frugalkendra I am a homeschooling mom of 3 boys. I enjoy couponing, frugal living, spending time with family and friends, church activities, reading and internet surfing. View all articles | Contact author

We have 3 boys ages 6, 5 and 4. Things can get quite mixed up and "fights" can ensue about whose is whose, so after number 2 came along I began color coding my boys. Since many items can easily be found in the primary colors, I chose Blue for our oldest, Red for the middle boy and eventually Yellow was assigned to our youngest son. Being that they are so close in age, many things I have to buy in 3's and this makes like much easier. Everything from hangars, kitchen plates, bowls, and cups, towels, closet organization, school materials(pencil boxes, folders etc.), laundry hampers, car and outside activity cup, toy clean up basket, car blankets. Anything that can be coded is coded. The boys know their colors and are very adamant about sticking to their colors, so this totally lessens the fighting about who gets what color, as they know which one they get. Sometimes, I can't get things in their color, but can get identical. For these cases, I use fabric paint or marker in their colors to identify whose is whose.

I would suggest color coding to any parent, it really makes life easier!