10 Steps to Train Your Family, including Kids, to Become Organized

10 Steps to Train Your Entire Household, including Your Children, to Become Better Organized

Training your entire household to become better organized takes time, patience, and consistency. Involving children in home organizing projects can be a great way to teach them valuable skills and foster a sense of responsibility, while also getting the house in order. Here are some ideas to help get you started: 

1. Set clear expectations: Discuss with everyone in the household what being organized means and set specific goals for each room or area. Explain how being organized can improve everyone's quality of life and make tasks like finding things, cleaning, and doing laundry easier. Provide real examples for your children, like putting all the Legos in this box will make sure you never lose any and you can finish all your projects. 
2. Involve everyone in the process: Make sure everyone has a role in the organizing process, especially your children. Assign age-appropriate tasks and make it clear that everyone's contribution is important. Depending on the age of your children, they can help with different aspects of the organizing process. For example, younger children can help with sorting, while older children can assist with more complex tasks like decluttering and reorganizing. 
3. Create a chore chart for your children: Make a list of tasks that your children can help with, such as putting away their toys, making their beds, or wiping down surfaces, and assign them a day or week. Use a colorful chart or stickers to track their progress. Here are some free chore charts.
4. Let your children choose their own storage solutions: Give children the opportunity to pick out their own storage containers, baskets, or boxes for their toys, clothes, or other belongings. This will make the organizing process more fun and personal for them. 
5. Make it a game: Turn the organizing process into a competition by seeing who can clean and organize their room the fastest or who can come up with the most creative storage solutions. 
6. Have a fun cleanup day: Set aside a day to focus solely on organizing and cleaning the house and make it a fun event for the whole family. Play music, have snacks, and take breaks to celebrate your progress. Gummy bears are a reward that everyone in your house will enjoy.
7. Create systems and routines: Establish systems and routines for common tasks like putting things away, cleaning, and laundry. Make sure everyone understands and follows the systems and routines. 
8. Use labeling and signage: Label storage containers and drawers, and put up signs to help everyone understand where things belong. This can make it easier for your children to put things away and find what they need. Here's my favorite Label Maker.
9. Encourage regular maintenance: Make it a habit to regularly clean and declutter. Encourage everyone in the household to take responsibility for maintaining the systems and routines, and to help keep the house organized. 
10. Lead by example: Children learn by example, so it's important that everyone in the household, including yourself, follow the systems and routines and maintain a tidy and organized home. 

Becoming more organized is a process and it may take some time to see results. Stay patient, persistent and reinforce the benefits of being organized. Make the process fun and engaging for your children, so that they develop a positive attitude towards organizing and maintaining a clean and orderly home. Over time, it will become a habit and everyone in the household will be on board.