My Take on Organizing a Kid's Room

The goal is to make the kid's room kid-friendly so kids can find their stuff and enjoy spending time in it. Funny thing is kids don't just enjoy having lots of stuff. If they have so much stuff, they forget what they have or can't find what they have, it is time to purge! Kids can be happy with the simplest toys. All they need is a nice, clean area where they can play.

I prefer to clean clockwise through the room-- so you can see where you've actually cleaned and organized. If you haven't cleaned or organized in a long time, I would start with three big black trash bags. Just make sure you don't get them confused when you're working! I find it helps to keep them all in different corners of the room while you're working.

Bags:

1) To Keep
2) To Throw Away
3) To Give Away

If a toy is broken or missing pieces, I'm of the "throw away" mindset. However, I know some of you prefer to hold on to things- just in case. You may want to start a seperate smaller bag for these toys and the missing pieces when you find them. This bag should not be stored in the kid's room. I would keep it where you keep super glue, screwdrivers, etc. That's where you'll be fixing the toys.

Now the fun part--- ORGANIZE THE KEEPERS!

Store all the stuff like stickers, books, and crayons at the desk because that is where your child will use them. Store all of the jewelry, play make-up, and dress-up clothes together. Anything of like kind should go together. For example, all doll clothes, all Barbies & accessories, all purses and backpacks, and all shoes. It's important your child sees / helps you find good storage spaces because they are more inclined to have less questions later and pick up after themselves.

I have discovered that closets are often untapped areas. You can buy a hanging shoe organizer that is perfect for Barbies and other baby dolls. Anything that hangs and uses the space above the floor is excellent. Floor space is a hot commodity in a kid's room- even in the closet. Just like when you're organizing your kitchen-- use top shelves for things that are seldom used. Use floor space and easily accessible areas for things your kids need to be able to access on their own.

Collections can make you go nuts. If your child likes to collect stuffed animals, for example, encourage them to select a few favorites (3 - 5 max!) and store the remainder out of their room. Assure them that every so often, they can go to the collection and switch. That way all of their stuffed animals can be played with and no teddy bear gets lost or ignored for very long.

Another great way to highlight collections of smaller toys is by installing shelves around your child's room. They can customize what toys are stored on the shelves and they free up floor space.

Keep all art supplies together. I have a very young child, so I prefer to keep the art supplies in the kitchen on a super-high shelf. If you have an older child, they may be more mature and can handle the supplies being stored in their closet. However, I strongly warn against keeping anything that is not washable in your child's reach.

For those of you with lots of boxed puzzles and boardgames-- I have found it easiest to store them as if they were books with the titles all facing the same way. The logic in this storage technique is you never have to screw up a stack of games to access the one on the bottom.

Regarding those lovely papers that keep coming home from school... I tried the binder system (using page protectors and dividers to organize the priceless homework sheets and art projects.)However, I'm very sentimental and quickly discovered the entire floor of my closet was filled with plastic file boxes and binders overflowing. Now, I keep a scanner attached to my laptop in my kitchen. I hang the lovely papers up for about a week on the fridge or cabinets. After that, I scan them and throw them out! When I scan them, I have them organized in a file on my computer by month and year. After a year, I burn them to a CD and keep them in a CD Binder.

And this final bit of advice is from my Grandma-- She always told me that it's easier to keep it clean by doing a little bit at a time than waiting till it's totally a disaster and you have a time limit to get it immaculate. (I'm sure I paraphrased, but you get the drift.) So, I recommend getting the room tidy once a week, but encouraging your kids daily to put away their things before bedtime. (This is very logical, and can be explained to even a kindergartener.) What if you woke up in the middle of the night and had to run to the bathroom and you tripped and fell over all this stuff???? Honestly, this logic works with both of my kids.

Happy organizing! :-)