Child’s Room

February 15 2017

Children’s Study Area

Child's Room, Children's study area, Organizing for Teens

Homework – Ugh! Helping your child become organized and handle their homework independently is a challenge for most parents. Let’s get down to basics.

First of all, providing an area that is conducive to studying is one of the essential steps. Consider a modular unit that can grow with the child like the elfa desk area offered at The Container Store. We like this as a solution because the desk and chair height can be raised and you can have this mounted to the wall or as a stand-alone unit that you can take with you when you move. It’s easy to add more shelves, and the elfa utility board can provide lots of options for storing smaller items. You can create your own personalized desk area.

January 31 2017

Organizing a Child’s Room

Child's Room, Closet Design

Just finished organizing a child’s room and want to share some tips!

First of all, involve your child. Yes, it may take longer and yes, you could eliminate a lot of whining by doing it yourself. However, as parents, our role is to teach our children and consider their room as a teaching moment. Have clear expectations and make clean up a routine.
Ask them what is working and what isn’t? View their room from their perspective. Can they reach everything they need to? For example, are their clothes hung low in the closet on smaller hangers? Are they frustrated that they can’t find all the pieces to a toy or keep forgetting their homework? Or, that they can’t open a sticky bureau drawer? Think of this as an opportunity for you to come up with solutions to make their life easier and less stressful. If they are involved with the process, they will learn techniques, feel like they contributed and chances are they will take more pride in keeping it organized.
Think containers, toy bins, etc. Even small clear shoe boxes to corral small pieces and keep toys contained. And, remember the labels!
Keep a laundry hamper in your child’s room. Depending on the age, if it has a basketball net on it or something similar, it will be fun to toss their dirty shirt in.

November 4 2016

Organizing Children’s Momentos

Child's Room

There comes a time when a child starts to accumulate some momentos – cards from grandparents, camp photos, their first little league trophy, or a favorite bunny that they used to carry around everywhere. Treasures that are too special to donate or throw away, but may not warrant taking up valuable space in their room with what seems to be ever growing sports equipment the older they get, numerous desk supplies and 3 inch text books, clothes and more clothes. Where does it all come from and where is it supposed to go??

October 31 2016

Organizing Children’s Rooms – Fabric Bins provide a solution

Child's Room

The other day I was faced with the challenge of helping a client organize her daughter’s room. When working with children, there is the obvious fact that tidying will never last if the correct systems are not in place. An organizer’s job is to find systems that work and can be maintained – even by a child who is used to taking off their sweatshirt and throwing it on the floor. After all, “why is that a problem when I am just going to put it on tomorrow”.

This is where fabric labelled bins come in handy or even some sort of ottoman or trunk with storage.