Helping Your Kids Stay Organized
You do your best to keep your house organized, and that includes making sure your kids clean up their rooms, make their bed, and don’t leave their toys in every room. Some children are better about picking up than others, but it’s important to consider whether or not they have the proper storage for their belongings. They most likely have closets and dressers, but are those spaces or pieces of furniture organized well enough for holding everything they own? At EZ Storage® in Pittsburgh, we can help you store those items that don’t have a spot in the house, and in this post, we’ll look at some ways to help keep your kids’ belongings organized.
Their Bedrooms
The bedroom is often the center of it all – the place where it looks like a tornado touched down and threw everything around the room. Toys are scattered about, clothes aren’t picked up, and you’re not even sure if there’s a bed in there any more.
When helping your kids organize their bedroom, start with the closet, as it can often be the space where things are simply thrown or stuffed when they’re in a hurry. Start by sorting the clothes on the hanging rod – do they still wear everything, or are there some items they could donate or get rid of? Are there season-specific items that could be put in storage until they’re needed? Putting winter items in clear totes or bins and placing them in a self-storage unit along with your other belongings is a great way to keep your kids’ closets cleaner and more organized.
For the bottom of the closet, consider adding a shoe rack (a must for teenage girls), or perhaps one that hangs on the back of the door. This helps them keep track of each pair they own, and they won’t have to hunt around for that other dress shoe when you’re already running late for dinner with your extended family.
When sorting through the dresser with your kids, make sure each drawer is dedicated to one or two types of clothing. Put t-shirts in one drawer, and shorts in another. Socks and underwear don’t take up too much space, so they can be stored in the smaller top drawers. If their clothes are often stuffed into the drawers or mingled together, there are plenty of drawer dividers out there from which to choose. If drawer space is limited, think about adding some low shelves with baskets or fabric cubes where they can store items and still keep them out of sight.
Toys and Media
Let’s face it – kids today have a lot of toys and a lot of media devices. Everything from LEGO® pieces to handheld video games take up space, and it’s important to have a place to store all of these things. If your child has DVDs or video games in their room, invest in an affordable but sturdy bookshelf and help them create their own library (this of course works for actual books as well). If they need somewhere to store controllers and cords for their video game consoles, find a bookshelf with built-in drawers at the bottom, or go to your local thrift store and look for an inexpensive entertainment center with drawers.
Donating and Storing Items
As you’re organizing with your children, have them go through clothes, toys, and other items, and have them decide what they’d like to keep and what they could perhaps donate to children in need. Perhaps there are some things they’d like to put on your annual garage sale so they can make a little money to put towards those new toys or video games that they want.
Once they’ve put some things in a box or a tote, you can keep it safe and out of the way in a storage unit. You’ve already packed up some seasonal clothes and other items that you need to store, so why not add some sale or donation items to the inventory? The staff at EZ Storage® can help you find the ideal space, and our month-to-month leases make it easy to store things for as long as you need.
Keeping kids organized can be a challenge, but with the right storage solutions both at home and at one of our local facilities, you’ll find that it isn’t as difficult as you once thought. Stop by one of our Pittsburgh-area locations today to speak with a member of our staff who can help you choose the right unit size. We have both standard and climate-controlled spaces, so if your kids have electronics or other sensitive items they need to store, we can point you in the right direction. Before you know it, your kids will have clean rooms all the time!
Call or visit us today to learn more.