How to Declutter Your Home in 10 Minutes or Less –Part III

5 Quick and Easy Decluttering Tips for Children’s Rooms

  Continuing with the series on quick and easy decluttering tips and ideas, this post will focus on getting rid of clutter in kids’ rooms. In case you missed them, here are the first two posts that focus on quick and easy decluttering and organizing.

 Children have a lot of stuff. Really. I only have a toddler and sometimes, I feel that she has more stuff than I do. Toys, clothes, books, shoes, more toys, the list just goes on. This despite the fact that we try to buy only what is needed and give away a lot of her stuff regularly. Obviously, we need to give away a lot more! ***laughing***

 However, I’ve found that organizing her things and decluttering her closet, books and toy chests can be easy and painless, if I spend ten minutes every now and then. So, here are five simple tips on how to declutter and organize a child’s stuff to make your life better organized.

  1. Get Rid Off Clothes Clutter. This is an activity that my husband loves to do. Every fortnight, he spends ten minutes or even less, going through our daughter’s closet and getting rid off anything that no longer fits her. Since she is growing at the speed of light, we need to do this every second weekend. We also organize the clothes into everyday clothes for home and play, playschool clothes, party wear (!) and nightclothes.   

 2. Organizing the Toy Box. Toys are more difficult to deal with, especially since she has favorite toys that no longer look or function the way they’re meant to but we can’t give them away because she’s emotionally attached to them. We tend to have only a few toys to play with and keep the rest in “cold storage”. Every two weeks or so, we “recycle”.

  I’ve found that spending ten minutes every week is more than enough for me to weed through the current selection and take out toys that are not hot favorites, no longer interest her and, are broken or spoilt. A weekly check is good enough since she doesn’t really own too many of them, even though I feel that she could own less! Do check out this post for more on how I stay organized with my toddler in tow.  

 3. Dealing with Kiddie Books. I love the fact that our daughter loves to read and reading forms an important part of our daily routine. However, reading means books and while it is a joy to buy books, keeping them from cluttering up the house is another thing altogether. I’ve found that spending five or ten minutes every week is more than enough to organize and sort out the books cabinet.  We also spend ten minutes at the end of the day putting back the books she’s read or colored in.

 4. Make Tidying Up a Toddler Activity. We’ve made tidy-up time a fun toddler activity by using songs and games. Our daughter finds it very amusing to toss blocks and toys into the toy chest while singing, “I like to clean up. Clean up is fun” to the tune of “I am a teapot” (!!) She also likes to put her toys to bed and make sure they’re “tucked in nicely”. The entire routine takes ten to fifteen minutes each evening and it keeps her room nice and tidy for the next day. 

 5. Create Child-Friendly Storage Spaces. The best way to get a toddler to declutter and stay organized is to make storage options toddler-friendly. We have small shoeboxes to hold smaller toys, a couple of large lidded toy containers for bigger items and a small cabinet for her books. This helps her to put back her things since she can access them easily. This makes our daily cleanups easy and fun.

 Spending ten to fifteen minutes every day is a great way to keep kiddie clutter under control. It makes monthly and quarterly decluttering and organizing sessions easier and relatively painless. Next week, I’ll share how to declutter your workspace in ten minutes. So, stay tuned!

 How do you keep your kids’ stuff organized? Do you have weekly decluttering sessions or a daily organizing schedule for kiddie clutter? Do share what works best for you and your kids.

Photo Credit: MixedGrill