Let’s face it. Very few people are born with keen organizational skills. So, as a parent, you can’t expect children—at any age—to shift into full-force HGTV mode when you ask them to clean and organize their bedrooms. In fact, when it comes to tweens and teens, you’ll have to be involved more than you probably expect. Sure, organizing things yourself is faster, but your kids won’t learn a thing unless they’re put to work. This is the age where you need to give them more responsibility over their possessions and the choices they make over the organization of them. This gives them a chance to decide what’s important to them to keep and what they’d rather let go of. Taking the first step is always hardest, so here are some helpful tips for you to give your tweens and teens to get them started:
- Look around. Have them take a good look around their room from the doorway so they get a sense of where to start, what they want to do with their stuff and where they want things to go (and how to store them).
- Turn on the tunes! This will almost always brighten the mood and get one ready to power through a day of organizing. It also makes time go by much faster!
- Gift them a hamper! Kids at this age are old enough to not only put their dirty clothes where they belong, but also begin doing their own laundry, from start to finish. Bring them shopping and let them pick out their own clothes hamper. If they have a say in what goes in their room, they’ll almost always use it proudly.
- Put it away. Have your youths walk around their bedroom and first put all clothing away-dirty clothes in a hamper and clean clothes on a hanger in the closet or folded neatly in a drawer. Pick up all trash and any odds and ends lying around and put them where they belong. This is merely the process of tidying.
- Declutter. Multiple boxes and trash bags are needed for this job. As your kids sort through items they can place their discards in separate bags for trash (items no longer needed or wanted), donation (unwanted items in good condition to pass on to someone else) and storage (items taking up valuable space that can be stored elsewhere). To begin the decluttering process, choose one area on which to focus and dive in.
As your tweens and teens work through their bedrooms, keep in mind that the room itself should be an area where kids can sleep, play and work. So, address and think through adequate study and play space. Here are some suggestions:
- Closet. If you need to, don’t be afraid to take the door off the closet to open the space and provide incentive to place items on hangers instead of throwing them on the floor.
- Shelving. Provide a bookcase or install wall-mounted adjustable shelves that will grow as the needs of your teenager change. Also, you may want to put up some hooks in the closet or around the room to store purses, bags, belts or jewelry.
- Stuffed-Animal Hammock. If your tweens or teens have more than just a few stuffed animals they’re not ready to part with, purchase a hammock that can hang in their room to store the fluffy friends they don’t want cluttering their bed or floor.
- Desk. A desk will be a great place for doing homework, but be sure it has adequate drawer space. The enclosed storage will lessen clutter that can easily creep in and take over. Show your teen how use accordion files for storing things, binder clips or folders for keeping stacks of paper together, and pencil boxes for housing all pens, pencils and markers.
- Containers. Everyone has odds and ends they keep in their bedroom but don’t want lying around. Plastic storage containers work great for holding your teens’ beloved belongings or seasonal items. But be sure to label the containers, because if they get moved around, kids might forget what’s inside!
- Peg or memo boards. These are a must in a tween’s or teen’s bedroom. These can hold important notes, photos or phone numbers right there on the wall!
- Planner. The older your children get, the busier their schedules will become. Teens often juggle homework, extracurricular activities, social activities, volunteering and after-school jobs. A planner is a way to help them stay organized. A good one will usually have a weekly view with columns for each day. You can help your teens write down activities and make a habit of checking it daily and weekly to stay on top of their schedules.
As your teens journey to adulthood, they need to learn how things get done. Your guidance in helping them clean and organize their bedroom into their own sanctuary to treasure teaches them to respect their space. Although there isn’t a magical recipe for keeping your teens engaged in keeping things neat and tidy, your gentle intervention in helping them create spaces they love—without all the clutter—likely will provoke them to keep it much cleaner than before.
Kansas City mom and author Gina Klein is currently going through these steps with her youngest teen daughter, who doesn’t want to get rid of anything cluttering her bedroom.