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Kick Out the Clutter
How to Tame the Messiest
of Bedrooms
of Bedrooms
By Karen E. Baxter
Ten-year-old Jessica is a bookworm, while her brother Trae, 11, loves building things. Their mom, Shrenia Bockholt of Waller, Texas, happily encourages these hobbies, but she's understandably tired of stepping over the paperbacks and Legos that constantly clutter the kids' bedroom floors.
Meghan Shortt, 10, says she doesn't really care about the messy state of her bedroom and doesn't like for her mom to bug her about cleaning it. Perhaps, she says, a whole new room would motivate her to be neater, because then she'd want to take care of it.
The Bockholts and Shortts aren't alone. For countless families, particularly those with preteens and teenagers, messy bedrooms are an ongoing source of conflict. Fortunately, there are some painless, inexpensive and even creative ways that parents can help children get and stay organized.
"No matter how you plan and organize their rooms, some kids must take everything out and spread it all over the floor and bookshelves and make a big mess," says Deborah Wiener, an interior designer and mother of two boys. However, involving children in the organizing process and showing them how organization can protect their belongings and make their lives easier will increase the odds that they'll maintain order, she says.
Start by determining what the problem areas are. Does your child have too much stuff? Not enough storage? Or has she outgrown the entire set-up of the room?
Pamela Butz, a mother of three from Mechanicsburg, Pa., notes that clothes, shoes and stuffed animals are the biggest sources of clutter in her daughters' rooms. To keep things from spiraling out of control, she says, "Once or twice a year I rearrange their rooms to give it a fresh look, and that's when I enlist their help to go through things they've accumulated and clean out. It's always a fun project. They get a 'new room,' and I feel a little more organized."
