5 Ways to Simplify Your Child’s Clutter

One of the challenges of being a parent to young children is reducing the amount of clutter coming in and out of the house. With school, you have to deal with all the art work, homework and teacher correspondence coming in and out. With indoor and outdoor toys, it’s easy for the amount to accumulate and turn into one big landfill. Don’t get me wrong, art work creation and play is a great way to learn and grow. However, if there’s no system for simplifying the influx of paperwork and toy pileup, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. In some cases, clutter can even lead to depression.

Here are five ways to reduce your child’s clutter.

1. Have designated spaces for your child’s school and paperwork. Have a coat hook or cubby area just for your child’s school bag, coats, shoes and other accessories. This also helps keeps things from getting lost especially during a morning routine. Also have an inbox bin or tray just for your child’s school work. Be ruthless about what to toss and keep. Keep some of the best art work to display, reroute or toss the rest. Find it hard to part with the work? Take a picture and save it to your computer desktop. Or give some artwork to grandparents or aunts and uncles who will appreciate it.

2. Streamline with the 80/20 Rule. According to Kim John Payne’s Simplicity Parenting, the average American child has 150 toys. Have you noticed however that your children tend to play with only 20% of their favorite toys about 80% of the time? I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the Pareto Principle but 80% outcome is caused by 20% effort. Or for clothing, we only use about 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. To keep pileup from occurring, regularly evaluate toys no longer being used. Unused toys can be donated to charity, resold on eBay or Craigslist or regifted if still in an unopened box or in excellent used condition.

3. Rotate toy selection. With the streamlined toys you do have on hand, try to change things up on a regular basis. While I keep my son’s favorites out for him to play with, I also have containers of toys that I keep out of sight in storage. I rotate a small bin of toys in and out about every week to keep things fresh.

4. Keep toys organized. Labeled bins or cubbies are perfect for keeping like toys together, like Legos, blocks, art supplies, costumes, etc. It will make cleaning an easier time too when they know where to place everything once they’re done.

5. Leave the house often. Get outside for some fresh air and new experiences! You could play in the park and have a picnic. Your kid could learn new sports or activities like swimming, ice skating or karate. He or she could do something educational like going to a children’s museum.

Hopefully these five tips should help simplify your child’s environment of physical clutter and provide more emphasis on fun experiences over stuff.