5 Ways to Help Disorganized Kids

by GALTime.com, on Tue Aug 31, 2010 10:14am PDT
By GALTime Parenting Pro Michele Borba, Ed.D.

Here is a recent question from a parent:

“My son is sweet and loving, but hopelessly disorganized. I’m always picking up forgotten homework assignments, putting school supplies into his backpack and reminding him of his schedule. I worry that he’ll need a full time assistant to help him get through high school. School is starting up and I’m already in a state of panic. What can I do now to help my kid be more organized this year?”
Sound familiar? I can’t tell you how many similar queries I’ve received from parents over the past few days. My answer: there certainly are things you can do to help kids become more organized. And helping your kids now will help them in the upcoming years when you’re not there to pick up the pieces and serve as their personal Palm Pilot. The secret to teaching organizational skills is to take on just one troubling issue at a time, find a simple solution that fits your child, and then stick to it until that new organization system becomes a habit.



Tips to Help Unorganized Kids Become More Organized

Here are a few solutions to boost your kid’s organizational skills... to help your son and/or daughter (and you!) get off to a great start for a new school year.

1. Stop rescuing. Your first step is often the hardest (but most important). If you really, really want your child to learn how to be better organized then you must stop being his personal assistant. So take a vow that you will teach your child organization skills, and then once he learns them you will step back and make him be responsible for any consequences (like missing a deadline, losing a library book, misplacing sports gear). Better he learn the lesson now than later.

2. Create a place for everything. Your next step is to help your kid organize what she has in order to make things easier to find and put away. Don’t go getting crazy here. Just identify the “code red” areas that usually cause the stress and argument, and find a simple solution. Here are three common organizational problems and a few solutions. The trick is to find what works for your child and stick to that solution.
3. Reduce clutter. Kids are more organized with less clutter, so now is the time to go through drawers, closets, toys, and equipment barrels together and help him eliminate those unnecessary extras. Throw away all those never used or broken things, and try to do so every six to eight weeks. Then employ these clutter reducers so your child’s room or homework area at least appears more organized:
•Rotate toys. Come on, your kid doesn’t really play with all those toys, right? So put some of those away and pull them out again in a few weeks. Not only will they seem brand new, but it will also reduce the clutter. Make a rule that when you pull toys out, you always store others in their place.
•Hold a garage sale. Here is your time for your kid to make a little extra cash by selling his old toys, clothes and books. Hold a family garage sale. Put your kids in charge of making fliers, setting up cash boxes, and displaying sale items.
•Donate to charity. Give your child a box and tell her to stock it with gently used possessions. Then help her deliver the box to a Goodwill store or charity of her choice.
•Under-bed storage. For those occasionally used things, get storage bins that can slide under your child’s bed. “Out of sight, out of mind” is the organizational strategy. The less seen, the less she can mess up and lose.

4. Set a clean up routine. Once your child is more organized, the trick is to keep to that system. The best way to do so is by enforcing a quick once or twice a week clean-up brigade policy. Just be realistic and don’t expect your child’s room to pass the “white gloves” inspection test. Instead, be more realistic and identify those hot spot areas that need continual upkeep. Then ink the “clean up” dates to your calendar. For instance: Monday, desk; Tuesday, bedroom; Saturday, sports gear; Sunday, backpack. Employ the “Clean, then Play (or e-mail or call your friends) Rule.” My girlfriend has the two most organized kids in town, and achieved that feat by designating Sunday as the family’s “clean the backpack” day. It took her kids ten minutes to go through their papers, refill notebooks with binder paper and sharpen those pencils, but the process helped her brood stay organized. Another friend gets her kids motivated by setting an oven timer for ten minutes then encourages them to play “Beat the Clock” and clean up.

5. Boost organization skills. Now it’s time to take on the challenge of helping your child learn new skills so he is less likely to need reminders or lose items. The critical point here is that there is no 'best' organization system, so what works for you may not work for your child. Also, don’t get caught up in fancy, pricey electronic systems or buy something just because it looks good. The trick is to find a simple system that helps your child, and then continue to help your child use that strategy until the organizer becomes a new habit. There are a wide range of ideas, but choose only what helps your kid.
Please don’t expect overnight changes in your child and keep your expectations realistic. You’re not going to turn a Pig Pen into a Neat Nik. But with patience and consistency you will be able to help your child learn how to be more organized and adopt new organizational habits that he will be able to carry with him the rest of his life. And that’s your goal.