If your kids and their bedrooms need an organization intervention, then read on.

In this mission we’ll declutter, tidy, and teach the kids some fabulous new habits.

Remember: you only need 30 minutes for the basic mission. Extended Options are below.
If you’re new, you might like to start here -> 52 Organizing Missions.

Get Organized Mission #48:
Organize Your Kids & Their Bedrooms

Before we start, decide whether you want to tackle just one room in this 30 minutes, or if you’d rather spread your time over more than one room.

Depending on how many kids and how many bedrooms you’re working with, you’ll need to adjust the amount of time you spend on each one.

Okay, let’s get started.

Step 1: Declutter Anything They’ve Outgrown (10 mins)

Quickly go through your child’s bedroom, pulling out anything they’ve outgrown – physically or psychologically.

Look for items such as:

• Clothes
• Shoes and boots
• Hats, gloves, etc
• School stuff
• Backpacks
• Books
• Toys
• Games
• DVDs
• Computer games
• Bed linen
• Pictures on walls or shelves
• Things in a color they no longer like
• Anything with bad memories attached
• Pet accessories for deceased pets.

Step 2: Show Them How To Do a Daily Tidy (10 mins)

Now that some of the clutter’s gone, it’s a perfect time to teach kids how to tidy their rooms each day.

Be realistic – you want to make it easy for kids to do it themselves, and do it every day. Keep the target low and you’ll raise the likelihood of success.

Focus your room-cleaning tutorial on simple, basic tasks such as:

• Putting dirty clothes in the laundry hamper (have one in each child’s room to make this easy)
• Putting clean clothes away –
  • Hanging clothes put on hangers
  • Folded clothes folded and put into drawers or on shelves
  • Coats or rain gear hung on hooks
• Putting toys away (have large toy bins to make this easy)
• Clearing things off the floor.

Step 3: Teach Them The ‘OCI-OGO’ Habit (10 mins)

Great – you’ve created some order. But how do you keep things this way?

The answer is to teach your kids the extremely useful habit of OCI-OGO:
One comes in, one goes out.

Every time your kids get a new item of clothing, toy, game, book, DVD, etc – they choose an old one to give away.

Teach your children that this is a wonderful way to keep their rooms neat and their lives organized, and to share with people who don’t have so many nice things.

The younger your kids are when you teach them this invaluable lesson, the easier they’ll find it to avoid the clutter and disorganization habits that burden so many grown ups.

Plus there’s an added benefit – you’ll have to set an example and adopt OCI-OGO too!

Dos & Don’ts

• Don’t get into a fight with the kids over what to get rid of. Focus on the big picture of decluttering (most) outgrown stuff, teaching tidying skills and introducing OCI-OGO.
• Do be prepared to give kids a few friendly reminders over the next week about their daily tidying tasks. It might take a few repetitions before they absorb the habit.

Extended Organizing Mission Options

Want to go beyond this 30-minute organizing mission?

• Do this mission individually with each child. You’ll be able to tailor your decluttering, tidying and OCI-OGO lesson more personally to each one.
• Have something fun planned to follow this mission, so you can reward the kids for their attention and co-operation. A DVD to watch, their fave place for dinner, or some other treat in their preferred currency will make this mission more pleasant for everyone.

Ready, Set, Go!

Remember – move quickly, act fast, don’t overthink.

Start The 30-Minute Timer

Before You Go: Check In!

Please add a comment to say you’ve completed this week’s Get Organized Mission and you’re keeping your commitment.

And see you back here next week!

Get More ‘Me’ Time – With Life & Goal Organizer

Life & Goal Organizer is a 360-degree goal and life organizing
system. Like a personal coach, it helps you take charge of your
goals, plans and life, one step at a time.

By leading you through a system of ready-made action plans –
from home organization and time management to money & finance and family – Life & Goal Organizer provides a motivating way to organize your time, your goals and your life.

Learn about Life & Goal Organizer.

[Image by Andrew Stawarz]

Related posts:

1. Organize Your Laundry [Mission #32]
2. Get Organized Mission #15: Organize Your Kitchen
3. Time Management: How To Simplify Your Home Organization Tasks [Mission #28]