Do long summer days have your children complaining about being bored? Put them to work in helping you get organized!
When it comes to getting organized, children may seem like more of a liability than an asset. While kids can certainly be “contributors to the chaos,” they can also be helpful in establishing order. Of course, very young children have limited attention spans and skills, but it’s all about matching the task to the child. Offering an incentive (e.g. an ice cream, trip to the mall, etc.) can make tasks appealing and fun.
Here is a list of ideas to consider for a rainy (or steamy!) day:
Organizing Jobs for Kids
- Test markers & pens and throw away bad ones.
- Sort a crayon bin to find pieces too small to use and throw them away.
- Sharpen pencils
- Sort loose change into piles by type
- Put sorted change into coin sleeves
- Feed pages into a shredder
- Sort through coupons and remove expired ones
- Try on clothes and pile up those that no longer fit
- Vacuum the car (search for hidden treasures!)
- Empty out a cabinet or drawer to a table for sorting
- Choose some books to donate from a shelf
- Choose some toys/stuffed animals to donate
- Sort through the artwork they made during the year to pick out favorites to keep.
- Match lids with plastic food storage containers (and recycle any without a match)
- Search closets for extra hangers (recycle at the dry cleaner)
- Find and remove any out of date items on a bulletin board.
- Search the garage for “flat” balls… either pump up or pitch.
- Help carry items to the car/donation location.
- Search through winter mittens for matches and pitch any solo mittens
- Help label items
- Pull weeds
- Harvest vegetables
Got some great ideas that aren’t on the list? Please comment and share!
These are great suggestions! I especially like the search for hidden treasures in the car. 🙂
That’s a job that only a child could love! Thanks for stopping by:)
{Melinda} Great list. I’ve found that given them small, doable jobs (and mine are teens!) tends to increase their willingness to cooperate. They don’t get overwhelmed and they tend to do a better job. 🙂
I totally agree. Even adults love having success on a small task, right? Thanks for reading!
I love this! I needed to read this today. I have been working so hard at getting my house organized and then my 5 girls work hard to unorganized it! So I will be keeping these in mind and having them help!
Wow – 5 girls! That is a lot of blessing:) Best of luck as you work to keep things in order… I hope the girls can find a way to plug in and have some fun. Thanks so much for stopping by!
These are some great ideas! I need to put my kids to work! 🙂
No time like the present! They can do so much more than we give them credit for:)
Great list! I can even see some things on here I could use my teenagers for. Thanks for the inspiration. Have a lovely week.
Stopping by from SITS.
If you can get your teenagers in the act, I applaud you! Wishing you a lovely week as well! Thanks for stopping by:)
Great list! I would add, doing dishes too!
Coming by from SITS, enjoy your feature day!
Definitely! Kids can be a big help with dishes… great addition. Thanks for your comment:)
Pingback: The Seana Method - The SITS Girls
This is great! I love these ideas. I really need to include my kids in organizing more around our house.
Thanks so much, Jamie. I find kids actually love helping out — although each one prefers different tasks. Best of luck!!
Organizing by children can be so much fun but if you aren’t consistent that leads to problems. Thanks for the post. Enjoy your SITS Day.
So true, Sheila. As with so much of parenting, consistency is key. If children can see that getting and being organized can be fun, that is a step in the right direction. SITS is the best – I’m really enjoying hearing from everyone. Hope you have a great day too!
I wish this was a pinterest page. This would be so helpful for many moms out there. Really like all of your ideas! I will come back again to pick your brain to keep me focused in household organization.
Thanks so much, Stacey. I love the Pinterest page idea…hmmmmm…. 🙂
My kids clean best when they have a category to take care of. For example, saying “clean you room” gets me no where, but saying “pick up all the shoes” gives them a specific task to accomplish. Then I just pick a new category and they keep going.
I love this idea, Rabia. I agree that too broad is just difficult. Being specific with a task helps kids stay focused, and produces a concrete result they can be proud of. Thanks so much for this comment!
Great ideas and easy way for kids to help keep things tidy and in order. Thanks for sharing!
Happy SITS Day!
Thanks for stopping by, Tiffany. I’m having so much fun with my SITS day – hope the tips work out for you!
Brilliant list! This will keep my little guy busy (even if it is for a bit!) and teach him to tidy up after himself. Love it!
Thanks Christie. Any time we can get our children to have fun doing something that benefits the family is a plus, right? Children can do so much, and its never too young to start seeing the value of being organized:)
I’m pretty sure that I always enjoyed these types of activities as a child – made me feel like I was really helping out – and I probably was!
I always liked helping out around the house. It made feel a part of the team, and I think kids can learn from a young age how to contribute. It is a great confidence builder!
I love the “sort through the art work”, we do this with our son, any really special ones, we frame and use as art in his room.
I also love the Artkive app once you know which ones you want to save. I got onto this too late to use it in “real time”, but last summer I uploaded all of my girls’ favorite pieces of art that I had been saving. Made each girl one book for preschool and one for elementary school. They really enjoy looking through them!
What a great list! Teaching organizing kids at an early age is a great gift and you’ve found not only ways to have kids be organized, you’ve made it fun too! Thanks for sharing all these wonderful ideas!
Thanks, Liana. The attitude we, as parents, bring to any activity has such a huge impact. Whatever Mom seems to have fun doing often seems fun to kids, right? Thank you so much for the kind comment:)