Organized closets help girls get off to school quickly.
Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice --- but that doesn't mean they'll keep their bedrooms nice and organized. You can avoid the "Mom, I need my green skirt and I can't find it and oh yeah the school bus will be here in two minutes," last-minute frantic calls by helping your girl organize her bedroom. Does this Spark an idea?
Closet
First on the agenda is going through everything in the closet to make sure it still fits and isn't worn and torn. Remove all items. Vacuum the floor and wipe down the shelves for a clean start. It's boring for girls to try on every piece of clothing, so have her try on a selection of clothing: dress, skirt, tops, pant and short. Compare the rest of the clothing to the ones that fit by laying them one on top of the other. Put the clothes that fit and are in season back in the closet. Separate by item of clothing, color and then style. For example, tops would be together with all long sleeved tops grouped and then grouped within the long sleeves by color.
Seasons
Pack up out-of-season clothing in boxes after they've been washed. Even one wearing leaves skin oil and perspiration on the clothes which can cause stains in storage. If the girl is growing quickly, consider giving the out-of-season clothes to a charitable organization now. By next year your girl probably will have outgrown them.
Drawers
Same drill as the closet. Take everything out and inspect. Use drawer separators to separate underwear from socks, T-shirts and bras. Plastic baskets work well. Before buying, measure the depth of the drawer to make sure the basket isn't too high. Label the bottoms of the baskets so she'll know what goes in it even if the basket is empty. If there is limited closet space, jeans and long pants can be folded and kept in drawers, as well as T-shirts.
Jewelry
Jewelry gets tangled and mismatched. Sort by color. If there's a lot of jewelry, consider dedicating a drawer to it. Use egg cartons to keep all jewelry separate. Another option is to display the jewelry on a bulletin board or peg board. The colors of the jewelry add to the decor of the room. If that's not an option, hang the board on the back of the door. Hanging necklaces and bracelets keeps them separate. Keep earrings in the jewelry box or egg cartons.
School Stuff
Organize the desk with a stacking set of in-boxes. Crafts may also be stored in drawers made to hold screws and nails. Label desk drawers so there's no question about what goes where. Hanging dividers and folders make it a snap to store and find things when needed.
Music, Movies and Magazines
Plastic food-storage containers are the right size to hold DVDs of movies and CDs of music. The containers stack on wire shelving for easy access. Organize by type of movie or in alphabetical order. Tear out interesting articles or photos from magazines and save just those in folders. Throw out old magazines after a few months.
Tags: make sure, what goes, your girl
