Can a Cluttered Room Have an Impact On Your Children’s Concentration?

05Aug
by Monica Luna Gonzalez

Although you might not think so, the clutter in your children’s bedroom can have a direct affect on their ability to concentrate. Clutter competes for children’s attention and therefore distracts them from the task at hand so the less clutter they have around them the better. Less clutter also benefits their health and helps with organizational skills so it’s a win win.  

What’s considered clutter?

Clutter is anything you have lying around that you don’t need and doesn’t bring you any added happiness.

A cluttered bedroom.

A child or anyone should have a bedroom that they feel relaxed and happy to be in, especially if this is the space they do their homework in. Providing them with a clutter free space will allow them to concentrate better on their school work and also provide them a more restful experience so they’ll feel better and in general do better.

How can I declutter my child’s bedroom or my own?

You can start by focusing on what’s stressing you out the most, the closet, the junk drawer, the toy chest. Pick one thing and stick with it until you finish. As an avid organizer, I’ll explain how I organize and declutter a bedroom. I start with the closet, then the drawers, and lastly the overall appearance of the bedroom.   

Cleaning out the closet and drawers.

1.Start by taking everything out.

2.Clean the space, sweep, or wipe down.

3.Go through every piece of clothing and decide if you are going to toss, donate, or keep it.

Toss if…

  1. It’s stained or torn beyond repair.

If you do plan on repairing something. Put it in a bag and put that bag in your car so it’s ready to take to the tailor and out of your bedroom.

Donate if…

  1. It doesn’t fit.
  2. You never wear it.
  3. You hate how you feel in it.
  4. You’re holding onto it because of who gave it to you.
  5. You’re waiting for that special day to wear it but you’ve had it for a few years.
  6. You’ll wear it once you lose weight.
  7. You have multiples of the same thing.

If sentimental value is making it hard for you to part with something, try taking a picture of the item so you can remember it and then donate the item. Focus on the fact that it will make someone else happy.

Keep if…

  1. It fits you, you like it, and you wear it.

After sorting through everything, place the keep items back in your closet and drawers. For the junk drawer you can use dividers, small boxes, tupperware, or dishware to help group smaller like items together. This makes accessing items easier and it improves the look of your drawer. I place like items together so if I’m looking for a t-shirt or dress i’m only looking in one place. It’s also a great idea to turn all of your hangers facing one direction, once you wear something and rehang it, hang it facing the opposite direction. Do an inventory check every 3-6 months and get rid of anything that you haven’t touched or that your children have outgrown. For my son, I group like items by size. So he has a 2T-3T section with like items grouped together and then a 4T-5T section and so on. Any miscellaneous items that are keepers but do not belong in your bedroom should be placed in their proper home.

Toy Boxes.

Ask your children what toys they would like to keep and which ones they would be okay with giving away. They might surprise you and be willing to part with a lot more than you thought. If they can’t bear to part with anything, use your best judgement and decide for them or maybe revisit the idea in a few months.

Toss…

  1. Broken toys.

Donate…

  1. Toys your child has outgrown.
  2. Toys your child doesn’t like or never plays with.
  3. Toys you have multiples of.

Overall appearance of the bedroom.

Flat surfaces/ Walls.

The less you have on display, the more you’ll appreciate what’s there.

  1. Clear everything.
  2. Wipe down the surfaces.
  3. Go through each item and determine whether you absolutely love it, use it often, or if it’s something you can get rid of or at least put away. Anything worth your wall space should trigger great feelings in you.

Don’t overthink an item. If your initial thoughts are “My husband gave me this” or “Maybe one day I’ll have a use for this” it’s time to part with that item. It’s normal to want to hold onto a few things for nostalgic reasons but nothing in excess.

Furniture.

I often see too much furniture in a bedroom. Taking out a few pieces can make a world of difference. Your six year old probably doesn’t need a crib filled with toys in addition to his toddler bed. Try simplifying your space, it will look and feel a lot better.

After you’ve finished this process and if you’ve been honest with yourself, you should see a noticeable difference in the appearance of your bedroom.

Decluttering your children’s bedroom or your own can be a time consuming task, but the benefits of your children having a place they can read a book in or work on homework without the distraction and the loudness of clutter is well worth the time.

What do you think?

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Monica Luna Gonzalez

Monica Luna Gonzalez is a certified Life Coach who works with parents by helping them learn to utilize their amazing parenting skills. She began this line of work after working solely with children for over two years and learning of a disconnect between a lot of the child-parent relationships. She is a mom of two children. Her oldest is a freshman in college and her youngest is shopping for preschools. She was a teen mom who graduated from Bell High School, despite the challenges that came from being a teen mom. She wishes she would have been prepared for college right after high school, which is why she wants to help others improve their children's chances for a better education. She is a non-traditional college student as she returned to college 18 years after graduating from high school.

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