How to Teach your Child to Tidy his Room while Having Fun?
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In many homes, the word “mess” and “kid’s room” or “mess” and “playroom” go hand in hand. With all of its toys, clothes, books, and activities 🎾, we all know that kids' bedrooms can quickly turn into a war zone if things aren't organized and decluttered on a regular enough basis. Especially since a certain little guy or a certain little girl never seems to want to keep their things tidy.
Clothes can outgrow within months, especially for younger children, and toy preferences seem to change overnight. It can be hard to keep up! Is all hope lost? Absolutely not. Discover some tips and ideas to involve your child in tidying up their room with a big smile and keep it tidy without having to repeat it every week.
Ready to organize and get rid of the clutter in your child's room?
1) Why should your child enjoy a clutter-free bedroom?
Getting your child used to keeping their room tidy doesn't just benefit you, your child will also benefit greatly. Here are 10 reasons why your child should enjoy keeping their room tidy while having fun:
- Less stress 🙂
- Fewer lost items
- Less cleaning required
- Children become more creative
- Children are less distracted when playing
- Children are not overwhelmed by objects
- Children form a habit that will last a lifetime
- Children become more grateful and more careful with their objects
- Children look better as stained or ill-fitting clothes are sorted
- Thanks to these simple measures, your child's room will be more airy, cleaner and even more relaxing for him.
2) Involve your Children from the Start in Tidying up
It is very important to work with your child, not around him. Children as young as 3 years old already really want to participate, and they are very enthusiastic 😃 at the idea of being involved . You might think your child would be bored or frustrated talking about tidying their room, but consider it from their perspective: You're just talking about their toys and giving them lots of attention!
Plus, if kids are involved in organizing, they'll feel responsible for the project and more likely to keep things in order — or, at the very least, they'll know where everything should go. It is therefore essential to involve your child in tidying their room to teach them initially but also to give them a great responsibility: keeping their room tidy! Especially since tidying your room doesn't have to be long and boring, it can also be fun.
3) Steps to Teaching Your Child to Tidy Their Room
A- Sort Toys with your Child
Many games for young children involve the concept of sorting and matching similar objects. Apply this same technique to the clutter in his room. You can organize toys by sorting 🗃 everything into the following categories (feel free to change them depending on what needs to be stored):
- Toys he loves to play with
- Toys he no longer plays with these days
- A trash bag for trash and broken toys that cannot be repaired
- Dirty clothes to wash
Having to sort through the mess in your child's room will encourage them even more to participate. By involving children, you will help them learn how to declutter for themselves, make those decisions, get rid of unnecessary items, and prepare for the eventuality that they have their own home to manage. When you're sorting through their stuff, letting them make decisions also helps ensure you keep the good things or get rid of the ones they don't care about.
It can be traumatic for them, and for you, if you accidentally get rid of something the child really loved and didn't want to part with, like a stuffed animal or other toy. By letting him choose the toys he prefers, you will also surely be surprised 😳 by the toys he keeps and learn new things about him.
Now that you have a clear picture of everything in your child's room, place those items in the appropriate bins with your child and store the bins where they belong, such as in the garage, basement or closet for toys to store, the washing machine for dirty clothes...
You can now periodically rotate the stored toys with the ones you left in his room. You know those rainy Saturday mornings when you have nothing planned and your kids are driving you crazy? Now is a good time to pull some toys out of storage. To avoid finding a permanent mess, when you take out stored toys, you must put other toys back into storage with your child.
While you're sorting through toys, keep an eye out for toys that your child has abandoned or no longer uses. Then you can consider donating 🎁 these toys and removing them completely from your child's room and storage room.
B- Learn to make your bed
Once your child's bed is no longer buried by tons of toys and clothes, you can teach him to make his bed by putting the sheets, the duvet and his pillow nicely then you can ask him to put his stuffed animals as he wishes on his bed. He will feel at home and proud to have a little extra responsibility.
Then you can teach your child to make their bed every morning . This makes entering his room more pleasant for you and for him too. Your child will then be able to start their day with a little intention. At first it can be a little difficult, but after two weeks, if your child does it correctly, this morning intention will turn into a quick and simple habit that allows you to start the day even more pleasantly!
C- Store and Fold Clothes
Teach your child to simply fold their clothes 👕 and then put them away in their closet or wardrobe. So, it's always more pleasant to choose the clothes you want to wear when they are well stored and that prevents them from being used as a mop on the floor.
D- Put away the toys that remain in the room
Now that the room is already less cluttered, it's time to take back the bin with the toys he always plays with and put them away on the shelves, or the furniture made specifically for that. To motivate and involve your child even more in the storage of his room, having storage that is accessible to him is a good idea.
For example, a bed with drawers, wall boxes, a small library or even small pieces of furniture or boxes to be placed in the corners of the room do the trick perfectly. If you lack ideas, you can discover more than 60 examples and types of storage suitable for children .
Let's return to our toy box. You can see with your child where to put their toys, assigning them a “house” to make things more playful is a good example, so your child will be more involved in keeping their room tidy and putting their toys back in their “house” afterwards. having fun with them.
To store them, you can put all toys of the same type in a special box on a shelf with a label 🏷, drawing or number on it. For example, all the books together, all the little car-trucks together, the puzzles together... It's up to your child to get their creativity going.
E- Remove Dust from Shelves
Running a microfiber cloth or duster over the shelves can be another thing to teach your child. Obviously, if you show him how to do it, just do it with a duster or cloth, without sprays or chemicals. This is not necessary and dangerous for his health and yours too.
F- Vacuuming with your Child
And there you have it, the room is tidy, the shelves are clean, the bed too and the floor is clear, all that's left to do is clean it. If your child is a little young, you can help him , but he will probably want to do it alone like a grown-up! Don't forget to vacuum under the bed, between the shelves, in short where the dust likes to nestle.
4) Tidying up your room while having fun
A- Play some loud music!
To prevent tidying up his room from becoming a constraint or being experienced as a punishment by your child, transforming this moment into a playful and fun moment is important. You can ask your child what music 🎶 catchy and rhythmic he wants to put on and then get to work dancing and singing! If cleaning is a fun time, your child will surely enjoy doing it with you.
B- Give your child's toys a home
Children have a natural ability to personify things . One thing we heard it all growing up was, "Put that away," which is pretty boring and doesn't make you want to get too busy. Instead, try asking him: “Can we put this toy where he lives (in his home)?” This clever modification of the language gives a playful image of the task to be accomplished.
So you can make storage easier by putting the stuffed animals in one toy box, the Legos in the other and the Playmobils also in their own crate. Your child will be able to have fun putting each toy in the right storage box . On each box , you can with your child cut out pictures of each type of toy or object and stick them on the front of the box . The pictures will help children who cannot yet read identify the locations of objects.
C- Count to 10
Here's an easy fact to remember: games 🧩 are fun ! So when things get dirty (as they always do), make cleaning up a game.
Ask your child, for example, how far he can count and to pick up as many toys as he can count, or even to count backwards and pick up as many objects as possible and then let them rest in their "house". " (box). It makes the task less onerous and encourages you to talk out loud about the destination of the objects, which can reinforce the habit for you and your children.
D- Compete to tidy your room
A very effective technique when you have to put away toys together, quickly and while having fun: racing . For example, “The first person to finish putting all the puzzle pieces in their box wins 1 point!”
During the first game, let your child win 🏆, especially if his sore loser side sometimes wins. Then you can do as many games as there are things to put away . After the puzzle pieces, it could be the little cars to put in the blue bin, the stuffed animals in the transparent…
5) Teach your child to keep their room tidy
A- Set an example
One of the less funny solutions for parents is to lead by example! If your child sees every day the person or people he admires the most not putting things away, putting things off and doing the opposite of what he is asked to do, there is a good chance that he will do the same. Children are the mirror image of what their parents do .
It is therefore important if you want your child to keep his room tidy, that you also put your things away, whether in your room but also in your house in general, such as in the living room, the kitchen, etc. This action has a huge impact on your child , and if you have also managed to show him that you can have fun tidying up, then you have won everything.
Even a small gesture like putting away the keys 🔑 or your belongings when you arrive home is a good thing. Of course, all of the fun tidying up ideas above work for adults too, so if you don't like tidying up or haven't got into the habit yet, you can start practicing them with your child today. 'today!
B- Establish Rules
It is important that you establish a habit with your child to keep his room tidy without being too strict and disgusting him with this task. You can ask him to put his toys away after he's finished playing with them.
For example, after playing with the Legos, if he wants to get out of the toy cars and stop playing with the Legos, he can put them away. You can also let him choose the technique he prefers. Tidy up as soon as he has finished using his toys or put everything away at the end of the day , but he can be discouraged more quickly when faced with the task at hand!
C- Establish a Tidying Up Routine
The key to eliminating clutter in your child's room is to stick to it daily 📆 . As we saw previously, it can be putting away your toys after playing and every evening putting away the things that remain a mess in your room while having fun and thus becoming a rather joyful habit. This habit can also be used to clean and keep any room in your home tidy.
If you want to do it differently, at the end of each day, you can also set a five-minute timer and help your kids put everything they've been playing with back in the appropriate place. When they grow up, you can have your kids do it while you watch them. When your children no longer have toys, the habits you helped them form will continue in their bedroom and, ultimately, their home.
D- Don't Buy Items You Don't Really Need
Whether for the planet or to keep your child's room tidy and your home in general, consume less and consume quality products. Children often have too many toys , which they hardly use in the end.
So you can sort toys with your child 👧 , then give him only the toys he really wants. In addition to keeping his room less cluttered, it allows him to be more focused and less distracted by the things around him.
If you have no other ideas for giving him a gift for Christmas or his birthday, you can always give him great experiences that he will remember longer than a simple toy. For example, a day with a keeper in a zoo for animal fans, a trip, an outing to an amusement park, a bike or motorbike to practice an activity even at a high level afterwards..., in short let speak your imagination and the tastes of your child.
6) Assessment: How to Organize your Room while Having Fun?
Tidying up your room doesn't have to be a boring task that kids don't want to do. Here are some tips for teaching your child how to tidy up their room while having fun :
- Have suitable storage with an image or drawing on each box
- Give toys a place
- Play loud music
- Dance, sing and laugh
- Set up a routine
- Count to 10
- Set rules
- Race 🏃♀️
Now that you know how to teach your children to tidy their room while having fun, all you have to do is put these techniques into practice and add your little touch and modify them over time with experience. In the meantime, if your child likes to have stuffed animals on his bed, you can discover our stuffed animals 🧸. Take advantage of it, delivery is free in mainland France!
Do you already have techniques and tips to motivate your child to keep their room tidy with a smile?
Share them with us in the comments 🖥 , we love to hear your awesome ideas!
