KonMari Method & Kids | Back to School Advice for Parents
I love working with parents and kids to get ready for back to school! Recently, I had a client with 7-year old daughters and a son who was willing to showcase their KonMari Before and After Photos! I know this is a very personal experience and I am very grateful to clients for allowing their spaces to be shared on my blog. We will focus on the clothing Before & After photos in this blog post and more details in another post coming soon!
To get ready for back to school, we completed the KonMari Method with her children, focusing on clothing, books, papers and komono (miscellaneous items). Here are our tips for getting ready for the school year with the KonMari Method!
1. Clothing
Start with clothing first. First pile it all together and sort into sub-categories. For this client, the children go to private school and require school uniforms so those were separated from non-uniform clothing. Check for:
- Sizing – children change sizes fast!
- Quality – children can be rough on clothing so checking for stains and holes is important
For younger children who are changing sizes fast, consider investing in 7-10 days worth of clothing TOTAL. This way, your child has enough clothing and it is likely you are doing laundry once/week (at minimum) and will not run out of clothing options for your child. This reduces the number of items you have that won’t last too long and reduces the decision-making process of picking out outfits each day because there are less options.
Secondhand Purchasing: I love purchasing secondhand or borrowing when possible to reduce our impact on the environment (fashion industry is 2nd largest polluter of our earth) and great finds for children (and women) are available on thredUP.
Pro Tip: I highly recommend matching hangers to complete the KonMari clothing category. My personal favorites are in this blog post.
We opted to hang the school uniforms in the KonMari After Photos for ease of use for each child.
Before Photo with clothing divided into sub-categories
After Photos of closets for each child
Clothing is divided into categories (dress, school uniforms, casual) and then by color
2. Books
Children often outgrow books year-to-year so staying up-to-date is important. In addition, it is common to have duplicate copies of books throughout the home so organizing these before the new school year starts is helpful.
Before Photo of Books
3. Papers
Most children over the age of 3 or 4 can make their own decision about keeping a piece of paper or their own artwork.
For parents, it’s important to get school papers organized and out of the house before the new school year starts. Consider digitalizing the important ones and discarding everything else.
Bonus Tip: Put resources and contact information from the school directly into you Phone Contact List right now. Then discard the paper it was written on. Take action right away if it takes 2 minutes or less and make sure it’s not a photo of the piece of paper because how easy is that to find?
After Photo discarded Papers and Boxes (the boxes were in kids bedrooms for storage & play)
4. Komono
This is where toys come in. Remember less is more.
Research has shown that children with less toys engage with the ones they own more effectively and to a greater degree to develop creativity, curiosity, skill development and deeper level of discovery. We all want our children to have meaningful levels of play with their toys so keep this in mind while tidying up. I recommend this article for more details on the research studies.
Bonus Tips for Getting Kids Ready for Back to School with the KonMari Method:
- Easy Lunches: Get your lunch supplies ready with environmentally friendly containers such as glass ones, re-useable silverware/utensils, water bottles and lunch boxes. Store all in one location – I recommend in your kitchen where you assemble lunches.
- School Supplies: Go through school supplies in the Komono category and store all of them in one location in your home. Put together what you need and don’t overbuy just to have new supplies.
- Backpacks: Get your kids backpacks ready by designating specific locations for storing each item in the backpack. This helps you find daily Homework assignments when they are always in the same folder and area in the backpack.
More Before and After Photos of the KonMari Method with Children!
