Kid Room Reorganize

January is a great time to reorganize the kids' rooms. New Christmas toys need homes and there is usually a bit of mess left over from having the kiddies around for 2 weeks.  A fresh room always feels nice in the New Year! 

Last week I worked on two of my god-daughters' rooms.  What their mom (Darla) and I did first was to decide which toys each girl most liked to play with in their rooms.  In this case, the family has a great basement space for extra toys, so we could be choosey about what we kept in the bedrooms. Once we decided on what would stay, we went through the rooms and took out all the other toys. Some got purged, and others moved to the basement.  I rearranged the furniture to create new play areas.  We also went through the closets and sorted the clothes.  

Let's have a look...

Emma Kate has an amazing collection of Playmobil but it can be difficult to store so many tiny pieces.  I chose to load them all into her bottom dresser drawer so that clean up would be really easy and convenient.  The few pieces that were too big for the drawer went in a basket under the bed.  I kept the Playmobil house out on her floor for easy access.  

I tidied up her dresser...

Before

After

...as well as her desk.  Inside I gave her small baskets to store her art items in.

Before

After

Darla sorted through the closet and put the clothes in order by category...dresses together, sweatshirts, t-shirts, etc..  By sorting clothes by length it gave us more floor space to work with in the closet. 

Before

After

The final result.

In Sadie's room we chose to focus on two categories of toys.  She loves her babies, as well as her house area.  So again, we sorted and purged.  

I rearranged her furniture and cleaned up the top of the dresser.

Before

After


Using the space at the end of the bed, I created a kitchen play area.  All the dishes and other kitchen toys are in a basket under the toy sink.

All the baby items got stored in the closet.  Things like strollers are sometimes hard for little ones to put away neatly, so this way the closet doors can get shut when items are not in the straight little line up I left them in.  

Before 

After

The babies themselves got stored in this unit.

I know it can seem overwhelming, but both these projects combined only took 3 hours.  Once you figure out your plan for the room, the sorting and rearranging can be done fairly quickly.  Ask a friend to help you if it feels like it is too much to tackle on your own.  

I can't end without telling you that the real work begins once the rooms are in order.  Now Darla has set up a system by which her girls will practice the habit of keeping "everything in its place".  You know best what sort of reward/consequence works with your kids...so be sure to make it a family plan to maintain your new space.  The more you practice, the easier it gets.