do it automatically without a fight.
From the time they are very young, children are capable of helping to organize their own toys; most parents simply do not expect them to. Set your expectations high from the very beginning. You will enjoy the extra time in your day, and your children will be happy to help.
The author, Savannah Coulsen, is a freelance writer. She lives in Long Beach, California. Savannah loves to read and write and she hopes to write a novel someday. Savannah also loves learning and is a self-proclaimed health guru.
