How to Organize a Kid’s Room

Is your child's room an absolute mess and in need of organization?! Are you sick of not being able to find jackets, backpacks, toys, or whatever else you're frantically searching for as you're heading out the door? Fear not! These simple tips for organizing kids rooms will have you on the track to tidiness in no time!

GET THE BALL ROLLING

Involve your child in the organizing process, and your results have a higher chance of success. Keep in mind that your child's room will not always be clean, but getting it presentable is the goal. If everything has its own place, the room is less likely to look like a battle zone on a daily basis.

Get down on your child's level, so you can get an eye-level view instead of the birds eye view that you're used to. We're going to organize things for them, so they can keep it clean. Sounds like a joke, right? If you make things fun, pretty, and simple, they just might keep it clean. 😉

TACKLE TOYS AND KIDS BOOKS

Back in the day, you could buy a toy box, and it would fit all the toys in the bedroom. Now, it's completely different! Most kids have so many toys that they need a closet to hold them all. Plus, they've got books, electronics, and who knows what else hiding in every nook and cranny imaginable.

Sort, simplify, and purge. On Pinterest, I saw a LEGO wall. It could get expensive to make, but is totally genius. Cover a portion of the wall in the flat green LEGO pieces, and then your kid(s) can stick their LEGOS to the wall instead of having them spread out all over the floor.

Scale down a bit. Of course all of their toys are their favorite toys, but there's no reason to have so many toys that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on organizers to keep them contained. If you start early, your kids will actually enjoy donating their toys. I know it sounds crazy, but we make it fun – and we remind them that the toys are going to kids that aren't as fortunate as they are – and there are no tears. We don't give away their “best friends”, but if something hasn't been used in a while, there's no reason to keep it. If your kids are too young to be okay with donating, simply rotate the toys each season and they most likely won't miss a dozen toys each time you do a small purge session.

For stuffed animals, we use the toy hammock, and then for books we use a 9-cube organizer. I got this one for $40 on Amazon.

You can even use shoe boxes to contain small toys, cars, etc. I've also seen rain gutters used for holding books, Hot Wheels, and other small items. Whatever works for you is fine!

CONQUER CLOTHES

Is there really a reason to have 30 t-shirts for a toddler? Most likely not. Those singleton socks are never going to find a match, so holding onto them “just in case” is a waste. Scaling back on the amount of clothing your child has is almost always a good thing. While you want them to have some choices, too wide of a variety is overwhelming and there's really no need for it. Also, storing out-of-season clothes in the garage or in another bedroom is ideal, so you have more space for everything else that's being worn currently.

Sometimes people ask me, “How many sets of clothing should I keep?”. That answer varies, but I think 10 outfits for a toddler or even a preschooler is a great number. Older kids that go to school will want more, so they don't have to “wear the same things all the time”, but ideally you should purchase tops and bottoms that can mix and match, so they have different outfits all the time without having 8342939 pieces of clothing taking over your house!

EVERYTHING ELSE

I absolutely love my label maker! While I use it all over my house, for pretty much everything, it's especially helpful when it comes to organizing kids rooms. For younger kids, you can create toy bins with labels (and attach a photo if they're not to the reading age yet), and you can also use labels on dresser drawers, shoe boxes, and bookshelves. Labels make things fun!

What's your best tip for organizing the kids rooms?