My daughter (11) collects a lot of stuff. She is particularly fond of notebooks and purses. I’m particularly fond of clutter free floors. So we compromise. If she can keep the stuff in her room off the floor in some kind of orderly fashion (not just piled 10 feet high on her desk) then she can keep it, otherwise it has to go. Meaning I will remove it from her room and give it away. I’m nice like that :)
This works for a number of reasons:
- It removes the power struggle between us and puts the onus on her to keep her space tidy.
- It allows her to be responsible for her own things and how they are displayed.
- It allows her to get creative coming up with fabulous organizing solutions.
Here’s one of them:
All on her own she came up with idea of using a skirt hanger to hang up all of her bags. Bags that are now no longer on the floor. I think it’s brilliant but then again I’m her mother and might be a little biased :)
I’m starting to think Org Junkie Junior might need her own little column here sometime soon, what do you think?
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I might have to steal her idea for my daughters’ (3y/o and 18 months) purse collection….who knew a child could have SO many dress-up purses…they are starting to overflow the canvas box they are currently housed in.
I love it! How can it be that our daughters get so much stuff? I am an organizing junkie too and I always dream she’ll be sorting and purging for fun someday too.
Her door looks eerily similar to Annie’s! (Except that Annie’s are all hanging from one of those over the door thingies with multiple hooks.) I do believe a love of bags is yet another thing they have in common!
Awesome! I love that idea and may have to steal it for my own :)
That is so cute – and what a great idea!! She is a budding organizer, for sure :-)
I threatened that lots but never follow through. I guess maybe that’s why we constantly have the power struggle.
How creative of your girl. The apple doesn’t fall from the tree, now, does it? :v)
You are such a wise mom! Teaching your daughter and giving her reasonable guidelines! She definitely needs her on day too post ! :)
I think she is doing a great job!!! :)
We use one of those older style shoe racks with the pegs instead of pockets for our dd’s hats and purses too! But the pants holder with clips reminded me that would be perfect for the back of the front door to clip scarves and mittens!!!! She is an inspiration too, there might be a new guest blogger soon!
They learn from example what an awesome example she is learning from.
I made this rule for myself as well! I have two large cardboard boxes with lids from IKEA. One is for sweaters and the other is for purses and hats. If the boxes are too full, something needs to go!
I think that was a fantastic idea that she had!!! My daughter likes to collect and keep things as well…so we do a lot of compromising as well…LOL! :)
Great compromise:-)
Compromise can be a great motivator for creativity!
This doesn’t really have anything to do with this post… but I was wondering if you have found anything to organize your freezer. We have a stand up freezer and I thought it would be nice to organize the meat into color coated bins or something. You know one for beef, chicken, fish, pork, etc. Just wondering if you know of a product..
Thanks..
She totally needs her own column..or she should be a guest blogger. She is such a terrific girl!!
Excellent idea! I think I do see a new Orgjunkie-jr coming soon! :-)
Aghh, my daughter is so anti-cleaning. I know that you are more into organizing than the cleaning of the house, but I am beyond frustrated with her. Getting to help her clean up is like pulling teeth! Literally. We have been fighting with each other all morning. My boys just dig right in. But for her, the moment the word clean up is mentioned, the whining starts. Crying, complaining, pouting and so on. Do you have any ideas? maybe your daughter has some ideas for other kids? Maybe that could be a new feature, organizing with kids or something along those lines. Any advice you have though I would love to hear it. Sorry for the novel, it is just that today was exceptionally bad with her!
You know if you give her a regular guest spot it just might motivate her to get even MORE of her stuff organized. Just think, a couple times a month she could be making bins, labeling things and cleaning out her closet!
That IS a great idea…put it up or give it up! I like it-I have a 13 YO that collects well, everything!
Ugh!! I wish I saw this TWO weeks ago before I threw out my skirt hangers!! I never used them, so out they went!
Sigh…and I really needed this! Now I just use suit hangers for skirts. I don’t have that many skirts anyways.
Tell your daughter for me that is BRILLIANT and I will be using it for our two daughters. :)
She is a girl after my own heart – notebooks and handbags RULE :)
~Marcia~
I really think that Org Junkie Junior should have an occasional column..
She should write a guest column. It could be: “What’s it’s like to live with a completely obsessed mother” and my kids would be her number 1 fans. Then again, they may beat her to it..
I’m a born organizer and have finally had to accept that I have not passed along my organizing gene to my daughter (age 16). As frustrating as it is/was, there has been real freedom in realizing that we have different hard wiring and that, to her, mess/disorganization is as comforting to her as it is distracting and unnerving to me. As a result, we have devised new definition for her for a clean and organized bedroom. Finally, peace!
Oh Elaine that is awesome. Yes we are all different for sure and trying to get our kids to conform to our systems can sometimes lead to many headaches that is for sure. I’m glad you found a middle ground…compromise is good!
My 19 yr old stores keepsake stuff just like I do. Packed in boxes, the box is number labeled and has an inventory of what’s in there, so he can find whatever he wants when he needs it. My youngest, OTOH, stores his stuff all over the floor….unfortunately he can’t find a thing. If your dd does a guest columnn, I’ll have to have him read it. Maybe it’ll get him motivated. I have added you to my blogroll, I hope you don’t mind!
I like that a lot! I have a purse organizer, but it is a long strip of fabric. This is a great solution, will have to pick one up! My girls & I both are big fans of purses & bags!