Tackling Kids Clutter: Step 3 - Maintaining
The following is a look at MAINTAINING, the third of our 3 essential practices for taking charge of kids’ clutter, part of be.neat studio’s 4-part blog series.
Since reading and applying Marie Kondo’s spark joy in my own life, I have found that I care for my own things differently…with greater appreciation and improved habits. She promises “when you have finished cleaning up once and for all, you will never again relapse into clutter.” I get it personally…but leave it to parenthood to challenge any notion! A single busy day in a house with kids can give even the tidiest person a feeling of relapse. I hope to shed some light on why so many of us feel like we’re failing on the home organization front (despite our best efforts) and share what it really takes to keep up with the ongoing work during the stage that is so often taken for granted: MAINTAINING. I’ll try not to bore you with the obvious and instead focus on ideas you’ll be inspired to get behind.
There are a couple reasons why decluttering with kids warrants emphasis on maintenance. Firstly, anyone who has kids knows that the rate at which things are taken out and used (or basically the speed at which your house goes from neat to messy) is disproportionate to the time it takes us to do just about anything (like made dinner, fold a load of laundry, or have a shower). So daily maintenance can feel like an uphill battle. Secondly, kids grow so quickly! Just as they outgrow a pair of shoes, they outgrow their stuff and into new stuff, so the cycle of minimizing and containing continues as fast as the seasons change. As if our distinct seasons in Canada weren’t enough cause, our growing kids give us good reason to take a seasonal approach to maintenance as well. Given these two realities of life with kids, us parents have our work cut out for us when it comes to MAINTAINING an orderly home and giving ourselves and our families the space to grow.
If you have been inspired to let go of what you no longer need and carve out more space to hold the things you really value, it will all really pay off at this stage. You’ll find that much of the daily upkeep becomes quicker and mindless, and that you’ve empowered others to help. But for busy families, whirlwind weekdays juggling work, school, meals and any evening activities, can make dealing with our stuff an afterthought. If this sounds like you, try any one of these strategies for restoring order when things get busy:
Prioritize an area or two that will have the biggest impact on your day to day and make it part of your morning & evening routines (making your bed, unloading the dishwasher, clearing the kitchen counters etc.) and do those consistently at your earliest opportunity for a sense of accomplishment.
Put your kids to work and help them establish good habits. Set clear expectations around clean-up time, giving them notice to put their toys away before leaving for school, reminding them to put their things away when they get home, getting their help with their laundry, or even getting them to unload the dishwasher when age appropriate. Like any learning curve, this takes some patience at first but will definitely pay off!
Pair a household task with something fun (like folding laundry while listening to an audiobook or podcast) and you’ll be surprised by how much more you look forward to the task. For a family-oriented approach to making neatening-up fun, play music and involve friendly competition, racing to see who can get their things put away first, or follow-up with something else fun together like playing an actual game when everyone is done.
Get efficient at putting things away. It’s easy to feel like we are constantly trying to keep up, but a few seconds here and there to complete one task before moving on to the next, or putting something by the stairs to take with you the next time you go up or down, will help get things back to where they belong.
Deal with new things promptly:
Review school notices and kids’ work for anything that can be referenced or enjoyed (on bulletin board) and recycle as much as you can once the essential info has been noted (to memory or in a smartphone)
Discard any junk mail (or even better, post a No Junk Mail Sign) and remove any essential papers that need to be dealt with, recycling the rest
For incoming papers that require more time or attention, put them in a pile to be actioned in your office area weekly
Remove all excess packaging from groceries and home supplies as they come in and get used up
Unpack deliveries (making sure clothing fits or the item meets your expectations) and then remove tags, break down bulky packaging and make a place for the new item
Have a donation bag on the go at all times. As soon as someone decides something is no longer useful it can go straight in there. (It’s also helpful to remind kids that any toys they don’t bother to put away will end up in there!) Draw upon your minimizing/decluttering experience and catch yourself before you hold onto anything you know you will not be using the future.
We all have days when we’re just too beat to deal with all the new stuff coming in, or even keep up with putting items away. What you can’t do one day, you can make up for another day, taking advantage of weekends by blocking off bigger chunks of time to get back on track for the next week.
Everyone is familiar with the idea of spring cleaning, but when it comes to an organized family home, we need time for year-round seasonal maintenance, including back-to-school and holiday prep as well. The reality is, parents are making time throughout the year for these seasonal tasks and if you feel like you’re relapsing into clutter, chances are you need to give yourself more time to focus on these areas:
Arrange help with the kids to give yourself and your partner time to tackle bigger projects like decluttering a garage or storage room together
Around birthdays and holidays when new gifts are received, take time to let go of anything being replaced or anything outgrown to make space for the new things
Take the odd day off to focus on a specific area of your home, like changing over an entryway and wardrobes for a seasonal transition
Dedicate an evening to refreshing a specific category of things: play music, light a scented candle and share the odd before/after or sentimental pics with friends to make it social
Make space and come up with a plan to accommodate the kids’ new interests, whether it’s a growing LEGO collection, hockey equipment, more arts and crafts projects, or even a growing shoe collection
Before packing anything up for a season, take note of which items will be the right size and condition to use the following year and be selective about what you store away
We all have different desires when it comes to how much stuff is the right amount for our lifestyle and different tolerance levels for the state we want to live in. If you find you’r struggling to align your responsibilities and time with the lifestyle you envision, we’re here to help. We team up with parents to help at every stage, not only to help declutter or contain, but to help you keep up with seasonal projects and get them done efficiently and professionally. Afterall, the more hands pitching in to help, the faster it can all go! Contact us now for an estimate on your space.
