Kids Bedroom Organization

23 Shares

Are your kids’ bedrooms looking a little crazy? They can tend to do that! Read on for my tips for kids bedroom organization and how to get your kids to keep their rooms organized.

I don’t organize my kids’ bedrooms alone. I get my kids involved in the process. It’s important for them to decide which toys they love and want to keep and which they can part with. It’s also more likely that they’ll keep it organized when they’re involved in the process of organizing it in the first place.

We do a good deep cleaning and organization in their rooms once a year, and then we do a little reorganization from time-to-time as needed. But I find that when you take the time to organize really well and label things, it makes life easier throughout the year. When each item has a place and your kids know where that place is, they SHOULD be able to tidy up with no problem.

Organizing kids bedrooms is on my yearly Deep Cleaning Schedule for November. I have two kids – Jackson (6) and Jase (3) – and we organize one of their rooms at a time at some point before the holidays. That way it’s decluttered and there’s room for any new toys or clothes get. We go through and organize their clothes, toys, books, and finally finish any other cleaning that needs to be done in their room.

Clothes Organization

I organize my boys’ clothes the same way I do my own (you can read about how I organized my master bedroom here) – first their dresser clothes and then their closet clothes.

Dressers

To organize the clothes in your kids’ dressers, go drawer-by-drawer. Take everything out of the drawer. Use your dusting spray (I use my homemade spray made of water, white distilled vinegar, fractionated coconut oil and essential oils) and a microfiber cloth to wipe down the inside and outside of the drawer.

Before you put the clothes back in the drawer, declutter. Put in a pile any clothes that are too worn out, too small, or other clothes your child no longer wears. I like organizing my kids’ rooms in November because both of their birthdays are in February, and they’re starting to outgrow their current size and are ready to go up a size.

Go ahead and take out clothes that no longer fit. You can follow my Deep Cleaning Schedule for Your Whole Home and organize your kids’ rooms when I do, around your kids’ birthdays, or anytime you want.

Next it’s time to put the clothes back in the drawers. I recommend folding the clothes and standing them up vertically like in these photos. This is the method Marie Kondo recommends in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I used this method a little bit before, but got fired up after reading her book.

I went through and refolded everything, and I’m loving it. It makes it so much easier to find what you’re looking for. All you do is fold each item of clothing so that it’s the same height as the drawer. For the shorts, I folded them in half (one leg over the other leg) and then folded them in half again (top to bottom).

For the shirts, I folded the sleeves in and then folded them in thirds. And for the pants I folded them in half (one leg over the other), and then in fourths (top to bottom, top to bottom again).

Watch this video to see exactly how to fold your clothes the KonMari way.

Make sure to arrange them in the drawers with like items. Each of my boys have a drawer for their underwear, one for socks, one for pajamas, one for shorts, and two for pants (one dressier and one more casual).

Closet

The shirts and jackets get hung up in the closets. I go through almost the same process I used to organize their clothes in the dresser.

Start by decluttering. Go through and look for any clothes that are too worn out, too small, or they just no longer wear. Since it’s currently almost winter, we moved their short sleeved shirts to the top rack and moved the long sleeved shirts to the bottom. Jackson also has his school uniform shirts on the bottom rack. Both my kids pick out their own outfits each day, so it’s important to have their clothes that they need within reach.

I organize the shirts in color order: white, gray, black, red, orange, green, blue, purple, brown.

I declutter their shoes as well, and arrange them in groups with similar shoes: slippers, flip-flops, sandals, boots, casual/school shoes, and athletic shoes.

Toy Organization

The next part of your kids bedroom organization is their toys! This is the part that for us takes a little longer. I definitely enlist my boys’ help for their toy organization.

My oldest son, Jackson, has a little more trouble in the tidying department. He’s like a squirrel and likes to hide stuff in corners of his room or under his bed and dresser. We had an actual toy box in his closet, but that was a DISASTER. He would throw his toys in it and, of course, could never find what he wanted to play with. There were Nerf bullets all throughout the big toy box. So it was time for a new solution.

I recently bought this “veggie bin” toy organize and am loving it!

So here’s how I organize the mess of toys:

Put All Toys in a Pile

Before the mess gets better, it does get worse. I have my boys help me take all the toys out of their toy boxes and bins and place them in a big pile on the floor. I have Jackson remove everything that’s “hiding” in his room.

Wipe Down Organizers

Then, I take my dusting spray and microfiber cloth and wipe down the toy boxes and bins.

Declutter

First off, I have the boys throw away any trash they can find. Then, they look through the mess and decide on any toys that they no longer want to keep and want to give to another kid that will play with it. We put these toys in bags and set aside for now. There will mostly likely be more to add later. But we go ahead and get some things out of the way.

Group Similar Toys

Next, we start putting their toys away in groups with similar items. I give them one mission at a time, like “Find all the Nerf bullets and put them in this bag,” while I sort out other toys.

In Jackson’s organizer we organized his toys like this:

one bin for his Nerf guns and bullets,
one bin for “survival gear” (he’s really into going outside and playing survival right now!),
a bin for Hot Wheels cars and tracks,
one bin for vehicles (bigger trucks and some tractors),
and a bin for miscellaneous toys.

I labeled each bin in his organizer to help him remember where toys need to go when is done playing with them. I’ll label my youngest son’s when he can read too.

Jase ‘s toys are organized like this:

a wire basket for small cars,
another for other small miscellaneous toys (and a pencil?),
a cloth bin for emergency vehicles (firetrucks and police cars),
one for tractors,
one for other vehicles (my boys like their vehicles!),
and one for bigger miscellaneous toys.
He also has a basket in his closet with play swords and dress up clothes.

We made sure that as we were putting toys away into the containers with like items that we only put away things they wanted. If we came across more things that they no longer wanted, they went in the bag of things to give away or sell.

Remind your kiddos that Christmas is coming soon, and they have to make room for new toys they might receive. Some other boys or girls would love to play with the toys that don’t get played with much.

Label Bins and Baskets

Like I said earlier, it helps your child remember where things go when you label the organizers. If your child can read, label with words, if not, you can use picture labels.

Book Organization

The way you organize books should kind of depend on the child. Jackson’s books I organized by genre, because he’s older and knows what genre books belong to. Jase, on the other hand, does not.

So we organized Jackson’s books like this:

all the nonfiction on the top shelf (tallest to shortest),
fiction on the bottom two shelves,
and on another bookcase next to this one we placed holiday books, puzzles, and coloring books.

For Jases’s books I just organize the regular reading books by height and then have a separate section for coloring books and a section for puzzles.

*Update – I’ve changed the way I organized the kids’ books, and I’m liking it so much more! Check out our updated kids bedroom organization here:

Clean the Rest of the Room

After everything has been put away neatly, it’s time to clean the rest of the kids’ bedrooms. If you’ve been following my Deep Cleaning Schedule for Your Whole Home, you’ve most likely already done these things. If not go ahead and do them now.

Dust the ceiling with a broom.
Wipe down the switch plates, outlets, light fixtures vents.
Dust the fan.
Wipe down the walls, baseboards, doors, and the trim around the windows.
Clean the windows.
Wash all the bedding and the curtains.

Even if you did do these deep cleaning jobs already this year, some may need a little touching up. I wiped down any spots I saw on the walls or doors, and I washed all the bedding again.

Finally, vacuum the floor well!

Getting Your Kids to Keep Their Rooms Organized

I have a whole post about kids’ chores here, but I believe most kids 1+ can at least help to pick up their rooms. Once you’ve spent all this time organizing your kids’ rooms, you definitely want them to keep them that way. Because who wants to spend the time to reorganize several times a year?!

Here are some tips for that:

Get your kids to help you organize their rooms. When they experience all the time and energy that it takes to organize their rooms well, they’ll be more likely to keep it organized. That way they don’t have to organize it again a week later. It also helps them learn where things go when they put them there in the first place.
Show your kids where things go and practice with them. If your kids didn’t help you with the organizing, this tip is essential! Go section-by-section through their room and show them where different things go. The first few times they get toys out to play with, have them show you that they know where they go. Try to make it fun. “Alright, let’s see if you can remember where this toy goes when you’re done!” “Yay! Great job!”
Do weekly (or daily, if needed) checks. Once a week or so, check the bins, baskets, and drawers to make sure they are still putting their things away neatly. When I started folding their clothes this way, I showed Jackson how to fold clothes and how to stand them up in his drawers. He usually puts his own laundry away after I fold it. I check every once in a while to make sure he is in fact putting them away neatly. I check pretty much daily under his bed and dresser to make sure he’s not hiding away trash.
Remind them that when they’re done playing with something, they need to put it away first, before getting another toy out. My boys know, I do not like going in their room and seeing the floor COVERED with toys that they’re NOT EVEN PLAYING WITH. It’s a rule in our house that whenever they’re done playing with something, they have to clean it up before they move on to the next thing.
Praise them when they do a good job keeping their rooms organized. Try to keep cleaning and organizing a positive thing and provide encouragement.