Tidy-Up Tips for Your Children's Bedrooms

One of the biggest problems in any home with children living in it is tidiness. No matter how old or young your children are, unless they are super organized or have no possessions, you will always find at some point that their bedrooms are a terrible mess. And unless you have live-in help or you are always on hand to pick up after them, it can be a tough battle to teach them how to keep their rooms in order. Often, working moms find this especially difficult because after a day at the office no one has time or energy to get into battles with the kids about tidying up.

How to instill good organizational habits and neatness into our children is a psychological treatise in itself. However, the good news is that many kids do outgrow their messiness by a certain point and start to take pride in their bedrooms. But before we get to that point, there are certain ways to help them by designing their bedrooms in a more user-friendly style. Here are some ideas:

• If you have more than one child sleeping in the room, don't get twin beds. Either buy bunk beds, or if your kids hate sleeping that way or you are concerned in case the child on the top bunk would fall off, you can buy foldaway beds that can be put away, one on top of the other, when they are not in use. Apart from teaching the child to be tidy, this is also a great option if the bedroom is not very large.
• Put a hamper inside the bedroom for dirty laundry. Even if the hamper is only a few feet away from the child's bedroom door, many kids are too lazy to simply pick up their used clothing and carry it outside. But if the hamper is inside the room, the child will form better habits and dispose of their soiled clothing immediately.
• Use flooring materials that are easy to clean, such as area rugs, which can be picked up and shampooed. Don't use hard floors if young children sleep in the room. They need something soft in case they fall, so stone is not a good idea. But a vinyl floor, carpet tiles, or any other kind of carpet flooring are usually very convenient and easy.
• Make sure that there is a home for all of your child's possessions - a toy box, bookshelves, and adequate cupboards and drawers for clothing. If this is too much of a problem, weed through their things, and you will probably be surprised how much you can throw out - broken toys, ripped books, and stained or torn clothing.
• Label the cupboards or put stickers on them to remind your child what should go where.
• Each child should have his own personal drawer or shelf to keep his own things.
• Teach your child how to take pride in the room. If he learns to keep it tidy, buy him something nice for it like a picture that he likes to put on the wall or new bedding.