Organizing Your Home and Childs Room

I know that it has been a while since I have posted but we have been in the middle of a military move. With that being said we have been running into some issues on how to reorganize our childrens rooms and make it more efficient for them. If any of you out there are like me ten the lack of organization and mess drives you absolutely crazy. So over the last few months I havefound ways to maximize their space and keep their toys organized. I figured I would share them with you and maybe they will help you too.

Top 10 Tips for Organizing their Rooms and Keeping your home clear of the toys:

Tip 1: Setting up seperate stations or areas in their rooms so that they can play in different areas and stay concentrated on just they type of toys they would like to play with.

Example: My son has a lot of different intrests right now and and sometimes it is hard for him to only play with one of those at a time. That being said if I just throw all of it in a toy box then he will pull all of them out at once. So we split things up and put them in differnt areas, kind of the way they do at school/day care. We have superheros together in one area, blocks seperasted in another, trains in another, and so on nd so forth. This helps him to realize he needs to put away his toys before he moves onto another area. This will help you and them to stay clean and organized.

Tip 2: Using bins either clear or ones with no lids. This allows them to see what is in there are and they can choose the on they are looking to play with. This will stop them from ripping everything out to find one toy.

Tip 3: When you believe your space is limited in square footage then use all of your surfaces. Just because you have a small room does not mean you do not have the room for organization. Build some shelves, or you can use over the door shoe organizers for toys.

Example: We use shoe organizers for our sons cars or our daughters barbies. This needs no square footage and still helps keep them organized.

Tips 4: Label all of your storage areas and add a picture with the label. It allows them to see what is supposed to be stored in that bin or area and they will be able to help clean up and stay organized.

Tip 5: Make cleaning up fun. We like to make cleaning up our rooms a game and see who could put the most toys away in a 5 minutes. I help but mostly allow them to do it and then at the end they have a sense of pride for what they accomplished.

Tip 6: Keep a basket or bin downstairs to catch all of their toys and belongings. Each child has a bin kept in the livingroom and at the end of the night we go around and pick up our toys. Makes taking the toys to their room much easier and makes for a quick clean up.

Tip 7: My children love puzzles but sometimes it is hard to keep their peices together in their right box. So what we do it put a shape such as a triangle on the back of all the pieces for that puzzle. So we know if it has a triangle it goes in that box.

Tip 8: It is never to early to teach yourchild about charity. When we moved I noticed how many toys we held onto that neither of them played with in over a year. So I sat my son down and explained that Santa is coming soon and he would be recieving new toys. I also explained that their are some kids who did not have as many toy as he had and that it would be nice of him to donate those toys to the kids in need. Once he understood we went through his toy and he got to choose which toys he would like to donate. I was very proud of him for being so generous.

Tip 9: Our children love to dress themselves and sometimes there are a few misses with their outfits. So to help them out we have a days of the week closet organizer. It allows them to stay independent and allows me to make sure they don't look like rainbow brite when leaving the house. 

Tip 10: Stay calm and remember organization is something that does not happen overnight. It is something you must stay on top of but it will not just happen quickly. By keeping up with the mess and clutter it will stay small. It is when you let it go that it becomes overwhelming.

I know that organization can seem overwhelming at times and yu just want it over with. But there are some easy things you can implemnt in your own home that will help you and your children become orgainzed. After a few weeks it will become like second nature to keep thngs in their place, pick up as you go, and do a quick pick up before bed