What type of child do you have? Do you have one who loves to keep everything clean and organized, or are you like most parents and you worry about whether or not your child will ever clean their room without being threatened? It can be a struggle because cleaning isn’t always seen as fun. It can take a lot of work on the parents’ part to get a child to realize the benefits of keeping their room clean. Use these tips to help your child not only like to clean, but to be able to keep it that way for longer periods of time.

1) First, you have to try to make it just a little more fun. This can be difficult if your child is used to throwing tantrums, fighting, screaming, or just flat out not doing it when you tell them to. However, there are ways to motivate kids to clean up after themselves without resorting to yelling or punishment. First, work on positively reinforcing the behaviors that you like. Don’t be afraid to offer rewards for good behavior and cooperation. However, there is a right and a wrong way to reward.

2) When rewarding or bribing your child to do what you want them to do, make sure that you make the prize something that they want. One child may be motivated by a new toy while another is motivated by a quarter. Choose something that is affordable, the goal is not to spoil the child. Don’t offer a grand reward that can be difficult to follow through with. Make sure that there is a reward that is not only motivating to your child, but present when you offer it. There’s nothing like a dangling carrot to get someone moving!

3) Don’t make the mistake of overwhelming your child. You might find out just how stubborn they can be if you tell them that you want a disaster of a room spotless in a certain amount of time. Give them small goals that can quickly and easily be accomplished. Have multiple rewards ready and help them if you can. Talk about things that they want to talk about while you clean so that they associate cleaning and organizing with positive attention and experiences.

4) Make it easy to stay organized. Use open containers and label them with what goes inside. Keep buckets with small pieces across the room from each other so that they are less likely to get intermingled. Let your child use infant hangers, children’s hangers, or baby hangers to hang their clothes. They are easier to handle, come in interesting colors and cartoon designs, and won’t damage small clothing.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Creating an inspirational bedroom that reflects the personality and style of your little girl can be rewarding in a number of ways. Helping her to establish good habits through proper organization that is easy to maintain, will further the benefits of having a cute girl’s room. It is fun to research and figure out which styles will fit your little girl’s decoration needs. Remember to keep organization in mind so that you can also teach your daughter to keep her room clean by herself.

When things are easily cleaned up and organized, girls are more likely to want to keep their rooms straight. When they are able to do this on their own, it can actually help to develop life-long cleaning habits and a higher self-esteem. When looking for themes and decorations, concentrate on what inspires her. Using things and colors that she loves in the process will make her happier and more proud of her new space.

1) Painting is an easy way to spruce up the room and make it special. Let her help you choose colors that reflect her personality. If you’re worried that she will pick something that you really don’t like, go to the store and pick up paint samples for her to choose from. With fewer options, she is less likely to get overwhelmed or choose something that you know she won’t be happy with in the long run. Paint the walls, trim, doors, ceiling, ceiling fan, and even furniture if you’d like. You can paint decorative trim accents in the corners, along the wall at chair-rail height, or along the ceiling.

2) Use her name as inspiration in your decorating. You may find templates for painting her name on the wall or removable appliqués that can simply stick on. You can decorate her bedroom door or closet door with personalized words, art, or decals. Making her room “hers” will help her to enjoy the room, respect the space, and be proud of what you’ve created together.

3) Keeping organization in mind is important so that she can easily keep her room neat and clean. Provide areas for her to display her favorite dolls, stuffed animals, collections and other things that she considers important. Small shelves are inexpensive, easy to hang, and can be painted to match the room. Shelves with pegs or a mirror with hooks will give her somewhere to hang things like a purse, backpack, robe, or jewelry. Cubby-style shelves with bins or baskets are very useful for organizing toys, doll clothes or collections of small things without making the room look cluttered.

4) Organizing the closet in a way that makes laundry easy to manage will help your little girl keep her room clean. You can buy decorative children’s hangers that match her room. Small hangers, like infant hangers and baby hangers are easy to handle, won’t stretch out her special outfits, and will help save space in the closet for other things. Getting the room easy to manage will ensure that your little girl will love her room and be proud of the fact that she can take care of it all by herself.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Kids’ rooms can become a tangled mess of laundry, mixed with toys, mixed with trash. The resulting mountain can look like way too much for your child to handle on their own, leaving you with the responsibility to constantly clean your child’s room for them. This doesn’t teach them very much and can leave you frustrated and at the end of your rope. It’s difficult to teach kids how to keep their rooms clean because you really are faced with the fact that it is not very fun and can be a lot of work.

Teaching your kids to clean and helping them to create good cleaning habits means that you will have to make it fun for them. It will be a little work in the beginning, but it will be well worth the effort that it takes. Not only will you be helping your child to create a life-long love of having things organized, but you will save time, energy and money as well.

Try to create games when it comes to cleaning. Avoid all negative comments and quickly redirect children that start to complain. Start with the large items in the room to make cleaning seem like it is going fast right from the start. Large stuffed animals, pillows and blankets can be quickly put away, removing much of the bulk from the task at hand.

Next, help your child pick out all of the clothes, towels and linens that need to be washed. Put the laundry basket somewhere interesting so that they’ll enjoy tossing the clothes inside. Make it a basketball game and make each item worth a certain number of points. Large things, like sheets and towels, may only be worth one point, while small things like socks can be worth five points each.

Make similar games out of collecting trash, separating piles of toy parts and getting the room more organized. When everything is pretty much cleaned up, take a look around and see what should change to make the job easier the next time.

One major problem in kids’ rooms is the laundry. Add shelves to the closet to make room for buckets that hold socks or underwear. Invest a little in some specialty children’s hangers that will make staying organized easier. Children can easily manipulate infant hangers and baby hangers to help put their laundry away when it is clean. Teaching them these good habits early in life will pay off for you and for them for years to come.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Organizing is more difficult than it may seem to most parents. We often find ourselves telling kids how to organize instead of showing them and explaining why we’re doing what we’re doing. Most kids learn by watching and doing, not by listening. Explaining why you’re doing what you’re doing as you go will help your child to understand why things are the way that they are, making them more likely to remember what to do later.

Developing good organizational habits can actually be a lifelong endeavor. Think about how many adults have trouble organizing. Home organization products are everywhere because so many people are trying to figure it out. People that are good at organizing actually make it their profession because so many people need help with it. Keep that in mind before you get frustrated with the fact that your kids don’t seem to know how to stay organized and get frustrated when you give them a general instruction like “clean your room”.

Start by making clean-up time as fun and simple as possible. Get down on the floor with your child, down on their level. This position is a lot less threatening and helps to take the pressure off of a kid when you want them to learn something new. Start with one, two, or three buckets that can hold cars, blocks, or other things with little parts. Pile these things up and try to make a game of getting the things separated.

If your child is very young, it may be easy enough just to clap and cheer when they put something into the bucket. As they get older, you will have to get more creative. Have them look at a pile and estimate how much the blocks weigh. Then, put the blocks in the correct bucket to weigh them. Or, ask them which bucket would be most appropriate based on their estimate of which item will need the biggest bucket, smallest bucket, and so on.

If your child is less analytical and more competitive, they may enjoy a little healthy competition. Say something like, “Let’s see who can get the most stuffed animals into the toy box the fastest.” Or, pay them a nickel for each article of clothing that they hang. Using children’s hangers, baby hangers and infant hangers will make this task easier for small children.

If your child is more industrious and would rather have money than anything, offer them a quarter for each bucket they successfully fill with the right items. Offer a little more for folded clothing, some more for trash taken out of their rooms, and so on. Earning money by working is a great way to teach your kids the value of a dollar.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Does your kid’s room look like a toy store threw up in there? You’re not alone! Most parents feel like the number of toys in their child’s room is out of control. We can’t help it! We probably buy too much for them, then they get more as gifts, and eventually it gets out of control. With all of the developmental toys and popular must-haves, it can be hard to put limits on how many toys enter your home, because we want our kids to have learning opportunities as much as entertainment.

1) Designate an area for large items that take up a lot of space. Most kids have an enormous amount of stuffed animals, and they probably feel that each one is special and important. Designating a particular place for stuffed animals, balls, pillows, whatever your child has a lot of, can help the room stay cleaned up. You may need to label a large toy box, basket, or net for this one particular thing. Make it easy to toss stuffed animals in. You can make cleaning a snap if you allow you child to throw animals across the room into the net! Making it fun can determine whether your organization sticks or not.

2) Tiny items, like plastic building blocks, need somewhere special to go. Don’t you just hate finding that one in the dark by stepping on its pointy corners? Ouch! You can give your kid a bin, basket or bucket to keep these things in, but nothing says that they will stay put there. They usually end up scattered around the house, dumped out, and lost. If your kid really likes this particular toy, you may be better off providing them with an area to play with them in. A table designated specifically for building can be helpful. An attached container, shelf, bucket, or basket will help keep the pieces at least near the table. Try not to put any other toys in this area and they’re less likely to get all mixed up and lost.

3) If your child likes to collect little things, you’re in luck. It can seem like a lot, but at least it doesn’t take up a lot of space. You need to come up with a system for your child to display, or at least keep up with, all of their little treasures. Drawers with compartments, containers screwed to a board, miniature shelves, or baskets with compartments all make great places to store little collectibles.

4) Keeping the major things in order is key. Have a clear and easy system for your child to keep up with. A laundry basket in their closet gives them a clear place to put dirty clothes. Using children’s hangers, infant hangers, or baby hangers makes it easier for them to keep their own things in order. Reward them for their efforts and adjust your system as necessary.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Is your child’s room completely out of control? Most parents feel like their kids have too many toys. Toys can easily get out of control. Our children get toys for Christmas, birthdays, and all sorts of other special occasions. They also outgrow them, so there’s always a need to buy more. When things get too cluttered for your child to even see what they have, all of that money spent on toys can go to waste. Cluttered toys do not make a child want to play with them. Things end up broken and lost. Use these tips to quickly clean your child’s room all while getting things organized in a way that makes sense.

1) Start with the big stuff. Stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, big balls, and other large toys should be cleaned up first. These are the things that will take up the most space, so you’ll need to find room for them first. You can easily arrange smaller toys around the big ones later, but it is difficult to make room for big things once the little things are put away. Plus, putting the big things away first is easy for your child and helps them to quickly see the progress that is occurring in their room. You can make a game of how fast big things can be thrown into a toy box or bin in the closet.

2) Next, move on to the toys that are a little smaller, but that do not have small parts. Dolls, trucks, books, and other items that can be stored in bins or baskets, or on shelves are easily picked out of a pile of little pieces. If possible, group like items together. Loud toys in one section, quiet toys in another, or however you decide might be easiest for your child to keep up with. Use shelving whenever possible. Toys that can be easily seen get played with more and are easy to put away. Label the space on the shelf with the name of the toy to make it easier the next time.

3) Now on to the little things. Containers with lids that close are great for keeping game pieces, miniatures, puzzle pieces, hair ties, and blocks separated from each other. Try to scatter these items around the room so that if your child does decide to dump them out, they won’t be close to each other. Keeping all of the little things together in one area can lead to another giant pile of pieces!

4) Another common problem in children’s rooms is laundry. Make it easy for your child to put their own laundry away. Lower shelves and hanging rods can make it much easier, plus you’ll free up some space above for games and other items that you don’t want dumped out. Teach your child to use infant hangers, baby hangers, or children’s hangers that fit their clothes. Being smaller and easier to handle, they are way more likely to use them than other types of hangers.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Christmas is an exciting time for kids. Families that exchange gifts often give children lots of toys and clothes. It’s so fun to see their little faces light up and hear their squeals of excitement when they open that special gift. However, joy can soon turn to distress when you realize that there is no way your kids can fit all of these new items into their already packed rooms. Avoid the drama of lost pieces of games and toys being forgotten because they’re packed away in a toy box. Get your kids’ rooms organized before Christmas this year.

1) Take this opportunity to tell your children about kids that are less fortunate than them. Sit down with them and help them to pick out older toys and clothes that can be donated to the needy. Most kids will get excited about being the one to make another kid’s Christmas a happy one. If your child is having trouble letting go of some things, let them make a box of “maybe” items that they can decide on later. After Christmas, let them go through again and decide what they may be able to live without, now that they have so many nice new things. Encouraging them to make room for the new toys is also an effective way of persuading them to give some things away.

2) Clearing out some space will give you a better idea of how to organize the room. Dump out toy boxes and bins of random toys and start going through them. Separate everything into categories. This is a fun job for most kids. They love to race their parents and see who can categorize all of the items first. When you have your piles, determine what types of containers, shelves, or cabinets would be best for the storage of the items. You may decide to put shelves in a closet for toys with small parts that you do not wish to see dumped out anytime soon!

3) When the toys are all cleaned up, you can focus on the clothing. Christmas is a great time to give kids some new winter clothes, so you need to clear out some space for them. Give away what you can and then get ready to make a special place for items that are left. Cubes are great for kids’ closets, because you can stack them, use them on the floor, or even hang them from the closet walls. Give each cube or shelf a specific function. Clothing that you would rather hang should always be hung on children’s hangers. Baby hangers and infant hangers do not stretch out the necks or shoulders of smaller clothes. Plus, the smaller size takes up less space and is easier for a child to handle.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Closets aren’t generally designed for children. They are made to hold adults clothes on a bar, and then, if you’re lucky, they will have a few shelves for storage. Even then, the shelving usually does not make the most efficient use of the space. Restructuring your kid’s closet can help you to make room for all of those extra things that kids need. Use these tips for not only making the most efficient use of the space, but also for eliminating the need for extra furniture in the child’s bedroom.

1) Make a list of what all you would like to store in the kid’s closet. Remember that kids usually have some clothes that they have not grown into yet, or that you are saving to hand down to a younger child. There will also be out of season clothes, school clothes, dress clothes, shoes, and play clothes. If you plan right, you can also keep pajamas, underwear, swimwear, socks, sports equipment, and backpacks in the closet. Freeing up space around the room makes it easier to keep organized and gives your child lots of room to play.

2) Get rid of what you can and donate it to charity or hand it down to another child. Plan for things that normally cause the closet to become disorganized. You can use large bins in the bottom of the closet for clothes that the child has outgrown, has not grown into yet, and for dirty laundry. These three things in the bottom can help you to effortlessly keep the closet under control.

3) Use the top shelf of the closet for long-term storage and for things that need to be kept out of reach. If the top shelf is far from the ceiling, you may want to move it up. You can add shelving to the sides to extend the top shelf out to the front of the closet if you need more space. You may even decide to add a second shelf up high. These are great for suitcases, out of season clothes, blankets, and keepsakes.

4) Children’s clothes are small, so you don’t need a huge space for hanging. You can add shelving about three feet up from the floor. Use cubby hole type shelves up the sides of the closet for shoes, board games, tubs of blocks, and other small things that need to be put away. Use the other shelves for baskets and bins that hold socks, underwear, pajamas, hats, gloves, and other small apparel. Hang most of your child’s clothes on infant hangers or children’s hangers so that you don’t have to sift through stacks of folded clothes when you need something. Children can manipulate baby hangers easier than adult hangers, so you can teach them to hang their own clothes when they’re old enough.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Does your kid’s room look like a toy store threw up in there? You’re not alone! Most parents feel like the number of toys in their child’s room is out of control. We can’t help it! We probably buy too much for them, then they get more as gifts, and eventually it gets out of control. With all of the developmental toys and popular must-haves, it can be hard to put limits on how many toys enter your home, because we want our kids to have learning opportunities as much as entertainment.

1) Designate an area for large items that take up a lot of space. Most kids have an enormous amount of stuffed animals, and they probably feel that each one is special and important. Designating a particular place for stuffed animals, balls, pillows, whatever your child has a lot of, can help the room stay cleaned up. You may need to label a large toy box, basket, or net for this one particular thing. Make it easy to toss stuffed animals in. You can make cleaning a snap if you allow you child to throw animals across the room into the net! Making it fun can determine whether your organization sticks or not.

2) Tiny items, like plastic building blocks, need somewhere special to go. Don’t you just hate finding that one in the dark by stepping on its pointy corners? Ouch! You can give your kid a bin, basket or bucket to keep these things in, but nothing says that they will stay put there. They usually end up scattered around the house, dumped out, and lost. If your kid really likes this particular toy, you may be better off providing them with an area to play with them in. A table designated specifically for building can be helpful. An attached container, shelf, bucket, or basket will help keep the pieces at least near the table. Try not to put any other toys in this area and they’re less likely to get all mixed up and lost.

3) If your child likes to collect little things, you’re in luck. It can seem like a lot, but at least it doesn’t take up a lot of space. You need to come up with a system for your child to display, or at least keep up with, all of their little treasures. Drawers with compartments, containers screwed to a board, miniature shelves, or baskets with compartments all make great places to store little collectibles.

4) Keeping the major things in order is key. Have a clear and easy system for your child to keep up with. A laundry basket in their closet gives them a clear place to put dirty clothes. Using children’s hangers, infant hangers, or baby hangers makes it easier for them to keep their own things in order. Reward them for their efforts and adjust your system as necessary.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Busy Moms know how quickly the nursery or kids’ rooms can turn into a disaster area. You can clean, organize, rearrange, and restock, but it just seems like no time before the nursery is back to its disorderly state. If your nursery seems to turn into a danger zone more quickly than you can handle, use these tips and tricks to get it organized in a way that will help you and your kids to keep it more organized. This is not to say that you’ll never have to clean again, but it will make the maintenance of the room much more manageable and less time consuming.

Start by separating the things that you have in the nursery to organize. You will most likely end up with three major categories; clothes, toys, and supplies.

Supplies are things that are for parents to use for the maintenance of the child. For instance, diapers, towels, sheets, monitors, thermometers, and other essential baby items. These things should be kept out of baby’s reach. You need to create a special place for these things so that they don’t end up putting the baby in danger or cluttering up your flat surfaces. Small shelves inside of the closet can keep these things out of sight and out of reach. You may also decide to install some prefabricated cabinets that can later be used for books and board games.

Toys will most likely be your biggest daily challenge. This is especially true if your child is very young. Sometimes dumping out the toys is as fun as playing with them! You need to come up with a system that allows you to quickly clean up so that you don’t take even more time out of your busy schedule.

There are lots of toy organizers that seem wonderful, but take a lot of patience to use. For example, a stuffed animal chain that hangs from the ceiling with clips seems like a great idea for keeping stuffed animals off of the floor, but it takes forever to hang them all. Try a net instead. It’s so easy to toss stuffed animals across the room and have them land quickly in the net. Kids love it and will be happier to help you clean. Little solutions like this will make it easier and faster to clean.

Clothing is usually the next big hassle. Babies and toddlers can have so many clothes that it’s mind boggling. If the closet is not ready to handle all of those tiny clothes, then they just end up in a giant laundry heap. Utilize shelves, baskets, bins, whatever you can find to keep tiny clothes easy to manage.

You will need separate containers for socks, body suits, training pants, bloomers, underwear, t-shirts, shorts, blankets, burp cloths, teething rings, and more. Cubby systems are extremely helpful, or one large shelf that houses multiple open buckets will make it easy to toss things straight from the laundry basket into the appropriate space.

Use infant hangers or children’s hangers to keep baby clothes from being stretched and damaged. You can get ones that have cartoon characters on them or other kid-friendly designs that will encourage your little one to help keep laundry where it goes. Baby hangers are small enough for kids to easily handle and also help when it comes to saving space.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.