One of the realities that comes with a house with children…is an increase in the amount of stuff. From the time they are tiny newborn babies, there is an incredible amount of equipment, toys, clothes, feeding gear, and goodness knows what else that comes along with an addition to the family. As a child ages, however, you might not only have the equipment and necessities to contend with–but many a child can be a packrat in his or her own right!
I am fortunate that not all of my children inherited their mother’s ability to save and cherish every piece of paper, photo, art project and book–not to mention other bits and snippets of memorabilia. I’ve gotten better over the years but I can see that at least one of my own children is going to wrestle with the realities of being a packrat.
Creating a family project around cleaning out drawers, boxes and closets can help to minimize a packrat’s tendency to cling to things. Having a purging session a few times a year where everyone goes through and cleans out unused, broken, and unnecessary items can be a very good thing. For the child who has a tendency to want to save things “just in case”–creating an organizational system where he or she has a place to store things can at least keep the household space neat, organized, and functional. A child may not be able to throw things out right away, but given a couple years, he can go back and sort through old items with more objectivity and be able to toss and clear when he’s not feeling so attached.
Some kids respond well to having a positive consequence or reward for clearing out unused and unneeded stuff–cleaning out the closet in order to go shopping for a new outfit, or purchasing something new for her room after she’s filled a box with items to be donated to charity. Packrat kids may always be packrats, but as parents we can give them some tools and coping skills to minimize the collection of unused “stuff” as they move into adulthood.
See Also: Is it Time to Clean Out Your Computer Files and E-mail Inbox?
Teaching Kids to Clean Out Clutter