Storage Shelves, Baskets--Put the Kids to Work

While many people know the value of storage shelves, baskets make it possible for even the smallest members of the family to help keep the house picked up. Each room of the home has myriads of items nobody seems to know what to do with. Shelves for baskets allow you to organize similar things and tuck them away out of sight. Quality wood shelving with baskets used in the main rooms of the house will not only make everything accessible in the areas you use them, they will enhance your interior design. Since the baskets are easy to remove from the shelves and are open at the top, even small children can put toys, books and games away in their proper places.

Toddlers

Take advantage of a toddler’s natural tendency to stack items and place one thing inside another.  Store baskets you want your toddler or preschooler to use on the bottom shelf, and make a game out of filling each basket. Your preschooler won’t be perfect at putting things away, and you may find your car keys or wallet in the basket from time to time, but simply using baskets will reduce a lot of clutter.

Take a cue from the organized kindergarten classroom and temporarily affix a photo of each item that belongs in the basket on the basket front. Even young toddlers can match up the items with the photos; and not only will this increase their developmental learning skills, picking up after themselves will become a habit in no time.

Elementary School Kids

Children in elementary school are definitely old enough to understand the concept of sorting items and putting them away; they also have the motor skills required to do a task quickly and accurately. Make a game of cleaning up and see how fast they can make items disappear into their proper baskets.

For this age group, toys and clothes can be arranged in any configuration on storage shelves. Baskets can be organized by the type or brand of toy. Place Barbie and friends in one basket and K’Nex in another. To play, the child simply has to grab the right container. Stick a removable paper Post-it on the shelf in front of each basket as you set up the shelves so everyone knows where to put things. Older children will learn where everything goes in about a week; then you can remove the paper reminders.

Use shelving with baskets for seasonal gear in a mudroom or foyer to prevent a chaotic first impression of your home. You can either assign each child a bin of his own or use one basket for hats, one for gloves and one for scarves, depending on the age of your children and personal preferences. Basket benches allow easy seating for removal of boots and shoes. If the bench has a shelf, the family can stash more stuff, and, of course kids can always use the bench top for backpacks and projects.

Teens

 
Save the top of a bookcase shelf and higher baskets for big kids and teens. The baskets for this age group don’t need to be huge, as most of the items that will be stored inside are small. DS games, earbuds, iPods and more can be kept away from younger siblings by using the top levels of the shelves. Baskets can be made from any material and just need to be big enough to corral video game cartridges and similar items.

Do you need to organize your home? Consider quality wood storage shelves. Baskets give everybody easy access to their belongings and hide all the clutter. Arrange smaller children’s playthings near the floor at their level and bigger kids’ things in baskets on higher shelves. Simply making the switch to an organizational system of storage shelves with baskets will go a long way towards getting kids to put away their toys. Shelves for baskets make it fun to keep the house picked up for Mom.