My Family's Long-Term Plan for Raising Children Who Can Organize: Nursery School Edition

I want to raise children who can organize and tidy up.
That is the thought behind the long-term plan I have been putting into practice in our home.

Hello! I am ron, a professional organizer who works full-time and lives in a compact apartment in Tokyo with my family of five (a 5th grader, a 3rd grader, and a 2-year-old).

Today, I am talking about organizing and storage during the "nursery school years," which I view as a period for sowing seeds.
What has become of the tidying skills of my children, who are now in 5th and 3rd grade...
I want to raise children who can organize from a young age. I would like to share the "seed-sowing" steps I have taken to achieve that wish.

1. Creating a system as an extension of "play"

They can tidy up at nursery school, but for some reason, they don't want to do it at home.
Have you ever thought that?
What I learned while observing during nursery school drop-offs and pick-ups to figure out why was to make "play" and "tidying up" a set.

Zoning by toy type
First, I categorized the toys.
I divided the play space into zones: "play kitchen," "playing shop," and "Tomica/Plarail."

My eldest daughter and eldest son are two years apart and have gender differences, so the toys they played with were different. By dividing them into zones, the toys didn't get mixed up, there were fewer fights?, and it seemed easier for the children to play and tidy up.

Regular room rearrangements
And what I did regularly was "rearranging the children's room."

When I went to pick them up, I noticed that the layout inside the nursery school classroom changed periodically. When I asked the teacher, they said, "We change the environment so the children don't get bored," so I immediately put it into practice at home.

When I rearranged the room, the children were overjoyed! I learned that "freshness" becomes motivation for tidying up and playing.

2. Practicing "keep or discard"

And the most important practice: "sorting."
I regularly reviewed items with my children.

Around age 2:Even if I asked, there was only one answer: "I need all of it!" (laughs) This is frustrating as a parent, but you have to be patient.

That said, capsule toy prizes, Happy Meal toys, and 100-yen shop toys received with kids' meals are fragile and lose their appeal once the peak interest passes, so I would secretly thin them out from the toy box and move them to a temporary storage box.
If they didn't say anything for a few months, I would dispose of them.

Around age 3:Even so, if you continue patiently, they become able to judge for themselves, "I don't need this!"
Although the things they answered "I don't need" were only about 10% of the total, it was still moving when they were first able to judge "keep or discard." Haha

Around ages 4 and 5:In our house, we get favorite toys for Christmas and birthdays.
Around this time, before Christmas or birthdays, we started doing "keep or discard" regularly because there was no place to put new toys.
Boys, in particular, are at the age where they want large toys. Tomica and Plarail-related toys would crowd the children's room.
But this period also passes surprisingly quickly, so now that they have graduated from it, those scenes are good memories.

By repeating "keep or discard," the "ability to choose" definitely grows.
I feel that this steady accumulation leads to later "independence."

Next time... Elementary School Edition

This is how the foundation was built during the nursery school years. When they enter elementary school, the types and amounts of "things" change completely! From toys to games. And the concept of "pocket money" also appears.

How did the "ability to choose" that we nurtured blossom?
I hope you will look forward to the next installment.