Do your stress levels elevate when you walk into your child’s bedroom? Are you sick of standing on little pieces of Lego and trying to guess which clothes are clean or dirty? A cluttered space can really lead to a cluttered mind and as the parent it’s your mind that is experiencing that clutter.

Meanwhile, your child may seem completely comfortable with living among the chaos.

If your child’s bedroom is full of mess and clutter it can impact them in a number of different ways. It can affect the way they sleep because the constant activity and chaos can make it difficult for them to wind down and relax at night. It can, therefore, affect their behaviour and emotional wellbeing as a lack of good quality sleep can majorly impact these things.

A cluttered bedroom will also be less appealing for your child. They may be less likely to want their friends to see it and they may be inclined to spend limited amounts of time in that space because it is not very “play friendly”.

On an everyday level clutter can cause a very practical issue. As you are running out the door trying to make it to extracurricular activities on time it may be a major spanner in the works when certain clothes or gear cannot be found in the midst of the mess.

De-cluttering your child’s room might just be easier than you think though. Rather than spending hours scrolling through Pinterest ideas and storage options, you might consider changing up some of the very basics.

Here are some very easy and practical ways to de-clutter your child’s bedroom

1. Are the toys in your children’s room actually played with? Take an hour to sift through the toys (when your child is not around) and remove the toys that are not being played with. You can pop them into a bag and store elsewhere out of plain sight. Sometimes less is more and having fewer toys may encourage your child to actually play with what is there. If they “miss” a toy you can easily bring it back to the room but they might just surprise you.

2. Fresh air is super important. Get into the habit of opening windows every day and doing a quick one minute tidy-up. Doing a little every day can make a huge difference and a burst of fresh air can really transform a bedroom.

3. Does your child have their own washing basket? If asking them to take their dirty clothes to the family laundry basket isn’t working it’s time for plan B. You can pick up a cute animal themed basket in IKEA or similar stores for as little as €5. Encourage them to put their clothes directly into the basket when they undress. They might respond well to the independence.

4. Give them daily bedroom tasks to complete and give them a tick or star on a reward chart for every day that they do it. After a full month offer a small treat as a reward. Daily activities might be putting dirty clothes in their laundry basket, making their bed and putting their toys away after they have played with them.

5. Make a no food rule in bedrooms. Trust me you’ll thank us for this one. Mess is one thing. Clutter is one thing. But finding rotten pieces of food amongst toys and under their bed? That’s a whole new level of stress!