Inspire Your Kids to be More Organized
Here are a few books that will inspire your kids to be more organized.
I am often asked for suggestions on how to teach kids organizing concepts. Whenever this occurs, I recommend books that may help you teach and inspire them to become more organized. Happy reading!
- Just Enough and Not Too Much by Kaethe Zemach
- Little Critter: The Best Yard Sale by Mercer Mayer
- The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room by Stan and Jan Berenstain
- Clean Up, Grumpy Bunny by Justine Korman Fontes
- Suzie’s Messy Room by Diane Quintana and Jonda Beattie
- Benji’s Messy Room by Diane Quintana and Jonda Beattie
- Ophelia: Let’s Get Organized! by Vicki Dellaguila
- More by I.C. Springman
- Stressy Jessy by Carmel Shami
- Tidy Tessa by Naeemah Ford Goldson
- Little Critter: Just a Mess by Mercer Mayer
- Cami Kangaroo Has Too Much Stuff by Stacy Bauer
- Franklin Is Messy by Paulette Bourgeois
- A Place for Everything by Sean Covey
- Clean-Up Time by Elizabeth Verdick
- The Big Tidy-Up by Norah Smaridge
- Gray Rabbit’s Odd One Out by Alan Baker
- How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Room? by Jane Yolen
- Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
- Too Many Toys by David Shannon
- Fancy Nancy: Too Many Tutus by Jane O’Connor
Want more ways to inspire your kids?
Here is a great blog post by Joshua Becker, BecomingMinimalist.com
A few books that may help you teach your children and inspire them to become more organized. Share on X
Finally, do you need a little more help than a book? We especially love to help young people get organized and they love the specialness of working with a professional. Also, we love writing about organizing children. Additionally, you can find more information on this subject in some of our other blog posts.
Ten General Tips for Organizing Your Kid’s Toys and Books
The Time Timer
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Kids learn by doing and also through stories. I love the book references you shared as a great way to help kids get interested in and learn new organizing skills. I have fond memories reading the childhood story, “A Pile of Junk.” And isn’t it funny that I ended up being an organizer? Diane Quintana and Jonda Beattie collaborated on two children’s books to teach kids those skills. They are “Suzie’s Messy Room” and “Benji’s Messy Room.”
Also, I’m a HUGE fan of the Time Timer. I use it frequently for meetings, VO sessions, and workshops. It’s a product I frequently recommend too. As a visual learner, it’s much easier for me to feel and see time when it’s analog, not digital. And the Time Timer lets me understand time in a way that works so well with how I think and learn. As the red disappears, time elapses. Love it!
Thanks Linda. I’ll add those two books to the list.
I love the Time Timer as well. It helps me accomplish what I procrastinate on. I make it a game for myself to set the timer for a short period of time and work on that stuff I don’t want to do.
I was going to comment by telling you about the 2 books that Jonda Beattie and I co-authored but I see that Linda Samuels has already shared that information!
I love that there are several books on the subject and truly believe that teaching children how to organize at a young age helps them in throughout their lives. The best way to do this is through stories.
Diane, I’ll add your books to the list.
I agree that kids are learners at heart and will accept the teaching (sometimes better than adults). Get them young!
Inspiring and teaching kids basic organizing skills is something that will help them in the future. So many people will tell me they were never taught how to be organized. The cycle continues from family to child to new family. The visual timer is a very good idea for kids to see how long they need to work or how long they have to complete the work. It is also a way to teach organizing time. Associating a number (15 minutes) with the visual and how much work can be accomplished gives them a start on time management.
I find it easier to teach children organizing concepts easier than teaching adults. I think kids are less set in their ways and they are used to being taught something new every day in school.
We always enjoyed The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room book. There is a lot of wisdom is those books! I also love the books from Diane Quintana and Jonda Beattie!
The Time Timer is good for all ages. It just makes it so much easier to “see” the time passing. I love using a visual reminder when I am presenting because you can see at a glance how much time you have left.
Terrific tools to share with your children.
Great presentation tip. I’ll keep that in mind for the next time I’m in front of a group.
I’m a fan of organizing kids and helping them understand why organizing is important. Thank you for the collection of books. I will be sharing this one!
Thanks Sabrina.
It’s never too early to recruit the kids to help and understand why organizing is such a good thing. I will definitely be checking those books out – and we love the time timer in my house!
Great. Enjoying reading!
I love this approach; kids (and adults) make sense of their world through narratives and role modeling, so good stories about the value of organizing are great. I see everyone already touched on Diane & Jonda’s “Suzie’s Messy Room”/“Benji’s Messy Room” books, which are also great books to add to the lineup! The Zemach book is new to me, so I’ll have to check it out!
Thanks Julie.
I’ll be adding Diane and Jonda’s books to the list.