Published April 1, 2025
The wise Benjamin Franklin famously said, “For every minute you spend organizing, an hour is earned.” Being organized allows you to stay focused, make the most of your efforts, and pave the way to success. With that in mind, this article offers nine simple tips to help your kids get organized!
Create designated spots for their stuff.
Everything has its place—or at least, it should. Teach your kids to put important things in one, designated place. Do they need to find their backpack? Or a house key? Or baseball cleats? If it’s right where it belongs, they know exactly where to find it. But if it’s not, they waste a lot of time looking for it, get frustrated along the way, and might even start to lose things. So, encourage them to find a dedicated place for everything, and help them get used to putting things in their proper places.
Get (or make) some handy tools.
We talked about finding a place for everything. But if you don’t have one, you can create one, with a few affordable products. A desktop organizer, for example, has a place for pens, pencils, and papers. Don’t want to spend the money? Repurpose empty jars or cans as pen holders, and decorate cereal boxes to turn them into paper/file organizers. Installing some fun hooks on the walls is a great way to keep backpacks, jackets, and house keys from cluttering up the floor. Hanging shoe-racks make for an easy way to store toys, and empty shoe boxes are great for organizing craft supplies and smaller toys like blocks.
Set them up with a to-do list.
Your kids have a million things to do, like homework, chores, and sports. And by the time they start adding random tasks, like writing thank-you notes or returning library books, there’s only one way to keep it all straight; a to-do list. Teach your kids how to make one, using a whiteboard, a planner, or even a piece of scratch paper. Every kid is different, so you may have to go through a bit of trial-and-error to find a method that works for them.
Help them learn to prioritize.
Once they’ve figured out their to-do list, the next step is deciding what to do first. Breaking things down into chunks based on when things are due is a great way to help them learn how to prioritize their tasks. What absolutely needs to happen today? Maybe that should be #1 on the list. Then move on to tomorrow and later this week. This is also a good opportunity to teach them the difference between “needs” and “wants.” For instance, they need to do their homework, but they want to finish building the Lego kit they started over the weekend. It’s important to allow room for both needs and wants on their to-do list, but helping them prioritize by getting the “needs” out of the way first will actually end up giving them more time to do the things they’re excited about.
Keep a calendar.
Similar to a to-do list, keeping a calendar is a great way to give them an at-a-glance view of what they can expect over the course of the week or month. Are they supposed to clean the bathroom every Monday? Put it on the calendar! Big project for school due on the 15th? On the calendar it goes. And don’t forget to add fun things like birthday parties, movie nights, and hangouts with friends—it’s always good to have something to look forward to.
Implement the two-minute rule.
As helpful as to-do lists and calendars can be, writing everything down doesn’t always make sense—making a note of every single little last thing can quickly become overwhelming. That’s where a clever tip from productivity expert David Allen comes in: “The Two Minute Rule.” It’s straightforward—if a task takes less than two minutes, do it right away. For example, if your kids need to pack a book for school, they should pop it into their backpack immediately instead of putting it off for later.
Break large tasks into small ones.
Does your child need to write a paper or read a long book for school? That can feel overwhelming, but breaking it into smaller steps makes it much more manageable. Encourage them to tackle tasks in phases—reading just five pages a day or starting a paper with research, then outlining, then writing in chunks. By taking it one small step at a time, big tasks become much easier to handle.
Develop routines.
We’re all creatures of habit, so helping your kids establish a productive, healthy routine can make a big difference. For instance, their morning checklist could include brushing their teeth, packing their lunch, and double checking that all their homework is in their backpack. After school, they might exercise for 20 minutes, make a healthy snack, and then tackle their homework. In the evening, they can wind down by getting ready for bed, jotting down a to-do list for the next day, and then reading a chapter in a fun book before lights out. When they stick to a consistent schedule, these tasks will soon become second nature, and they’ll find it’s much easier to stay organized on a day-to-day basis.
Your kids, like anyone else, have a lot going on. But if they can get organized, they can do anything. If you help them incorporate some of the items on this list, you’ll be setting them up for skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives.
Tags: organization, organizing kids, parenting tips