If you want green or handmade toy options available for your children you need to get involved.

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Help save handmade toys in the USA – sign the online petition!

Funny now, but if my own kid did this I’d be in panic mode. If you’re planning a holiday shopping trip, especially at a busy mall or store, it pays to plan ahead and get organized.

1. If you have very young kids, a stroller is the safest place for them. With young kids who are old enough to walk with you try this:

2. Write your cell phone number on a piece of paper and give it to your child.

3. Take activities – the gameboy, a comic book, and a wagon are useful tool. A bored child may be more likely to wander off.

4. Have a good plan. Be sure that you’ve gone over and over what to do if you and your child are somehow separated. The first thing he should do is stand still and call your name – not “Mom or Dad” but your real name. If this fails he’ll need to get help.

Some experts recommend teaching your child to locate a security guard, but I think this is iffy. For one thing, kids can be scared of uniforms. Secondly, ANYONE can have a security outfit and name tag. What I’ve told my son forever, is that if he’s lost, look for a mama. Look and find a mama who has many kids with her, and tell her that he’s lost. While I don’t trust security outfits, I do trust other moms, because I know that as one, I’d help if a lost kid came up to me. Plus finding a mom is easy and more comfortable for most little ones to do.

5. Have a reward system: IF your child stays with you the whole time, offer an end of the trip treat. Bribes for safety are well-worth it I think.

How are you planning safe shopping this year?

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Your Organized & Safe Holiday Shopping Trip

The tip:

Don’t ask your kids to help out if you’re not prepared to hear the answer.

Here’s what happens – you say, “Hey Chris, will you please help me fold laundry?” Chris says, “No, I’m in the middle of something” or the much less desirable, “NO! I DON’T WANT TO!” Either way, Chris said no, but what usually happens is the parent then says, “I said I need you to help.” To which Chris says, “I said no, I’m busy.” To which the parent says, “Now I’m mad, come here and help or else!”

Don’t roll your eyes because I’ve seen conversations like this plenty of times between kids and parents. Here’s the deal though, you ASKED. If you want Chris to help and no is never going to be an acceptable answer you need to tell Chris that it’s time to help fold the laundry please – flat out.

If someone asks you to do something and you say, “Nope, I’m busy” and then that person tries to bully you into the task anyhow, how happy will you feel? Will you be more or less willing to help them another time? Probably less I’d wager.

Many parents I know, hate when I say stuff like this. They tell me, “It’s my kid, they have to do what I say” and other obnoxious stuff. But the rub is that wording does matter. If you want your kids to be helpful use words correctly. Even a small child knows the difference between tell and ask. Even three year old kids can make choices.

In my house, I’ve never forced my son to help clean if he’s dead set against it, and more often then not he still helps – maybe because there’s no pressure. The friends I’ve had who agree with the above idea, also tend to have kids that help out.

What do you think?  

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Rebel parenting kid and chores tip

Don’t be bossy: My son is naturally tidy (must be genetics) but it’s not all cake for me because he’s organized in a different way than I am. He’s a visual organizer, which I’ve discussed here before, meaning he’s tidy, but he likes to place stuff on top of shelving, on tables, in nice organized floor piles, and so on. I prefer items put in bins, or away in a file cabinet or closet. To me, part of decluttering means I don’t have to look at the mess. To my son, organizing means you place things nicely where you can see them. I’ve learned to live with this. If you and your child don’t see eye-to-eye regarding organizing tactics, you need to learn to live with it too. No two people are alike.

Never do a chore twice: If you ask your child to clean or organize something and you follow along behind him redoing the whole job, it’s insulting to your kid, and in the end what was the point of you asking him to do it in the first place? This is sort of like being bossy (see above) but now you’ve actually one-upped bossy and moved on to doing the chore for your child. No kid is going to want to help you out if you put down all their efforts by redoing the job.

Do it together: Doing chores together is way more fun than doing them alone. If you help your child to pick up his bedroom, it’ll get done faster, he won’t be overwhelmed, he’ll be happier to learn how to clean, and you can spend some time together. My son loves to chat while he helps fold laundry. Bonus, if you help your kids, hopefully they’ll help you with other cleaning. Respect goes back and fourth.

Work in kid sized chunks: Your idea of a good time may be to spend all day cleaning (wait – it’s not?) well, anyhow, your ability to stay focused on cleaning and organizing may be stronger than your child’s. Kids can focus, but asking them to spend hours at a time organizing is a little much. Break huge tasks (like entire bedrooms) down into bite sized chunks, over say, a week.

Don’t pay for cleaning and organizing: Unless your child has expressed a desire to become a professional organizer or a pro maid, don’t pay him to organize and clean. There’s nothing wrong with cleaning and organizing for a living, but as of yet, your kid is still just a kid. Cleaning and organizing isn’t his official job, it’s just what every house needs to run smoother. Paying for tasks that should be done anyway promotes arbitrary thinking. What’s your kid going to think when he grows up and no one is paying him to clean – he’s going to think, “So what if my house is a mess, I don’t see a reward, so why clean?”

What do you do to get your child to help clean and organize? 

[image via stock.xchng]

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How to get your kids to clean and organize

Toddlers tend to have a lot of mess, and no inclination to pick-up. Toddlers are in fact too young to pick-up on their own, so don’t even try – a big messy room looks insanely complicated to a little one. Your toddler should help, but not be in charge of cleaning. To make it easier on yourself, follow these tips:

Ban large toy boxes: Large toy boxes suck so far as organizing is concerned. All you do is lose items in that vast box. A better solution for a toddler room is to use bins, either on a shelf, or in a bin holder, and place all of one item in a bin. For example, blocks in one bin, big Legos in another.

Rotate like mad: Kids can end up with so many toys it boggles the mind. My son was the first grandkid on either side of the family and he was spoiled rotten by well-meaning friends and family. The problem – too many toys. To solve this issue, I rotated. Each month or so, I’d take out some toys Cedar had not seen in a while and pack up some he’d had out forever. He got new and exciting toys once in a while, and I had less to clean up on a daily basis. Go us.

Create zones: Anyone reading this blog knows I’m sort of obsessed with room zones. I use them for my home office and I use them for other areas of my house as well. Zones are particularly useful in toddler rooms. Create a cozy zone – with a big pillow and low bookshelf with reading material. Create an art zone with a bin shelf for art supplies and a small art table and chairs. Create a play zone by using a flat (non-plushy) rug in front of a toy shelf. If you create zones, and your child catches on, he’ll learn organizing by example.

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Organize Your Toddler’s Bedroom Fast

Baby Bronti Small Shelf Unit – made with earth-easy birch panels and child safe powder coated panels. From Glosto.

There’s storage and fun with the ducduc – parker Playtable – Paper Roll – this cool art table with a removable rolling drawer for storage is 100% hardwood, and created with non-toxic lacquered paint. From 2modern.

Jax Organic Storage Tower: Orange from Nest comes in other colors, but my son likes orange so there you go. This is storage made with organic cotton and a sturdy frame so it’ll last for years. From Oompa Toys.

With the above pieces, you can store toys and stay green, all at the same time. Yay.

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Three Green Kid Storage Solutions

To make it easy give each kid a bucket with their name on it. These aren’t storage buckets, but clean-up buckets only. At the end of the day, kids can scoot around the house with their bucket and quickly pick-up items that belong to them, then transfer said items to their proper resting place. You can use name labels or a permanent marker to write your kids names on the buckets, or simply assign them each a color.

If you need bucket ideas check out:

• Best Space Saving Summer Bucket for Kids
• Neatnix Stuff Bucket

[image via Scrunch-bucket]

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Quick kid clean-up tip

The Clean Up Game

Totally Cool Kid Pillow Storage

Toy Storage Your Kids Will Love & Actually Use

The Closet Monkey – Organizing a Baby’s Closet

Make Your Mornings (and Chores) Go Quicker

The Hardest Organizing You’ll Ever Do – Sibling Shared Room Organizing

Youth Room Dividers for Shared Bedrooms

Shared Sibling Rooms: Sleeping Arrangements

Shelving for Shared Sibling Rooms

The Wardrobe Goblin – One Very Handy Coat Rack

Visual Motivation – Tidy Baby Nursery

Great Summer Project for Little Organizers

Organize Potty Training

Best Space Saving Summer Bucket for Kids

Haba Kid Storage Box

Kid Storage Solution – Hip Kapsule Chair

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Organized Kid Round-Up

There are tons of kid storage perks with this box (or set of boxes).

• Boxes stack together
• Boxes can be rolled as a tower
• Large interior and colorful exterior
• Extra storage compartments
• Zippered side pockets
• Tags can be inserted into holders so your kids (and you) can identify the contents

Learn more about this Haba box.

[Image via Maukilo]

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Haba Kid Storage Box

Very slick potty, right?

[image via Boon]

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Organize Potty Training