Closet organizing tips for back to school

Jul 30, 2012 9:00 AM by Christina Holt

Posted in Parenting / Age by Age / School Age Kids

Involve your child in the organizing process

Tip: If your child is having a hard time letting go of old items, place the items in a sealed box and put them in storage for a month. After the month is over, allow your child to determine if he or she really needs the items.

Kids often like to feel useful and needed when it comes to chores, especially when it’s an activity that can be done with a parent. By involving your child in the process of cleaning out and organizing his or her closet, you can work together to get rid of any outgrown clothing, toys and items your child doesn’t need or use and then turn it into a positive and fulfilling outcome.

Plan a yard sale and allow your child to keep any and all money made from his or her clothing and toys.

Take your child with you to a donation center or organization and explain the process of why donating items they don’t need, use or want anymore can help other children.

Take outgrown clothing to a resale shop and allow your child to pick out new clothing.

Organize your closet in 15 minutes >>

How to organize school clothes

To build your child’s independence and confidence — and hopefully decrease morning battles — organize your child’s closet to make dressing for school an easy and positive experience.

Use closet organizers to maximize your space and separate clothing into shirts, pants, sweaters, etc.
Hang hooks in your child’s closet or from the back of a door to hold jackets, hats and other accessories. For younger children, use a child-sized coat rack or mount the hooks at a lower height.
If your child wears a uniform to school, separate weekend clothing from school uniforms to make locating school clothes easier.

Tip: A hanging sweater organizer or stackable bins or drawers help to organize and hold daily clothing for young children. Involve your child in picking out his or her clothing at the beginning of the week to fill the sweater organizer for the week ahead.

Using closet organizers with younger children

Even a preschooler can have an organized closet. In fact, preschool is a perfect time to get your child involved in picking his own clothes for school and dressing himself. When a child reaches the age of 3 or 4, he will likely want to do everything on his own, but is also tuning his fine motor skills — zipping a zipper, buttoning a button, learning back and front, inside out, etc.

Best small closet organizers >>

Getting dressed for school tips

Decrease the morning battles over getting dressed before school by implementing these tips:

Leave your child enough time in the morning. Don’t expect your child to get ready and out the door in just a few minutes.
Set expectations. If you allow TV watching or other before-school activities in the morning, require that your child be dressed and ready to go before watching TV.
Create a reminder chart. A reminder chart can be a dry-erase board, sticker chart or magnet system. Place your reminder chart in your child’s room so he can check off his morning responsibilities. This can help cut down on the amount of times you ask your child to get dressed.
Organize your child’s closet to meet his needs and make sure the clothing is at his level.