10 Tips to Organize a Kid’s Room

A child’s bedroom can be their sanctuary but it can also be a very messy and disorganized room. Through the ages, parents have told their children — “Clean your room!” But how can you truly organize a kid’s room and keep it organized

Start Organization Training Early

The best thing to do is to start by teaching the child at an early age to be organized. When the child is a toddler, make organizing their bedroom into a room cleaning game. Toddlers enjoy being helpful. Give the toddlers tasks that they like doing and it will make doing them fun. As the child gets older, give them a responsibility for picking up their toys or making their bed every day. They will feel accomplished when they complete their daily tasks. Create a weekly reward system for these takes and as the months go along, add more tasks to the list. For 9 to 12 year olds, teach specific organization skills such as filing away school papers or even doing their own laundry. Let them create their own routine. If you set these rules early, then as the child grows into their teen years, they will hopefully continue to keep their rooms organized.

Easy Tips to Organize a Child’s Room

If you haven’t started with an organization plan when the child is very young, then you will need some tips to help you organize your kid’s bedroom.  It’s never too late to start the process! The following tips will help you get this project started and keep the room organized down the road.

1. Look at the room from a child’s point of view. Sit on the floor and do a good assessment of the room from the children’s level. Adult storage solutions will not work for children. Remove closet doors, so little ones do not get fingers stuck. Lower the closet rods and invest in child-size hangers so children can hang up their own clothes.
2. Create zones within the bedroom for toys, crafts and books. As the child gets older, add a desk to the room for homework.
3. Allow the child to be involved in the organization process. Make it a learning experience for them. Let them help decide where things should go in the room and what type (and color) storage solutions would work for their room.
4. Sort through the clothes, toys and books in the room. When a child has grown out of clothes donate or share them. Do not keep them in the room, because they are taking up vital storage space! Have the child help sort through toys they don’t play with anymore or have outgrown and ask them if it is okay to donate or share their toys with another family.
5. Organize the room from the bottom up. Place toys the child uses the most on the bottom shelf of a shelving unit with the higher shelves used for less frequently used items.
6. Plastic bins are perfect for toy storage. Place the toys in plastic bins at floor level so the child can reach them and can see what is in the bin. Keep like toys or books together such as trains and track in one bin and action figures in another bin. If the toy is made up of many smaller pieces, place these items in a smaller plastic box.
7. Label everything in the room! For young children, use pictures of the items placed on bins where they are to be stored. As the child gets older replace the pictures with words and sentences that will help their reading skills.
8. Organize the desk in the room. Have specific homes for pens, pencils, markers and paper. Have folders and binders for a child’s school papers. As the child gets older, introduce a filing cabinet or drawer filing system for school papers and projects.
9. Utilize walls to hang items such as shelving or a stuffed animal hammock. It gets the items off the floor and is much more organized. Just make sure that the child can reach the shelving if they need items.
10. Create a maintenance routine or schedule to keep the room organized. Go through toys and clothes every 6 months to see what to keep and what to donate, throw away or place in storage.