You may have balked at some point while reading earlier posts whenever I talked about ‘letting go’, ‘throwing away’ or similar. Once you have found it in your heart and mind that something is no longer useful, though, that is exactly what you have to do. There is no point in soul-searching and sifting through your stuff if there is no follow-through afterwards, right?

The most important thing now is to be VERY realistic about what someone else might want or need, and what is simply not interesting for other people.

As mentioned previously, there is a lot of inconsistency when it comes to defining the term ‘clutter’ in the first place. To some degree that stems from the fact that – although having stuff lying around is far from a modern development – the idea of ‘clutter’ is a relatively new one. For the first time in history, many people can afford to buy that many things, and a lot of those things are either not made to last, or become useless very quickly. In addition, our modern society is built on consumerism and shopping has become a pastime for all. Of course, things are piling up in our houses…

I’ll reveal a dark secret today:

I have recently found two shoeboxes of assorted office supplies in my desk drawer that I have not touched in years. These boxes had been with me for as long as I can remember and one of them was a gift from my uncle who passed away about 40 years ago, and it has been used for office supplies ever since…

I’ll reveal a dark secret today: I have recently found two shoeboxes of assorted office supplies in my desk drawer that I have not touched in years. These boxes had been with me for as long as I can remember and one of them was a gift from my uncle who passed away about 40 years ago, and it has been used for office supplies ever since…

I went to work on that box straight away, applying my usual system to go through all the items quickly and efficiently: I dumped everything out of the box and started sorting it into categories.

Some people are bad for you. We have all had ‘friends’ who make us think that something we are doing or feeling strongly about is not good for us, or they disagree to a level that makes it impossible to follow through with our plans. They manage to make us feel bad, oftentimes without even realising they were doing it. The kind of person who reacts to everything you tell them with a negative spin, pointing out the dangers, or making you feel guilty about doing something nice, … the ones that feel like dark clouds covering our blue sky. Those people are holding us back, and sometimes it might be a good idea to think about distancing yourself from them in order to make your own life better.

After looking to get a better understanding of how your child’s room functions and what the different areas could be, you have seen a couple of tips on how to address the mess in a way that does not antagonise your child from the go. These things were pretty much about what is special in your child’s room and how it is different from your own bedroom and we have not yet addressed one area that appears to be very similar to one of the eternal adult clutter bugs: clothes!

As mentioned earlier, it is important that the child is involved in the decision about removing anything from the play space. That does not take away that you will have to make tough decisions and imposing certain rules, though, as long as you are consistent and reasonable. Also, don't forget that YOU are your child's main showcase example - if you don't follow any of the rules you expect your child to follow, why should they?

Here are some typical steps that should soften the blow…

After addressing the complexity that is the space in a child’s room, let’s look at what you really thought when the title “Children rooms” came up… an abundance of toys in the play space!

Keeping a play space clear of clutter is a big job, but there are a couple of notions that you might want to examine to get started. These questions offer important clues to ensure that you work WITH your child rather than against him/her: