It doesn’t matter if you’re a small family of two or a large family of six, having an organised household creates a sense of stability, reduces stress and supports the wellbeing and development of children and young people.
In this blog, we’re going to explain the importance of maintaining a structured household and share our biggest tips for creating an organised home for your family.
Why is it important?
It might not be too hard to believe – but having an organised household is key to helping family life run a little more smoothly. Not only is it beneficial for adults in terms of reducing stress and promoting a more relaxed and comforting environment, but it can have vast benefits on the development and wellbeing of children.
Key benefits of having an organised household – for children
Children are more likely to be focussed and productive when they have structured and organised surroundings. It can help enhance their health and wellbeing outcomes, improve their self-confidence and encourage good and long-lasting structured behaviours throughout their lives.
Some of the other key benefits of maintaining household structure, for children, include:
- A greater sense of security and safety
- Reduced levels of stress and anxiety
- Improved concentration and cognitive function
- Increased problem-solving skills
- Improved time management skills
- Improved emotional regulation skills
- Enhanced respect for belongings and space.
Key benefits – for adults/ caregivers
Adults have similar benefits to children when they adopt organisation and routine into their home life. Having an organised home is proven to reduce stress, improve focus and increase productivity for adults and caregivers. It can also improve a range of other health and wellbeing outcomes, ranging from sleep to mental health.
How can we create and maintain and organised household?
We can do things semi-regularly and regularly to ensure that we’re creating and maintaining an organised household for ourselves and our children.
Semi-regularly
Some things you can do on a semi-regular basis to improve household organisation includes decluttering your home and major living spaces. Try to look for things that no longer serves you purpose and throw them out if they are no good/ rubbish or consider donating clothes and useable goods. With items that you want to keep, try to look for ones that can be grouped together or stored individually, then find a suitable place to store them.
When storing items i.e. heavy winter clothes or items that you’re not planning to use any time soon, you might want to put them in a box and label that box before putting it away. This makes it easier to find them later. You should also assign a home for everything that you own. This can help reduce unnecessary clutter.
Regularly
Some things that you can do on a regular basis to add and maintain structure and consistency to your home include:
- Establishing and maintaining a cleaning and chore schedule/routine with each member of the household being responsible for certain tasks. Check out the Child Development Insitute’s website for more information on age-appropriate chores for children. When creating a cleaning schedule, it’s also helpful to identify chores that need to be completed on a daily, bi-daily and weekly basis
- Planning your meals each week before you go grocery shopping. This can help you if you’re budgeting and trying to maintain order and consistency by only purchasing what you need. Using the items you purchased, you can meal prep for the week and save time for other important tasks like helping the kids with homework, sports or after school activities
- Keeping the kitchen and bathrooms clean and countertops clear when not in use
- Putting things away after use and encouraging children to do the same
- Having a regular laundry schedule and sticking to it
- Making the beds daily
- Cleaning up main living spaces before going to bed
- Helping children to stay on top of their homework and other curricular activities.
An organised home is more than just structure
If you’re a caregiver, it’s important to remember that having an organised home is more than structure. It’s also about finding and making regular one-on-one time with your young ones.
The quality time that they spend with you is just as important for their health and wellbeing and development outcomes. When creating an organised home, make sure that you’re accounting for the times that you’re showing up for and spending quality time with your children, each day. For more information on how to bond with your child, check out this earlier blog of ours.
Anglicare’s Family Support Programs
We provide a range of Family Support Programs to support families with setting goals and finding solutions to improve the lives of their children. This includes Children and Parenting Programs and a range of Family Wellbeing Programs. To speak with a member of our team, please call 1300 114 397.