Having a Tween or Teenager can be very stressful in many levels.  Instead of toys taking over all the space it’s not electronics and sporting equipment.  My sister gave lots of valuable advice since she has two teens. One is to have an open communication with your child.  Second is have a home for everything and to minimize whenever you get the opportunity.

My son is used to the regular decluttering sessions we do in his room, the open communication of what works and what doesn’t.  The struggle we deal with is the clean clothes in the wash basket that never gets put away then dirty clothes get thrown on top making extra work for us.  Many times, this resulted in him having no clean clothes to wear to school.  I’ve learned to not worry about messing drawers with him if he puts the clean clothes away.  If he can’t find something, it’s on him.  He is realizing it’s better to roll the clothes, so they fit better in the drawers.  If he doesn’t put the clothes away when I ask him then he loses his phone. 

You would think that the home for his school bag and sporting equipment is right in front of the front door.  He comes home and just drops everything in front of the door.  We only remind him once to put them in the proper place or he loses his phone.  This has worked for us most of the time and now he starts to put these things in their proper place.

It sounds crazy but more storage is key!  You would think little kids need more storage and less when they get older, but that’s not the case.  Older kids have books, slime, arts and crafts, electronics, makeup, hair product, tons of clothes, shoes, hats and purses that all need homes.

Organizing is important to teach to Teens:

• Life Skill
• Sense of Respect to personal property
• Personal Hygiene

1. Talk to the Teens and LISTEN to what they want, and what doesn’t work for them.
2. Respect their things.  Even if you don’t think it’s necessary to keep some things, they might have a different reason for keeping.  If they have a space for it, let it be.
3. Have a declutter session with your teen. Have them go through their things with you and throw away anything they say they no longer need or want.  Don’t give them the opportunity to change their mind.  Have the trash bag handy and as soon as you are finished, put trash outside in trash cans.   Put any clothes that they outgrew or no longer in style in a trash bad for donations.  If there are any memories that they want to keep put them in a separate bin and properly mark as memories.
4. Think Vertical storage.  This idea can free up space in a child’s bedroom.
5. Think of using bins when possible.  Bins can keep memories safe, can keep out of season clothes clean and neat.
6. Labeling is key
7. Utilize a wall calendar to keep teen schedule and due dates.  Create reminder alerts in cell phone calendar.  Teach to be prepared for the day.  Create habits of packing school bags the night before.  Have a designated place to do Homework, where all the supplies re setup.   A floating desk in the child room maybe an option
8. Turn off technology- focus at task at hand and not distraction
9. Set a good example
10. Have a no food or drink rule in the bedrooms

The Most important DON’T Do:

1. Threaten to clean while they are not there.  You want them to do it, plus you are building trust issues, don’t make empty threats
2. Don’t make them do anything you don’t do yourself.  Lead by example
3. Don’t expect perfection
4. Don’t remove the door- builds trust issues
5. Don’t use bribery

Creating organizing systems and homes for all the teen stuff will help control the clutter. 

Remember Rome was not built in a day, it takes 20 days to create a habit!