How to Tidy the Youth Cupboard

1. Wear all of the lost property

In our experience, young people are really good at losing things, but rubbish at claiming them back. With that in mind, turn up to a youth session wearing as many abandoned items as possible and recreate that classic Friends moment: ‘Hi, I’m your youth worker, could I be wearing any more clothes?’

2. Play Tetris

We’re not suggesting dropping unwanted items on young people from a great height - but marking out an area on the floor and letting them know that their challenge is to fit as much stuff in it as possible. Give them a new item every five seconds until the junk spills out of the playing area. The group to fit the most stuff in their space wins!

3. Build a fort

Simple but charmingly effective – get all the stuff that you can’t find a practical use for, and turn it into a base to hide out in. If there’s enough junk, get young people to build two rival forts and test both for ‘waterproofability’.

4. Just chuck stuff out at random

All you need for this one is a coin. Get each item and toss a coin. If it comes up heads you keep it, if it’s tails, get rid. You’ll feel like a more organised and efficient Two-Face.

5. Give stuff away as prizes

Young people LOVE free stuff, even if it’s nothing but glorified junk. Take advantage of this by giving away all the stuff you need to sort out. You could hold a raffle, or a bingo night. We literally cannot think of a more glamorous prize than half a bag of sand or a second-hand beanie hat.

6. Make tidying a game

Split the room or cupboard in half, and the group into two teams, before giving them ten minutes to sort out their respective half. This works as an easy ice breaker for a youth session as well as providing your own private cleaning army. Perfect.