Tame the Tot Tableware

• What: Drawer for kids dishes
• When: Birth to college
• Why: Help kids help themselves
• Where: Your home

Do you have kids? Tired of getting up from the dinner table to fetch them one more item? Want to raise responsible kids who know how to handle the basics, like setting the table and serving themselves?

Our drawer filled with kid-sized cups and bowls.

I can’t help you get your kids to make less mess, but they can take one item off your to do list.  Set them up for success with their own dish drawer (or cabinet or bin). Take the kids’ plastic dinnerware and make sure they can reach where you store it. Then, when they need a snack, a meal, or a drink, they can grab their own container. You spend less time arbitrating arguments over who got which color, and they get the satisfaction of serving themselves.

As an added bonus, when the dishwasher finishes its job, kids can help put the clean dishes away as well. We keep bowls cups, straws, and our small IKEA containers tucked inside a medium height drawer. (I would have plates in there, too, if I had room.) Younger kids can spend ages taking the dishes out (and maybe putting them back in with some help), and by the time they reach two, they can easily fetch their own stuff. Kids can pick the size they want based on how hungry they feel.

Now if only I could get them to take over the grocery shopping as easily.