Don’t miss our easy tips and tricks to declutter your child’s room! Keep your child’s space neat and tidy with these simple ideas.
Of all the rooms in my house, I probably tidy up my child’s space most often. Their interests are constantly changing. They are constantly growing out of clothes and toys. And somehow they seem to accumulate more and more things faster than I can keep up!
After this recent decluttering of the nursery, I wanted to share some helpful tips and ideas to help make the process go faster and smoother. Hope these help.
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before decluttering the child’s room
I’m constantly debating how to share “before” photos in my decluttering posts. I mean, I definitely got a picture of a messy room with toys scattered all over the place. Anyone can take a picture of a messy room and then take a clean picture to make it look better.
I really wanted to focus on problem areas, areas that were cluttered even when the room was picked up. Here’s what the room looks like when placed in its “normal” location.
bed area
So you can’t see the bed area at first glance that too bad…
… until you look under it. These were actually toys that I raised to make room for the tree around Christmas time and never went back downstairs again.
The boys hadn’t played together in the last 3 months and wondered where they were so even though most of them weren’t favorites and could probably find a better home elsewhere It is no exaggeration.
toy shelf
Clearly, this corner was a bit more of an obvious problem. Toys piled up everywhere! Boys insisted on storing birthday party banners and hanging them in their rooms, causing even more chaos, and the ladder shelf became a “catchall” for everything.
closet
I found so many crazy things in this overstuffed closet that you didn’t want to know about them all. It took up most of the space and hid all the hand-me-downs I had painstakingly organized and put away.
Can you see the diaper genie out there? I haven’t had a diapered child in her 8 months or so, so just sitting there and taking up space has been very helpful to us. 😉 I thought I brought out all of Caleb’s 3T outfits for her. no. Two bottles were hidden behind his wedding dress, so this week he got a whole new wardrobe: mess, mess, mess!
art corner
Their little art corner wasn’t terrible, but the magazine files were full of old magazines and coloring books with no clean pages left.
The little cup I used to hold my boy’s markers and crayons started overflowing. But besides getting rid of broken crayons and dry markers, I got a big container to put all my useless trash in. How much does that make sense? zero.
How to organize a child’s room
Now that you know where you started, it’s time to start decluttering. Here are the steps to move from cluttered to organized…
1. Start with a blank canvas.
Can you see I was pretty sick of how cluttered their room was? There were so many areas I needed help with, so I started with my favorite tactic…I deleted all!
I wanted to paint, so I had to do it anyway, but it’s always helpful to remove all the ‘stuff’ from the space since you can start with a blank canvas.
2. Organize items into categories.
Having a blank canvas makes me more picky. Don’t undo anything unless absolutely necessary. While the room was being painted, I moved everything into the hallway and bedroom to organize it.
I put all the trains together, all the cars together, all the art supplies together, and so on.
3. Organize like crazy.
Categorizing everything made it easy to see where the excess was and what could be removed.
I threw away many things that were missing, broken, and dirty. I kept a trash bag on hand to store the donations.
I have some better toys that the boys aren’t using anymore, so I’m going to split them into groups and sell them on Craigslist and Facebook soon.
Finally, there were some items in those spaces that simply needed to be moved. I returned the plates and cups scattered on the second floor to the kitchen. Some of my crafts ended up in their space, so I returned them to my office.
4. Put the items back in an organized way.
Once everything was sorted out and the room was painted, I started putting it back in place. With every piece I brought back to my room, I tried to ask myself three questions:
- Is this what boys need?
- do they still use it?
- Is it of special value to them?
If you could not answer “yes” to at least one of these questions, the item was not returned to the room. I was really shocked at how many things the boys didn’t use and took up valuable space in a house that wasn’t too big.
When putting items back together, I used bins where necessary to enclose groups and keep categories of similar items together.
Since the boy’s room is multi-functional, I also created a zone. All their toys were on the ladder shelf. All the art materials were in the craft corner.
5. Enjoy a clean space!
I felt a sigh of relief when everything was back in place. Their room was no longer cluttered or overflowing with toys. The space only contained things they loved and used often. And they actually wanted to spend time in their room because they can find what they need quickly and easily!
No mess under the bed! yuppie! All the toys that were previously under it have been found somewhere else or have been discarded, donated or put in the “sale” pile.
Connor and Caleb went over everything that was once in this corner and helped us decide what we really needed and what we could throw away. I was proud that they didn’t insist on sticking to every little thing!
I was able to narrow it down to just what would fit in the designated spot on this shelf, keeping my floor space neat and clutter-free.
The closet also saw major improvements. My wedding dress came out of there, but it’s easy to see what’s in each remaining bin.
I threw away all unnecessary markers and crayons so I could put the smaller cups back on and keep the remaining cups.
Keep the space clean after decluttering the child’s room
Wow! To be honest, tidying up this room was more difficult than I thought.
However, I learned some important things along the way. I think that not only helps keep this space organized, but also keeps other areas of the house clutter-free.
You have to be more careful about what you put in your home.
There were a lot of broken junky toys and other things. They shouldn’t have broken into our house in the first place. When it comes to toys and “stuff” in general, you need to focus on choosing quality that will last.
We need to be more conscious about maintaining open spaces.
Every empty space seemed cluttered, whether it was the surface or the floor room. Yes back then it was easier to dump things in an open place than to put them back where they belong, but in the long run it left a completely messy room that took me a week to fix !
Adding larger containers to hold more junk is unorganized.
Our house is small, so we often make excuses like, “If only I had more room, I could be more organized.” Less unnecessary junk, that is What would really help my organization’s mission? Instead of making the Recycle Bin bigger, you need to remove the trash first.
Kids Room Organization: Final Thoughts
Who knew you could learn so much just by decluttering your child’s room?!
And “organized” doesn’t mean you have to work on the whole room. You can start small with 1 drawer, 1 cabinet or shelf.If you just want to get rid of something And by taking the first little baby steps, we can progress our space little by little!
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