Welcome to ‘Day 20’ in the month long series of articles cataloging
 Simple Organizing Solutions!  

If you’ve been reading from the beginning, you’ve hopefully already, 1) Gotten the right mindset and motivation needed to get organized.  2) Zeroed in on one small area to focus your efforts.  3) Have begun narrowing down your belongings to what what you love, use and actually have the room to store. and 4) Considered how to cut clutter at the source by giving each item a specific ‘home’ stored in groups of like items (5) & set a maintenance plan in motion. 

Once you’ve been successful in harnessing the POWER of habit in your own life,  direct some time & effort in guiding your children in creating some positive habits that will result in a more organized lifestyle.

The HUGE benefit to you as a parent in guiding your children in this way is that the need to nag or constantly direct your children will be eliminated!

The best way to get kids started on new habits is with a checklist (just like I suggested on day 18) created just for them.  

Check out my article, about Routine Chore Charts for Kids  for even more examples and suggestions.

I have seen the use of charts/checklists work wonders in our own home –  particularly in the mornings.

 I started using a routine chart with our eldest child when he began attending school to help guide his activities to prepare for the school day as well as when arriving back home.   By the time he entered 2nd grade, he didn’t even need the chart anymore.  

Now, mornings flow extremely easily for him.  He moves quickly and efficiently through his morning routine as well as in the afternoon and it’s time to put things away and get a jump on homework or prepare for after-school activities.  It’s absolutely wonderful for me to not have to expend time/energy making sure he’s on task.  We do have opportunities for ‘reward’ that definitely help motivate his efforts, but as he gets older, the need for these lessens.

Our youngest child is currently still in the beginning phases of adapting to routine daily habits with the help of a chart.  I have observed he needs a little more ‘motivation and reward’ than his brother did to accomplish these tasks, yet I know the effort to identify how best to motivate and instill these habits in his life will definitely be worth it as a life long skill.