It’s springtime! The birds are singing; the kids are playing outside. Daylight Savings Time is here, and we have more time and energy to do different projects around the house. As every parent knows, the first place to dispose of is the kids closet! The kids' closets are usually a place we need to visit regularly since children grow and tend to grow out of their clothes more quickly than us, adults. We hope. =) Here are six steps to organize kids closets.
Determine the amount of time it will take.
Each closet various in size and the amount of time it takes to go through everything in the closet also varies in time. Cleaning out a small closet could take two hours; larger walk-in closets could take up to 6 hours. On average, each closet would take about 4 hours of your time. You can split this time into different days or all in one afternoon. It usually takes a few hours to purge and a few hours to organize.
Get kids involved when they are most awake.
Always include the children when organizing their closet. They not only need to try on clothes from last season, but they also need to see where you are putting the clothes.
Start with these areas and play create a game for each of these areas.
Have a race with mom or dad. How fast can you get all the underwear folded and placed in a drawer? How fast can you gather all the shoes in one area? Run around the house and pick up all the shoes. Now, how about all the pants? Sort them by color quickly. The quicker, the better. The kids will stay focused for short periods of time so to keep them motivated, make games quick and easy.
- Undergarments
- Pants
- Shirts
- Dresses/Skirts
- Sweaters
- Shoes
- Hats
- Hair Accessories
- Jewelry
- Jackets
- Toys (if any)
Go through each of these above sections and get rid each piece of clothing if…
- They are faded.
- They are worn: Anywhere on the garment. Look at the knees of pants, around the collar of shirts/dresses, around the cuffs and liners of jackets.
- They are too small for the child. If they are good condition, donate or give away the garment.
- They are stained. Check the chest area of shirts and the thigh area of pants.
- They shrunk from the dryer. Or if an item that matches the item that shrunk or was damaged, like a pair of pants/dress, and can't be used with anything else.
NOTE: Make a list of the clothing that you need to purchase for each child.
Group the items again!
Then group the items again into the above groups and revisit the things. See if there is anything that is else that can be purged.
Find a new home for each item.
The home could be a drawer, hung on a hanger, or in a bin. Wherever you decide to put the group of articles, make sure all of the items fit in the space with a little bit of extra room for new items.
Well, there you have it. I hope this inspires you to help your kids organize their space in a fun and light way. It doesn't have to be a serious chore. Make it fun, and they will think it is fun! Please leave a comment below to let me know how you get your kids to organize their closet.
