Toys everywhere. Mountains of laundry. Bulging dresser drawers. Shoes scattered throughout the hallway. Cheerios stuck between the couch cushions. Dried-on slime stuck to the fibers of the car mats. Okay, maybe that last one is unique to our car…anyways, life with kids can be messy! And full of clutter. Is it actually possible to organize kids’ stuff?
Yes and no. Life with kids will always bring extra stuff into your home, because, well there are extra people living in your home. However, your house doesn’t have to constantly look like a tornado all the time.
You CAN simplify and organize kids’ stuff. Even if you can’t figure out how to get the slime out of the car mat. I mean, me. I can’t figure out how to get the slime out. If you have successfully gotten slime out of car mats, please share your secret in the comments below!
Now, let’s move on to 10 practical ways to organize kids’ stuff.
How to Organize Kids’ Stuff: The Toys
Let’s begin with the toys. Simplifying the toys can oftentimes make the biggest impact. It impacts not only the space in your home, but your mood as well. Having less toys can allow your kids to play independently for longer periods of time, giving you some extra down time, and therefore improving your mood. Ya feeling me here?
- Reduce the number of toys.
To get a handle on the toys you must reduce the number of toys. There’s no way around it. More toys = more clutter. Less toys = less clutter. Then it doesn’t take forever to clean up the toys since there’s less overall toys.
Easier said than done sometimes, right? When it gets to the nitty gritty of decluttering the toys, you could get stuck. Here are 10 Tips to Easily Declutter Kids’ Toys so you can simplify the toys and move on with life.
- Be intentional with the toys they have.
Even if you reduce the toys, you may notice that your kids aren’t playing with their toys. There are a couple of reasons for this. To troubleshoot what could be causing this, check out this post: Kids Not Playing with Their Toys? Try This.
- Find ways to organize toys without a playroom.
One of the biggest challenges to better organize kids’ stuff is the lack of a playroom. I know many moms who think, “it would be so much easier if I just had a dedicated playroom.”
If you’re in this boat, and don’t have said playroom, then know that you’re in good company. A lot of moms don’t have a dedicated playroom. Here are 5 Fantastic Tips for Organizing Toys without a Playroom.
- Hide toys in plain sight.
Are you looking for ways to hide toys in plain sight? Check out these 15 Toy Storage Solutions for the Living Room. These ideas are great for anyone who lives in a small space or would like to keep the toys within an arm’s reach. They’re also great for anyone who doesn’t want their home to feel like a daycare center.
- Have a dedicated play space or playroom.
If you have a dedicated playroom or play space for your kids, I’d like to recommend this IKEA Kallax Hack for playroom storage benches. We did this for one of the homes we lived in and it was a practical use of what the floor plan labeled as a “dining room.” It was also a truly enjoyable place to spend time together as a family.
How to Organize Kids’ Stuff: The Clothes
Next, let’s address the clothes. Besides toys, clothes may be the biggest source of frustration if you want to organize kids’ stuff.
- Declutter your kids’ clothes.
Organizing the kids’ clothes must begin with decluttering them first. Recognize the types of clothes that your kids gravitate toward. Weed out the items that hardly see the light of day or are itchy, don’t fit quite right, or aren’t practical for daily life. Here are some suggestions for How to Declutter Kids Clothes + Why You Should.
- Try a capsule wardrobe for your kids.
Once you’ve decluttered your kids’ clothes, you might be left with a nice-sized capsule wardrobe by default. If not, you can easily Create a Capsule Wardrobe for Kids in 4 Simple Steps.
A capsule wardrobe will cut down on laundry, mismatched outfits, unworn clothes, and wasted money. If you’ve identified the colors, styles, and types of clothing that your child wears the most frequently, then you’ve done more than half of the work already!
- Organize the kids’ closet.
Once you have the clothes under control, you may want to re-organize your kids’ closet. Doing so can streamline your morning by allowing your kids more autonomy over their stuff.
When their closet is in order, they can easily find things, get dressed by themselves, and – wait for it – put their laundry away by themselves! Woohoo!
Here are some tips and real-life examples for how to Organize a Small Kid’s Closet on a Budget.
How to Organize Kids’ Stuff: All. The. Photos.
- Use intuitive apps to organize photos.
It’s the modern mom dilemma – too many photos. It’s incredible what our phones are capable of nowadays (compared to the days of VHS tapes and developing film).
Yet it brings about a new conundrum: what do we do with all of these photos? How do we organize them? How can we easily curate and relive the memories contained within them?
I too struggled with this, so I came up with these 10 Ridiculously Easy Ways for Busy Moms to Organize Photos.
How to Organize Kids’ Stuff…By Going Minimalist
The best way to organize kids’ stuff is to just GET RID OF IT.
Kidding. Your kids need stuff.
But going full blown minimalist is a fantastic way to drastically reduce the total amount of stuff that your kids have. So, the 10th practical way to organize kids’ stuff is…
- Become a Minimalist Mom
Here are 10 Ways to Be a Minimalist Mom so you can experience less stress, gain back more time in your day, and focus on what matters most. After all, that’s at the core of what minimalism is about. It’s not really about the stuff. Nevertheless, having less stuff to manage is a major benefit.
How Will You Organize Kids’ Stuff?
Out of these 10 different ideas for managing the kid clutter, which one will work the best for you and your situation? Share in the comments below which one you’ll try next.
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