Ultimate Guide to Managing Kid Clutter

Let’s be honest, kids accumulate a LOT of stuff. Before you know it, the playroom expands into the living room and your house is looking more like Toyland. Keeping your kid’s toys and other belongings organized will make your life much easier, and you’ll thank yourself when you are no longer stepping on Legos and tripping over shoes at the front door.

Create a Drop Zone

A Drop Zone keeps backpacks, shoes, coats, and anything else that would be dropped at the front door organized. If you don’t have a mud room, a Drop Zone essentially does the trick. Install wall hooks to hang up coats, backpacks, or purses. Consider getting a cube organizer and assign a cube to each family member. A cube can easily fit a couple pairs of shoes, hats, and mittens. Boot mats are also handy to keep wet or muddy shoes off the floor.

Label, Label, Label!

If you have a toy room or designated area for toys, use storage tubs to keep legos, dolls, or other small toys neat and tidy. Make sure to label these tubs! Labeling helps kids know where things are so they don’t make a mess trying to find something. You can also encourage kids to clean up one tub before getting into another one. Labeling is helpful when it comes to clothes as well! If your kids grow out of clothing and you are considering keeping the clothes for another child, you can store the clothes in bins and label them by gender and size so you can easily find them when necessary. Consider getting a storage unit for storing reusable clothing or toys!

Shelving

If you don’t have a lot of storage space, shelving can help keep books, arts and crafts, board games, and other small items off the floor and organized. Use smaller buckets in the shelving to keep things tidy. You can store socks, hair accessories, or other smaller items in these buckets. For messy arts and crafts, consider using shoe boxes that can be ruined. Wall shelving next to your child’s bed can come in handy for night time books or baby monitors.

Managing a full house can be challenging, especially when you have young children that are growing and constantly changing and acquiring new belongings. Don’t be afraid to throw things away or donate them. Consider making your children pick a few items once in a while to donate. Make it a family event and have everyone donate an item or two! Getting rid of things feels good, and it gets the clutter out of your home!

 

Photo by Markus Spiske