Help Your Kids Get Organized For Success

As many of you know, I work with many families with young children, which is a very interesting and rewarding experience for me.  It’s interesting because the interaction between a parent and child when reviewing the items that the child owns is actually very revealing.

Often times the parent and child have very different ideas of what to keep and what to donate.

Let your kids make the decisions

As a result, I generally have a chat with the parent before the editing part of the process to request that their child be allowed to make the decision and that that decision be respected rather than questioned.  Sometimes it’s much more productive if the parent is not in the same room because the energy coming off from the parent can affect the process in a negative way.

Allowing the child to make decisions helps to teach them to not only express and understand what items are important to him or her and to distinguish treasured items from non-treasured items, but also teaches the child responsibility, respect and how to be charitable.

My parent clients are often quite surprised by how easily their kids will let go of items, especially when they know their unused toys will be going to other children in need.

Start young

It’s always a good time to start working with your younger children to teach them how to let go of their unused and unwanted items.  There are many ways to do this, and the use of books and reading can be a great opening to a discussion on giving.

Books that help

One book I really like is The Berenstain Bears and The Messy Room.  In this book brother and sister bears’ room was a mess and they argue with each other quite a bit about who should tidy up instead of working together to get the job done.  This book is helpful in that it will teach children to do their fair share in keeping their spaces clean without arguing. It teaches children responsibility.

Another book by The Berenstain Bears is Think Of Those In Need.  As with all the books in this series, this one teaches a timeless lesson as well as principles easy for little ones to learn.

They also help parents in demonstrating a good way to handle sometimes difficult situations.

Teaching organization equals success

It’s never too young to begin to teach your children the basic principles of de-cluttering and organizing. In doing so you are instilling important values: one of which is that the important things in life are not things.  Abundance does not equate to success in life.  In fact, abundance can equal debt and misery and lead to hoarding tendencies which can lead to hoarding.

This is something we all need to think about.  My clients learn that to be successful in life, school and work, they need to be organized.

If you or your children have trouble letting go and think you may need some assistance, contact me for a free telephone consultation.  We are only a phone call away!