Decluttering and home organizing can be a team effort when you get the kids involved. In episode 67 of The Intentional Edit Podcast learn what organizing and decluttering projects to tackle with the kids and what ones are better to do on your own. The entire family can contribute for an organized and simplified home.
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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):
Decluttering and home organizing can be a team effort when you get the kids involved in episode 67 of the intentional edit podcast, learn what organizing and decluttering projects to tackle with the kids and what ones are better to do on your own. The entire family can contribute for an organized and simplified home. And in this episode, I’m going to give you some ideas on how to get started with this. Hey friends, quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and my go-to organizing products for tip Tuesday on the intentional at Instagram feed for a few years. Now I’m excited to bring it to the podcast with short episodes, answering your questions every Tuesday. If you want me to answer your questions, go to the podcast page on intentional, edit.com and submit your questions there.
(00:50):
Let’s get started on this tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. Hey friends, thanks so much for joining me for episode 67. This tip Tuesday episode, where we are going to discuss decluttering, purging and home organizing projects that you can do with your kits. I am answering a listener question today. If you have a question for me, head over to attentional, edit.com and click on that little record. Now button that pops up, you can record a question for me, and then I will answer it on a future tip Tuesday episode. I’d love to get your questions when you submit questions, it helps me zone in on exactly what you wanna hear and what you want to get out of these podcast. Episodes, go to intentional, edit.com, click on the record now button and leave me a message with your question with something you’re struggling with, with, uh, organization project that you’re trying to do at home.
(01:47):
If you feel like you have a lack of systems or routines, or you just have too much clutter, and you’re wondering what to do, where to start, how to handle all this, go to intentional, edit.com and click on that record. Now button, ask me what you’re wondering, ask me what your question is. Let me know. And I will take a tip Tuesday episode to answer the question that you submit. The question that came in today is I want to get organized and trash. Some of the stuff we don’t need, but have a hard time finding the time with the kiddos at home for summer. Are there any organizing projects that my kids can help with so I can get rid of some of the junk and have them help me. So they aren’t just on the tablets all day. Great question. And I think a lot of times in the summer we have more daylight.
(02:34):
Longer days might be at home a little bit more, and we get a little bit of motivation to maybe organize something, or maybe it’s because we’re at home more, the things that are cluttered and unorganized can get on our nerves and bother us a little bit. Whatever the reason, if you have time at home, you can tackle some of these projects. I would love to know more what the ages of your kids are. That would guide me a little bit into telling you what they’re capable of doing and what to stay away from a little bit more. But just in general, there are some things that can really help you when you are trying to figure out what to organize. You know, the first step is always purging. You have to declutter, you have to get rid of anything that you do not need, use, or want.
(03:27):
And I have a ton of podcast episodes on this. Look for those episodes that talk about purging and decluttering, and you can find the systems and use the systems that I use to purge in, declutter myself, with my friends and family, with my clients. And then you can know how to handle that process. You are in the need to organize. You have to purge in declutter first. That’s always the first step. If you want your kids to be involved, think about very small projects, kids for the most part, have a short attention span or a shorter attention span than most adults. If you want them to help with these projects, then you need to break big tasks or rooms or large projects up into smaller tasks. This is even helpful with adults, but it’s imperative with kids. One area to tackle is kids, clothes, your kids, even as young as like three, four years old, they know when they don’t like an outfit.
(04:30):
If something is scratchy or itchy or it bothers them, or it’s too tight or it pulls and they can verbalize that and tell you those things, they can also tell you when they don’t like something. If they’ve outgrown something, if it feels too small, of course, sometimes you look at them and you think that the clothes they’re wearing are too small and it’s a favorite. So they still like it, but it doesn’t make sense for them to wear anymore. Of course you have both of those scenarios that can happen. You can tackle just one drawer in their closet, gather all the pajamas and go through the pajamas. They can help you by sorting out things and tell you what doesn’t fit or what doesn’t feel good. All of a sudden have a drawer that has been decluttered. You could fold the things nicely and put them away.
(05:17):
Pajamas was just an example, but you can do a section of their closet, a shelf, any drawer going through toys or things that they play with games, things like that. And talk to the kids, talk to them before you start and set down some ground rules. Like if something is broken, then we’re not keeping it. If it hasn’t been played with in a certain amount of time, we’re getting rid of it. If it’s something that they just don’t like, and they don’t use anymore, when you involve kids in the process and you’re practical about how to do this, you move through the purging guide and the purging questions that I use. And you follow the organizing cheat sheets on how to organize. Then you can do that with yourself. You can do it with your kids too. You can involve your kids. And it doesn’t only have to be things that are their possessions and things that they use in the home.
(06:10):
You can have them help you with other areas of the home that are obviously cluttered and having problems, but zone in on those specifically small things, you’re not thinking about an entire closet or even an entire dresser. It’s one drawer in the dresser. Move on then to the second drawer. If you did one drawer every single day, it might take you 20 minutes each day, but you could tackle something. And before you know it, the entire dresser is organized or the entire wardrobe is organized. You can easily do some things in your kitchen and you can give kids projects, pull out all of the Tupperwares or all the pots and pans. Anything with lids, have your kids help you pair up the container and the lid. And then anything that doesn’t have a match can be donated or discarded because you don’t need it anymore.
(07:05):
It’s not functional. It’s not something you use. Things like that. Just thinking about what are the areas that are bothering you that need to be organized that need a thorough purge or ruthless declutter, and think about how you can safely involve your kids. Kids are great at sorting things. They’re great at matching stuff. Like you can have them match socks, pairs of things. They can sort things out and it’s fun for them. It’s also educational for them. It’s not necessarily a dreaded project that you’re thinking of. You can turn a lot of these tasks into something fun and rewarding. And maybe you even want to add some kind of a little reward if they help you or an incentive for finishing a project or something like that. Keep the expectations reasonable. Keep the times to a reasonable amount of time that is appropriate for the age of your specific child.
(08:04):
Don’t make this an overwhelming project. This can be a fun thing or a task that needs to be done. Something that you can have on a summer list of things to accomplish. And then once you guys get so many things done, there can be a reward or a trip to go get frozen yogurt, something simple like that. But this is a way to help your kids learn responsibility and show them that everyone working together gets things done faster. And the benefit goes on for many, many months throughout the year. When we declutter and simplify, get rid of the things that we’re not using. And someone else benefits when we donate things that we’re not using, another family can have these things and will use some use them. And it’s something that they need just because it’s not something we need in our current stage in life.
(08:56):
It doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of other people out there that do need it. They will use it. It is something that they want. Go listen to some of those other episodes on decluttering and purging, and specifically how to organize, follow the process and get the kids involved. Be reasonable with your expectations and think small, small projects and short attention spans have fun with this, have fun completing these things, and then you will have the benefits for many years to come. Thank you so much for joining me for this tip Tuesday episode. I am happy that you are here and I will meet you back here later in the week for another episode of the intentional edit podcast,
(09:40):
That wraps up another quick episode of a tip Tuesday. If you want to be featured on intentional edits, tip Tuesday, go to intentional, edit.com, click on the podcast page in the menu bar, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll find a button that says record, tap on that and record your question or share what is currently overwhelming to you. What is going on that you need help with? I want to know I needed to know your struggles so I can share actionable solutions to help you create simplicity in your home. If you are having this issue. I know other people are having it too, and we wanna help as many people as possible. Head over to the podcast page of intentional, edit.com and record your question for me there.
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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!
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I’m Lauren, and I’m passionate about being organized and efficient and making spaces beautiful at the same time. I hope to inspire you to live your best organized life.
