It’s easy to practice sorting in your house. Here are a few ways to teach and practice sorting — and if it helps you get the house in order, so much the better!

1. Laundry
There are so many possibilities here! Have your child sort the dirty clothes by whites versus colored clothing. He can sort and pair clean socks. Ask him to separate the clean laundry to go to each member of the family. (Bonus points if he folds it, too).

2. Toys
Practice sorting when all the toys are scattered around the floor. Separate them by type, color, or size. If your child has a big collection of dolls or action figures, set out a few boxes and have her sort them by color, size . . . whatever she wants. Then you can have her put them away.

3. Eating utensils
Have your child put away the forks, knives, and spoons in their separate compartments.

4. Legos
Have your child sort them by type and color, which will also help him keep them in order (and off the floor so you don’t step on them with your bare feet!).

5. The mail
Have your child look through and sort by who the letter is addressed to. If they’re all for you, he can try separating bills from advertisements. This is also great reading practice for your child.

6. Books
Get those bookshelves organized! Have your child sort by author or by type (picture books versus chapter books, for example).

7. Food
Straighten out your cupboards. Ask your child to sort out cans, boxes, baking needs . . . whatever works for you.

8. The junk drawer
Everyone has one (even if it’s not an actual drawer). Help your child put pens, pencils, rubber bands, paper clips, and other assorted “stuff” into separate piles. (Just make sure you remove any sharp objects, like nails or scissors, yourself.)

9. Photos
If you have a big pile of photos, sort through them with your child. This is a fun project to do together, since you can tell your child stories about some of the pictures.

10. Spare change
Have your child sort through the coin jar, separating coins by type. This will help her understand the value of different coins. Have her count the pennies to work on counting skills.