When it comes time to organize a kid’s bedroom, it can be extremely overwhelming. It may be the most challenging room in the entire house to organize. Kids frequently grow out of their clothes. Their tastes change often. They get new toys and forget about the old ones. It is a never-ending job.
It doesn’t have to be something to dread though. Having a good process in place will help you stay on top of everything in your child’s room.
Keep reading below for ideas on how to organize the different areas in their room.
Organizing Your Child’s Dresser
A child’s dresser is generally smaller than an adult’s. Which is okay when they are small because their tiny clothes don’t need as much space. It does however mean, either having to buy a bigger dresser when they get older or getting creative with other spaces in their room.
If you want your kids to pick out their own outfits, separate their clothes based on the type. T-shirts in one drawer, long sleeve shirts in another, pants in another, and so on.
If you have space, put the warmer weather clothes on one side of the dresser and the cooler weather clothes on the other. Then they won’t come out wearing a thick sweater with shorts!
Drawer Organizers
Use drawer organizers for socks, underwear, tights, and bathing suits. It’s easier to see what is in there if they are not just thrown into the drawer. They can also be sorted by color. This way your child can easily choose what color socks and underwear they want to wear that day.
Pajamas will likely need their own drawer. As they tend to be bulkier and somehow kids seem to collect many different sets! A nightstand works well for pajamas and even underwear and socks.
Some beds come with 2-3 drawers under them. This is an amazing extra space for underwear, socks, pajamas, and toys. It saves the dresser space for all other clothing.
There are many different ways that clothes can be folded and certain folding techniques could save some space.
However, I find that kids tend to make a mess of the drawers no matter how the clothes are folded. So it’s not worth the time and effort to fold in a fancy way. I just fold the way that I find is the quickest and that is what I would recommend to anybody.
Teaching kids to fold their own clothes early on will give them some responsibility for their own clothing. And they will be less likely to tear everything out and throw them onto the floor.
At this point, it is clear that the dresser can quickly become very full and not as usable. So next up is closet organization, which is a great place for clothing items that don’t fit in the dresser.
Organizing Your Kid’s Closet
In their closet, hang up dresses, skirts, jeans, sweaters, and any other bulky clothing. This will help to save more space in your dresser. Use felt hangers to keep everything hanging nicely. The plastic and metal hangers are slippery and clothes often end up on the floor.
These cube organizers at Amazon are great for closets because they can be installed vertically. So they don’t take up a lot of space. Make sure to secure the unit to the wall, as they are easy to tip over. They are especially wobbly on floors with carpet.
There are many different colored bins that are made specifically for these cube units. So they can be selected to coordinate with the room. Or, you may decide to go more neutral so that your child will be more likely to use them for a longer time.
These cube units can hold a lot of different items. Socks, underwear, shoes, and extra clothing can be stored in the lower sections.
The other sections can hold books, toys, diapers, wipes, favorite blankets, and many more items. This is a timeless piece that will work through all of your child’s different stages.
On the back of their closet door, you could hang a shoe organizer. These are great for shoes and can prevent a build-up of shoes at your front door.
The shoe organizer is handy for more than just shoes though! It could also hold hair clips, jewelry, socks, underwear, stuffed animals, toy cars, small dolls, and much more. The best thing is that it doesn’t take up a lot of space!
A shoe organizer would also work well if you have a baby. You can use it to store diapers, wipes, cream, change mat, and baby toys.
If you don’t have space, such as a linen closet, to store extra sheets for your child’s bed. Consider folding up the fitted sheet and loose sheet and placing them inside the matching pillowcase. This will keep it contained. And can be grabbed quickly in the middle of the night (if your child has an accident)!
Storing Off-Season Clothing
Before storing clothing, make sure they even need to be stored. If it is something your child won’t be wearing for 3 months and it’s already getting to the point that it’s not fitting perfectly, it won’t fit in 3 months. So just donate it or put it in a box to hand down to another child.
If there isn’t enough space in your child’s dresser or closet for off-season clothing. Either put the off-season clothes in a plastic bin that you can store in your closet. Or if they have room at the top of their closet, smaller bins could contain these clothes.
If the closet doesn’t have a shelf at the top, consider buying a piece of plywood and attach it above the clothing bar. This works really well, without spending a lot of money.
If there is room under your child’s bed, you could purchase underbed storage bins for clothing that they won’t be wearing for a few months. These bins are also great for storing off-season shoes/boots, hats, mitts, etc.
Another tip is to purchase Ziploc Space Bags, which fit a decent amount of clothing. Attach your vacuum to the opening of the bag to suck the air out and then seal it. This compresses the clothing so that they take up much less space.
They can then either fit side by side in the closet. Or they could go on the upper shelf, laying flat one on top of the other.
When to Get Rid of Clothing
Anytime clothes are stained or damaged beyond repair, immediately throw them out. This will save you time when determining what should be donated.
Evaluate clothing as your child is wearing them. If an article of clothing seems tight or short, put a checkmark on the label inside the clothing, so that after they are washed, you know they need to be donated.
For all other clothing, go through their dresser and closet every 3 months (since they grow quickly) to see if there is anything that they either haven’t worn yet and is no longer in their size. Or again, if there is anything left over that is stained or damaged, throw those out.
If you have a younger child or plan to have another baby, put any clothes that your child has grown out of into diaper boxes and label them based on the size. Then it can easily be pulled out for the next child and you won’t have to sort through a huge pile of clothing.
This always worked so well in my household and the boxes are sturdy and can easily be stacked.
Always have a bin that is only for kids’ clothing and toy donations (you may need more than one bin). This way, everyone knows that whatever is in that bin will soon be donated and not to be pulled back out.
Try to donate at least 4 times a year. Kids go through clothes quickly and also “grow out” of toys fairly quickly.
Creating a Space for Kids Books
One of the easier ways to create a space for books, while not taking up much space at all, is to buy deep shelves that you can install one above the other right onto the wall.
These will store many different books and you can store them out of reach of your child so they aren’t throwing their books all over the room. Keep a few favorites near their bed, so that they can read those (or just flip through) when they want.
Different Organizing Solutions for Books
If you purchased a cube organizer for their closet, that is also a great space to store books. Some of the cubes have a backing on them, which will keep the books from sliding through the back if it’s not flush to the wall.
These sling bookshelves are great for younger kids. My kids all have these and they have held up really well over the years. They can hold a surprising amount of books, both big and small.
One other option is purchasing pretty wood bins that can sit either on the floor or the top of their dresser. The books can be stored from back to front and it will make it easy to flip through the books to choose what they want to read.
If your child(ren) have a lot of books, consider putting books out seasonally. So if you have Halloween and other fall books, put them out in the fall and then switch them out for Christmas books and so on.
Books pile up quickly because they are easy to add on to a gift, so we quickly end up with many books. This is another item that you should be going through every few months to see if there are any books that your child has outgrown.
Save Their Favourite Books
Keep any favorite books set aside, so that your child can decide when they are ready to let them go. A few favorite books don’t take up a lot of space, so that is one thing that isn’t a big deal if they want to hang onto them for many years.
Creating a Space For Toys and Craft Items
Stuffed Animals
For stuffed animals, a stuffed animal net that hangs in the corner of their room can hold many stuffies and keep them contained. This can take up more space than some rooms will allow.
Another great option is getting a soft, flexible bin to put in their closet, which can be filled with stuffed animals and makes it easy for them to clean up.
You can also purchase under bed storage bins, which keep the stuffed animals in a contained space and out of sight. I have another post that reviews the best underbed storage options for different purposes. You can view it here.
Storing All Other Toys
If you don’t have another designated area in your home for toys, then their room is the next logical space. Use bins with lids that are hard for little hands to open to store smaller items, such as Lego, Tsum Tsum’s, Shopkins, etc.
Toys that you are okay giving your child access to on their own can be stored lower in the closet on a shelving unit or in a drawer. Clear plastic bins with lids are great so that it’s easy to see what’s inside.
They also stack well and can therefore make better use of the vertical space in the closet. Open fabric bins are great for bigger toys like dolls, Barbies, tea sets, big toy trucks, etc.
As a general rule, if anything new is coming into the house, at least that many items should be leaving the house. You won’t need to rearrange items as often if there is less to begin with.
So this is a great time to get the kids involved so that they can decide what they no longer care to play with. Kids are usually more accepting of letting some toys go when they know they will soon be getting more.
Toys tend to build up quickly and often half of the toys never get played with. Once they decide it is okay to donate something so that another child can enjoy that toy, they never think about it again. So don’t feel guilty about getting rid of toys!
Craft Item Storage
Craft items should also be in tight containers and stored higher up in their closet where children won’t be able to reach them. It is better to have most craft items in the room where they will be doing their crafts.
However, if storing in their bedroom closet, clear plastic bins work well because then it is easy to see which craft items are in the bin. Making it easier to pull out one bin.
Sometimes when kids are given too many options, they just grab everything they see and it ends up a disorganized mess. So try to put items that they would use together in one bin.
Colouring books and crayons can be stored in one bin. Construction paper, glue, markers, kids’ scissors, etc. could be stored in another. They could even be labeled based on the activity. So if your child wants to colour, they can pull out the “Colouring” bin.
If you are finding that toys are piling up in your family room, I have another post that provides tips for containing the toys while still maintaining a beautiful, peaceful space.
If you are looking for tips on how to organize dressers and closets for adults, check out my other post here. Plus I have another post that gives great storage solutions for organizing clothes on shelves.
Conclusion
The biggest goal for a child’s room is staying on top of clothes that they are growing out of and getting rid of toys that they no longer play with. It unfortunately is an on-going job for at least 12 years (after that they will be more into electronics, than toys). 🙂
Going through everything every 3 months will ensure that you stay on top of the clutter and keep the room looking organized and inviting.
This will also help you sleep at night, knowing that if your child has to get up in the middle of the night to go pee, they won’t be tripping over their toys and getting hurt.
I hope this post has given you some ideas for how to save space in your child’s bedroom and that you can easily and without guilt, get rid of unnecessary books, toys, blankets, and clothes. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect!
