So how do you begin the process of organizing all of your child’s things, whether it’s their beloved Pokémon card collection or their handmade works of art? Barahona offers practical ways to organize what you have and decide what to keep or let go.
🚪Create “active” and “storage” spaces to reduce clutter: ““Active” spaces are high-traffic areas of a room that should contain only things you use regularly, says Barahona. An entryway closet, for example, doesn’t need to be full of snow jackets in the summer. Keep them in a separate storage space, such as an under-bed drawer, until you’re ready to move them back into the closet.
🎯 Use clear, shallow containers to help younger children spot the toys they want. If you want your daughter to stop throwing every item she owns on the living room floor to find that special item, this type of storage is the way to go, says Barahona. Visible toys make less mess.
🌀Rotate toys in and out of play spaces. It can reduce visual clutter and give children more space to concentrate by reducing overstimulation caused by excessive choices. Be careful, though: Maintaining a regular toy rotation schedule can require a lot of extra effort and planning on the part of parents, says Barahona.
💗 Reframe the purpose of your family’s donation pile. You’re not losing anything: you’re “sharing the love,” says Barahona. It’s just a small semantic change, but it helps your family imagine the future purpose of an item. “Should this jacket spend the next 30 years in this box or should it be on the body of another child who needs it?”
🚩 Be careful with ordering after ordering. The goal of decluttering should be to live more simply, not leave room for more things, Barahona says. Before you buy something new, whether it’s storage containers or toys, pause to consider your motivation: is it a true need, a replacement, or just a personal desire? If it is the latter, try to look for alternatives that can satisfy that same need without accumulating more things. For example, could you share a new experience with your child instead of buying him that toy?
📉 Scale down to help kids feel more responsible. If your child constantly leaves a tornado of toys everywhere he goes, he may have too many, he may be too small to handle them, or both, Barahona says. If he loves Pokémon cards, for example, you can ask him to choose his 20 best to keep in a hot drawer. Put the rest in storage until he can prove to you that he’s capable of handling that first game.
📦 You don’t have to stay all that childish art. Yes, every finger-painted frame is a masterpiece, but there’s plenty of room for keepsakes in any family closet. At home, Barahona has exactly one box to store his two children’s works of art. Every time it fills up, go through everything to see what still has meaning and what is left blank.
“Some things on the box make me think, ‘What is this? Who made this?'” says Barahona. If you don’t know, “I certainly won’t remember why I saved them in 30 years.”
Your turn: How do you manage your children’s things?
Tell us your best organization tricks (and feel free to share photos!). Send us an email to kitdevida@npr.org with the subject “Children’s Things”. We can present your story in NPR.org.
Illustrations inked and colored by NPR’s Malaka Gharib
This story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual editor is CJ Riculan. We would love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.
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