Children's clutter

Where does it all come from? Children's clutter seems tc breed and take over space at an alarming rate if it is not checked and controlled.

One of the most important thing to instil in a child is confidence. When a child feels loved, secure and happy, they don't have such a reliance on 'things'. Empower them by instilling clutter-consciousness in them at an early age so they don't become the clutterholics of the future.

Start by teaching your children to tidy up after themselves. When they get a new toy, decide together where its storage place will be so that they know exactly where to put it away when they tidy up. Periodically get them to make decisions about toys they have outgrown - which to keep and which to give away. Let them make the final decision, though. Something that may look to you as if it's died and gone to heaven may still have huge importance and years of usefulness for your child.

Childhood hoarding can stem from a number of factors. If your offspring seem untameable, realise that all children act out the subconscious minds of their parents, so if you find yourself repetitively nagging them, you will get better results if you work on your own clutter issues first. In other cases, hoarding is a coping mechanism for some kind of trauma a child has experienced, and is a cry for help that needs to be heard.