Makeover Mondays! Organization room by room!

As Salaamu Alaikum and Good Morning Ladies. We are moving on with calming the chaos in our homes through organizing and De-cluttering room by room. When last we meet we talked about starting with making centers for every activity in our home and our first center was our scheduling and planning areas. Insha Allah I pray it was a success for those of you who participated.

                                           Center 2: Children's Room

This center here has a tendency to get completely out of control from time to time so I am going to share a few simple tips for keeping this area tidy, and organized.

TIP #1:
Think Child-Friendly.
To organize a child's room, solutions must fit the child. What exactly does that mean? Well over the years I have learned the hard way that little ones are not quite like us just like they are smaller; then their storage solutions need to be smaller in order for them to be on board with keeping tidy. Sticky dresser drawers are hard for small hands to manage. Folding closet doors pinch fingers and jump their rails when pushed from the bottom. Closet hanging rods are out of reach, and toy boxes house a jumble of mixed and scattered toy parts.
So the solution to this is, if possible remove closet doors all together(I was unable to do this but it is a better solution) , invest in child size hangers, and use floor-level open containers to hold toys, and open plastic baskets to store socks and underwear.




                           

 Tip #2:
Organize Bottom to Top.
Keeping in mind your child's height, start the organizing process from the bottom of the room, and work to the top. Most-used toys and belongings should go on lower shelves, in lower drawers, or on the floor. Higher levels are designated for less-frequently-used possessions.

Tip #3:
Label, Label, Label.

Use a computer printer to make simple graphic labels for young children. Pictures of socks, shirts, dolls or blocks help remind the child where these items belong. This also doubles as a way to teach reading reading skills for little ones by using large-type word labels. Slap labels everywhere: inside and outside of drawers, on shelf edges, on boxes and bookcases and filing cubes. Playing "match the label" can be fun and turns toy pickup into a game.

Tip #4:
Build a Maintenance Routine.
This is it! This is the most important tip. I know you all have seen this or experienced this, you finally get the child's room tidy and organized and showroom ready; then a week later it is a MESS! Here is the simple solution to a what may seem like a complex problem. "Routine", teach your children simple routines for keeping their rooms the way you left them."Morning Pick-up" straightens the comforter, returns the pillow to the bed, fold and puts away pajamas and gets yesterday's clothing to the laundry hamper. Before dressing for bed, "Evening Pick-up" involves putting away the day's toys. Just like they become accustomed to waking up and washing their faces and brushing their teeth in the morning and putting on pajamas and brushing their teeth in the evening. This too will become routine. Make your child a schedule just like yours.The theory is, teach a child good habits and they will follow, teach them bad habits and they will follow. I did/do maintenance of my children's rooms until the age of 4 ( but you are the best jusdge of when your child is ready), and of course their is an exception to every rule and every child. For instance my third child is 9 and he has difficulty concentrating on any one task, so for him I help him with his routine everyday.

Wow, we have completed two centers in our homes, I pray it is easy for you all. Ameen. Until next time on "Make Over Mondays!" Enjoy your path to "Calming the Chaos" in your homes and as always "Enjoy your Day!"