I’m reorganizing kids’ rooms to encourage more child participation in clean up

Several weeks ago I began having weekly cleaning help, a huge change after 34 years of managing the house on my own.

Practically speaking this took some of the cleaning tasks off of my plate, but even more significantly, the increased head space I experienced allowed me to think about other things I could do so my home would run more efficiently.

I began looking at different things in the house and reflecting on what would make it run more smoothly. Now I’m reorganizing the bedrooms so that it’s easier for everyone to clean up after themselves.

My intention is, ‘A place for everything, and everything in its place.’ People can’t clean up if they aren’t clear about where something goes, and I want to make that as easy and obvious as possible.

The closet in the younger boys’ room was spacious and had plenty of shelves, but there were no drawers. I bought this shortly before the twins came, but when I tried keeping clothing for the youngest two boys in baskets on shelves, it didn’t work. Ds8 would dump out every single basket belonging to him and ds9 every morning. After a few weeks of picking up and re-sorting two complete wardrobes every day, I moved their non-hanging clothing items to drawers in dd’s closet.

That worked well for storing clothing so that it didn’t get dumped out. But since the younger boys were getting dressed in a different room than where their clothing was stored, it added another step for them put their clothing away, which made it exponentially less likely to happen.

Unless I stood there and directed them until the clothing was where it was supposed to be – something I didn’t have time for in the morning when they needed to get out to the school van on time, and something I was too tired for at the end of the day – every piece of clothing they took off was left on the floor. Multiply three to four changes of clothing daily, by four children (because ds14 and dd also dropped their clothes on the floor) – it was a lot of mess.

The boys needed a closet in their room that had drawers.

I relocated their closet to the older boys’ room; to make room for it, I gave away the closet that was there. The new closet is larger and will make better use of the space available in their room. I made fabric covered boxes that I sized to fit the shelves, to make storing their items even easier. Similar items can be piled up neatly and to access them, the box is pulled in and out, like a drawer.

They’ll finish organizing their closet when they’re back for summer break, but it’s already a huge improvement in their space.

With the younger boys’ closet out of their room, I was ready to reorganize their bedroom. It was important to me that the closet organization could be easily maintained by children with minimal effort, and I looked closely at various closet configurations before buying.

Their new bedroom set includes a closet with a matching bed that has a second bed that pulls out, as well as built-in storage drawers that span the length of the bed.

The closet has six medium sized drawers, which allows each of the boys two drawers for their undergarments, pajamas, bathing suits, and folded clothing.

It’s an unusual layout, one that has narrower shelves on each side of the drawers, and the small shelves make it easier for the boys to keep organized since there’s just one clothing item on each shelf. I really loved this layout for them.

The three large storage drawers underneath the bed were designated as shoe storage for each boy. This has eliminated the confusion or overwhelm they previously experienced when using the same large shoe drawer, and made mornings much smoother since they can easily find their own shoes.

Getting dressed and undressed just a step from their closet and laundry hamper has made putting away their clothing so much easier.

I’ve also changed where I store their games, so they can access everything easily. Previously, games with many parts were stored on a higher shelf. When the twins came over three years ago and for a long time afterward, the only concept they had of playing was throwing down all the games and everything in them. But now they’ve learned to play some of the games, and this change marks a big move of trusting them to play appropriately without constant supervision.

This is part of setting up our home for success for all of us, and it’s feeling good!

Avivah