Decluttering with a Toddler

Dec 8

Toddlers are messy. That’s just a fact of life. B.G. is busy exploring her world and loves pulling all of her toys out of the bin. And not just toys, she’ll pull out DVDs, books, plastic containers, really anything in her two-foot-something reach which her excited little hands can grab.

At the same time, we do have to have some order to the house. Not only do we not want to live in chaos (ask my husband how I react when the kitchen is chaotic—I get a little overwhelmed) but we’re also teaching B.G. about taking care of a space.

Today, we tackled the bedroom, with specific emphasis on the closet. We decided to go through our clothes to declutter (perfect with the change of the seasons!). I also wanted to put my winter clothes down into easy reach, and move some things that I won’t be needing in the near future onto a shelf.

Because this was a job that both my husband and I needed to do, we took B.G. into the bedroom with us. To keep her entertained, she brought a few “living room” toys in with her. We had music going, because it not only keeps us motivated, she likes to dance to it. So cute.

She’s at the age where she just discovered she can help. And she loves helping. Of course, a one-year old’s “help” isn’t exactly what’s needed to get the job done, but she is very proud of being able to contribute. And it keeps her occupied, she is observing how tasks are done (and that they must be done), and she is slowly learning how to do simple chores. For example, if I have a big basket of laundry, she likes to hand the clothes up to be folded, even though she also likes to walk around with articles of clothing and may leave one or the other in some random spot if she sees something more exciting.

So working on the closet/decluttering the room, she’s walking around the room, going between her dad and me, chattering and showing off an item she’s found. Occasionally, she’ll want to help put items away.

About once an hour or so, she started getting restless in the small room and we’d come out for a snack or to exchange a toy. We also broke the chore up over two days which probably helped her to manage better.

So what’s next? The craft corner….