My 6 year old folds his own clothes and puts them away. You can have the drawers neat and tidy or you can have them help, but at that age, you can't have both.

My 10 year old can't keep clothing neat in drawers, but she can manage them in her closet with success. We hang as much as we can and limit drawers to socks, tees, running shorts, leggings, and underwear. Even jeans get hung. Otherwise, it's a tangled, wrinkled mess.

I have a 3 year old, and I don't generally fold his clothes. We have bins in his room for pants, shirts, and undies and just toss things into them. He knows they have to stay in those bins, but they don't need to be folded up. Makes life easier on all of us, and honestly, it's not like his clothes get wrinkled (or like it matters).

10-11

This doesn't really follow what everyone else is saying, but anyways. My mom made me sort clothes, match socks, and put dirty clothes in the hamper when I was three. Then when I was 4 or 5 she made me fold all of my clothes and put them away. When I was 8 or so she made me fold her clothes. Then when I was 11 or 12 she had me wash clothes, towels, sheets, etc.

Anonymous wrote:At age 3 I started making mine put their own clothes away in drawers.
I would fold it for them and lay it folded, in piles on their floor. pants together, tshirts together etc, they had to put them in the drawers....Once a month I would go through their drawers and tidy them up. I think its more important they learn to do these things for themselves than how tidy it looks.

3 is old enough to make their own beds too, might have jammies hanging out the side and stuffed animals all bumpy underneath but I was ok with that, It got neater as they got older

Same here. My 5 year old knows exactly how her drawers should look at this point and knows she is not supposed to junk them up. She puts away all her piles.

"We've had a few occasions in which a meltdown by one the kids resulted in a drawerful of clothes being thrown around the room."

Tee hee.

Another nanny here...5 year old twins (almost 5 1/2) are responsible for putting their dirty clothes in the proper location. They also put away their clean, folded clothes after I do the laundry. Any clothes that they take out and decide not to wear have to be refolded (if necessary) by them and put away. They've been putting their own laundry for over a year now and refolding things for about the same amount of time. They learned how to refold pants and shorts first followed by shirts and underwear a few months later. One can do socks while the other is still working on it.

We've had a few occasions in which a meltdown by one the kids resulted in a drawerful of clothes being thrown around the room. Once calm the child had to refold all of the clothes and place them neatly in the drawer...one does better with the neat part than the other.

5 and 3 year old don't fold yet, but will help put away laundry. They also put their dirty clothes in the hamper, help put clothes in the washer/dryer, etc.

I probably will add folding within the next couple of years.

Nanny here- I've had the kids help with laundry since they were 3, fold & put their clothes away since they were 4. The folding and putting away wasnt always super tidy, but it's their chore and they try their best!! Now that the twins are 5.5 the folding is actually pretty good and the drawers look great.

At age 3 I started making mine put their own clothes away in drawers.
I would fold it for them and lay it folded, in piles on their floor. pants together, tshirts together etc, they had to put them in the drawers....Once a month I would go through their drawers and tidy them up. I think its more important they learn to do these things for themselves than how tidy it looks.

3 is old enough to make their own beds too, might have jammies hanging out the side and stuffed animals all bumpy underneath but I was ok with that, It got neater as they got older

My 5 year old twins both fold towels and match socks while I fold the rest of the clothes. Then they take their clothes up to their room and put them away in the drawers. They don't always stay perfectly neatly folded, but they are all away in the correct drawer or hung up correctly. They also put all their dirty clothes down the laundry chute. So there are never any clothes out.

My just turned 3 year old puts his dirty clothes in the laundry chute, and puts his clothes away but I go up with him and direct him on where some if the clothes go. When left to his own devices he just opens a drawer and shoves all the clean clothes in that drawer. He doesn't do any folding yet.

Can you compromise and give up on the folding, and just have them dump their clothing in the right drawer? This is the approach I'm taking with my 4-year-old; every once in a while I fold the stuff that's in the drawers but mostly I'm ok with it just being out of sight in the right place. I figure folding will happen when she's older.

I still put laundry away for my five year old. I don't think I really did it myself as a kid until I started doing my own laundry at age 11.

Ongoing struggle with 5 year old, now 3 year old tossing clothes too! How neat are your kids rooms?