The Ultimate Guide for Organizing Kids Rooms & Losing Toy Clutter Forever!
Organizing kids rooms can be a tedious task to complete but if you have the right tools, you can lose the clutter in your kid’s room today!
For 17 years, I have been in and out of my boy’s room so many times…I have lost count. I’m not just talking about going in to wake them up…I’m talking about organizing and reorganizing their toys. Boy, oh boy can they take over the house with the blink of an eye. Even with all the proper organization tools in place, we still struggle with toy clutter…it is a weekly chore that I am constantly tackling. After testing and re-testing organizational option in our home, these are my best simple solutions that may help you get control of the toy clutter at your house.
If you have kids then you know how important it is to have a good idea for toy room organization. This post includes some of our best tips for kids book storage, toy organizer ideas and of course our favorite storage units for toys ideas. Your kids playroom or bedroom doesn’t have to be a disaster area anymore. You can easily focus on these toy room organization tips!
Organizing Kids Rooms – Lose The Toy Clutter!
Baby Toys
When our boys were babies, we had a wicker basket in the living room where we had all of their teething toys, key rings, a few of books, along with a few of the sound toys. Our oldest son’s favorite toy was the Blues Clues Solar System Planet Interactive Toy. He was a HUGE Blues Clues fan and actually most kids first words are “mama” or “dada,” but his was “clue” at just 6 months of age…WHAT!?!
Bath Toys
We tried it all! Bin next to the tub, plastic bin suctioned to the wall of the tub, mesh bag, just throw the toys in the tub…you name it! Above all the bath toy organization options we tried, our favorite was the mesh bag. Toys could dry out and we didn’t have to deal with buildup from water and such. Each week, all toys (both bath and play toys) were washed either by hand or in the dishwasher to rid them of any germs.
Books
We love them because they are an educational tool and our kids love them too, but sometimes they can take over. We have a bookshelf in each of the kid’s rooms that we place all the books on the shelf from tallest to smallest (it’s an aesthetics thing for me). It also helps kids recognize smallest to largest and vice versa (bonus…extra educational tool!) With our older son, he passes books down to his younger brother which helps cut the cost of purchasing books all the time. After our younger son finishes the book, it is placed in the book donation bag in the garage where they can take them to Katy Budget Books. Katy Budget Books offers a book credit to purchase newer “used” books…win-win! Purchasing books through Katy Budget Books is only the tax on each book + a handling fee when you use your book credit. If the book is a series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or books that we have had signed then these books are put up after they have finished reading them.
Kids Meal Toys
These toys always lasted about a week in our house. After that, they took a little trip to the donation box. If the boys didn’t open the toy, we would save them up and donate them to the schools younger grades (PreK-1st) since most of these teachers have a prize box for good behavior in their classrooms.
Plastic Bin Storage
Boys have their GI Joe action figures and girls have Barbies that all have tiny accessories. The best way to tackle this is to pick up a “shoe” box plastic bin from the dollar store or use a shoe box you have in your closet and put all of these items together in one box. I prefer to use the clear plastic bin simple because you can see through the box. This also makes it easier for kids to know where things belong (plus they stack easily). This also works well with Legos, Hot Wheels, etc.
Larger & Outside Toys
Toy trucks, sports balls, Nerf toys, etc. can either be oddly shaped or just larger than the space you have available. So we keep these toys in a large collapsible bag in the garage or under the kids’ playhouse in the backyard. This keeps these toys where they need to be as the kids make the mad dash out the door to play with friends.
Use Solutions that Fit the Child
Use child-sized kid-friendly storage devices so that your child is more likely and able to use them. Heavy drawers or doors that pinch are not helpful in a kid’s room. If you have those in your child’s room now, look into replacing them with lighter and smaller furniture that will be better for your child. If it is easy to open and close, the child will be more apt to use it. Also, make sure to put things on their level! If they can’t reach a tall shelf, they can’t put the toys away in a basket there. Make things manageable for your child. One unique storage tip is to take the dresser you already have and remove the drawers. Place wheels on the bottom of each drawer and roll them under the bed for toy storage. Use the dresser shell in another area of the house or store it until the drawers can be placed back in when your child is bigger.
Corral Small Toys
Ask a child to throw toys in a bucket, and you will get a mess. Ask them to sort toys and they may not understand what you mean. Teach them to corral toys and confine them to certain shoe boxes or boxes with color-coded tags and you have a winner. Better yet, put pictures on the boxes! Any old shoe box will work, and all you have to do is snap a picture of your child’s Legos, army figurines, doll clothes, or whatever else they have and place the picture on a box. Then, show your child what the picture means and what toy goes in it. Of course, the success of this will be better with a 5-year-old than a 2-year-old, but introducing it to them at a young age is helpful.
Make Sections
If your child has a kitchen set, and a dollhouse, and a bookshelf, turn each corner of the room into a section based on their big items and use poster board to label those sections. For instance, if they have a kitchen set, write a sign that says “Let’s Cook up Some Fun in the Kitchen.” This is the visual that lets them know what toys go in that section. Do this with all of your sections to keep things organized and where they belong.
Clothing Solutions
One of the easiest ways to get kids to keep clothes neat and tidy in their closets and drawers is to divide them into baskets and sections. For instance, place a green basket in the drawer and only put socks in it. Place a yellow basket in for tights. A blue basket is for undies, and so on. Do the same with hangers. Blue hangers are for shirts, and they go first in the closet. Red hangers are for pants and they come next, and so on until it is color-coded and hung where you need. Do not do more than a couple colors, though, or you may confuse yourself and your child!
Make Cleaning Up Fun
Hang an old towel paper center (the cardboard piece) on the wall with painters tape, making it secure. Allow your child to place the baskets or boxes for smaller toys under it and as they pick up that toy have them drop it through the towel holder top so that it falls through the cardboard piece into the basket, like a basketball goal! This is just one way to make cleaning up fun, which makes kids want to do it. Make a cleaning schedule, and cut cleaning time by starting a certain song or chant. Once kids get in the routine they will be more likely to follow it.
More Toy Clutter Organizing Tips
Invest in the right storage units. There are tons of various storage units for toys, but a few specific types are recommended for most homes and families. Whether you have one or more children, keeping their toys organized is important for them to learn responsibility and to keep your home from being cluttered. Some types of storage to consider are listed below.
- Kids Book Storage: This can be a bookshelf or shelving. For older kids, hanging wall shelves can work great since they can reach them easily. For younger kids, short bookcases that are secured to the wall can work great.
- Large Toy Boxes: A classic toy organization tip is to use a large toy box for most items. I find these work best for things like trucks, cars, balls and larger dolls or playsets. Small items and things with little pieces often need a more organized small area to sort and store.
- Small toy storage containers: There are tons of toy organizer ideas, but I almost always go back to the small shelving units with small bins for kids to sort toys into. These work great for things like small cars, action figures, Barbie dolls and of course things like building blocks or Lego’s.
- Toy storage bag: One method of storing things like dress up clothes and dolls or balls is to grab a toy storage bag. My preference is to actually use the foldable pop-up hampers. They are lightweight, big enough to hold plenty of stuff and easy to toss into the washer if needed.
Purge toys that aren’t being used. When it comes to toy organization tips it is important to only keep toys around that are actually being used. Kids often don’t like this, but even at a young age, they should be taught that giving to others is a good thing. You can go through and remove items that are not being used to donate to others or even sell if in good condition. Purge all broken pieces and items first, then sort and separate as listed below.
- Separate items to be donated to places like Goodwill, The Salvation Army or your own local charitable locations or thrift shops.
- Separate items to be sold on sites like eBay, Craigslist or even local social media swap shops.
- Separate items to put into storage (things like toys that have been handed down through generations or have sentimental value).
Sort like items together. Instead of using the storage units listed above to just dump items into, invest in the smaller bins to go on shelves so small items like doll accessories, cars, puzzle pieces, building blocks and similar can go into separate tubs for each access and organization.
Whether you are using one of the toy organizer ideas listed above, or simply doing a good deep cleaning and purge you can easily get your toy room organized in no time. We love sharing our favorite organization tips with you to help you keep your home running smoothly.
Feel free to leave a comment with your own favorite toy room organization ideas!
I need you to come organize my kids toys!!
I’ll gladly help ya out! :)