How To Help Your Teens To Become More Organized

How To Help Your Teens To Become More Organized

Some would joke that the only way to motivate teens is to threaten or bribe them, well those may work but in the long run, they won’t teach your teen the valuable lesson of accountability {smile}.

As you know, teens never seem to lack motivation to do what they want to do — talk on the phone, meet up with friends, go to the movies, etc. But, when it comes down to getting them to do the things that we want them to do and the things that the need to do, that seems to be a different story.

Here are some tips that we as parents can use to help motivate our teens to become more organized.

Build your teens confidence by identifying the ways in which he or she is already organized. Everyone, including your teen, shows signs of being organized with some things. Teens love to be acknowledged for a job well done so if your child does a great job organizing his or her school work or his or her clothes, try to encourage them to apply those same organizational skills to the other areas in their life that can use some organizational help.

Teach them & Have fun. Perhaps your teen really doesn’t know where to begin! Socks here and there, books under the bed, clothes stuffed behind the hamper. All of this can seem like a battle for them that is useless to fight. Why not set up a date with your child to organize his/her space together. Turn on the radio (to their favorite station of course) and together work to de-clutter the space. Keep in mind that your organizational style my not work for them so ask them questions as you go along and try to help them figure out a way to organize things so that it is easy to keep up. Another fun way to get them motivated is to provide fun, funky and cool storage bins to use for those small items that seem to just collect in the corners of their rooms.

Set Clear Rules and Let them set the schedule: Be sure that you set clear rules as to what is allowable daily clutter and what isn’t. For instance, if you don’t allow food or dishes in your teen’s room, be sure that they are following those rules and respecting them. If shoes on the floor are OK, then let them know that as well. Teens need clear-cut rules to follow. Sit down with you teen and simply ask them “What day can you carve out at least 1 hr to do a full room cleaning?” and let your teen set a day (either weekly or biweekly). What this does is let them know you value their time and schedule and it makes them accountable.

Finally, be sure you reward and commend your teens organizing successes with either a small token of additional freedom or kind words. Keep in mind that being organized is all about being responsible. For a teenager, gaining trust and freedom from parents is one of the biggest motivations of all.

Want more tips on parenting your teenager? Visit Parenting My Teen. It provides free resources and a free podcast for parents.