Teach children that when things are put in their proper place, everything fits. Buy inexpensive plastic school boxes where school supplies are sold. Cut a piece of white card stock so that it will fit when you lay it flat in the bottom of the box to use as the "guide-picture." Lay six to eight common school supplies on the paper and trace around each item with a pencil. Trace a glue stick, a box of crayons and child-size scissors. Add a pink rectangular eraser, pencils and markers. Use more or fewer items depending on their size. Color the picture to resemble the items that belong in the box. Make color copies of the picture on more card stock so that you have one for each box. Place the items that you drew in zipper baggies and lay the baggie in the box on top of the guide picture. Let your children dump the items out of the baggie and place them in the school box in the correct configuration so that all the items fit neatly.
Show kids that organization is not just about how things fit together, but why they do. Give children a group of four objects. Choose three objects that share a similar characteristic--color, texture or shape. Include one object in the group that does not share the characteristic. Let a child pick out the item that is different. Challenge him to explain why that object differs from the other items in the group. Be prepared for the out-of-the-box-minded child who may surprise you by picking something other than the object you intended him to choose. Let him explain why the other items are similar and why the one he chose is different. If his logic is sound, he has won the game.
Once kids have learned to organize stuff in an orderly way and practiced grouping like items, get them moving with a game of "Toy Mountain." Empty toy boxes and shelves, then pile all the toys in a great heap in the middle of a floor. When you say "go," the children run to the pile, grab a toy and decide where it belongs. Challenge the youngsters to work quickly, but to be careful to put the toys in their proper spot in an organized manner. Listen for giggles as kids run back and forth from the pile or puzzle over a toy if they have no idea where it belongs. Help them to brainstorm as they figure out the toy's destination. When the Toy Mountain is gone and the toys are organized, photograph the boxes and shelves and then hang the resulting pictures close by so kids have a guide to follow next time they put away toys.