Helping your teen organize her room can be fun if you have the right attitude and give her some freedom.
A teen's room is her sanctuary. It is the one place where your teen can show who she really is. Unfortunately, sometimes who she is happens to be a messy, cluttered slob. Most teens do not mean to be messy; they are just unorganized and overwhelmed. One of the gifts a parent can give their teen is a background in organization, which will serve them well for the rest of their lives. While your teen's room can still serve as her sanctuary from the world, there is no reason why it cannot be a neat one.
Instructions
1. Involve your teen in the organization project by sitting down and talking to her about it. Encourage her input and give her a sense of responsibility over the results. Find out what she uses her room for so that you can help her set it up in a way that works best for her. Put on some music she likes, get some snacks and drinks, and try to make this lighthearted and fun.
2. Respect your teen's privacy. Teens are very fussy about others going through their things. Explain that you want to show some respect, but that you are there to help her. This means that your teen will have to do a lot of the work herself.
3. Set up four piles or bins: one for things to toss, one for things to keep, one for donations and one for undecided items. Let your teen pick the charity where she wishes to donate her stuff.
4. Start with the closet and remove everything. Sort through clothes and remove items that do not fit, items not worn often and items not in good condition. Place off-season clothes in the back of the closet or in storage bins under the bed. Use a shoe rack to keep shoes organized.
5. Place similar clothes or colors together in the closet: pants with pants or light colors with light colors. Go through the clothes in the dresser drawers and sort through those, removing unwanted items, grouping like items in the same drawers and storing off-season wear.
6. Start with a corner and work your way around the room, having your teen place each item into the appropriate pile or bin. Do not forget desk drawers, shelves, books, and other items. Let your teen decide what to keep and do not give her a lot of grief about it. It's important to make sure she feels a part of the process.
7. Take the items you want to keep and put them in clear plastic storage bins or labeled baskets. Take advantage of bookcases and shelves for storage by placing commonly used items in bins or baskets. Organizing these items makes them easier to put away and more easily accessible and less forgotten than if they are placed in drawers.
8. Install a high set of shelves near the ceiling to display 's trophies or keepsakes. That will free up accessible storage space. You can also gain extra storage by buying a set of bed risers to give your teen additional clearance under the bed.
9. Put up a cork board to hold pictures, programs, school notes or papers, or make a similar board from lightweight wood, fabric and crisscrossed ribbon.
10. Set up a desktop file system with color-coded folders to store schoolwork and class papers. You can even create a time-coded system that keeps projects and materials organized by date.
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