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How To Organize a Child’s Room

Over spring break, I decided to tackle my daughter’s room. There was always stuff everywhere. She couldn’t keep it picked up, and she couldn’t find her toys when she wanted to play with them. Here is what we did:

Define activities

I asked her to decide what she wants to do in her room. I explained that there were some areas of the house that she could keep stuff in (music room holds musical instruments, for example), but otherwise her stuff had to be in her bedroom or playroom.

I asked her what she wanted to do in her bedroom. Her answer: read, sleep, get dressed, play dress-up, listen to music, play with her princess dolls and ponies, and play with her “babies” (stuffed animals).

Decide on areas for activities

Next we decided on areas for the activities. Her dress-up things could be stored in the nightstand drawers. Her stuffed animals would live in the closet. Her books would be on the bookshelf. CDs would be next to the CD player. Toys would be stored in the closet.

Declutter/move items

We started with decluttering the nightstand. Everything came out, and the drawers wiped down. We evaluated everything for fit, usage, and repair state. We tossed things that were beyond repair, put aside things for donation that were still good buy either no longer used or didn’t fit.

In the closet, we went through everything. Anything that did not fit one of the purposes was put in a basket to take to the playroom. Everything that fit the purposes was corralled and grouped. Anything not used or broken was taken out.

Provide adequate and easy-to-use storage

A trip to IKEA had provided some hanging containers for animals, and a rack with sliding baskets for toys. At my daughter’s asking, we made labels for each of the drawers. Then we put everything away. If something didn’t fit, it had to be donated or thrown out.

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In the month since this has been done, my daughter’s room has remained mostly neat. She picks up before bed, but it seldom takes her more than five minutes, because she knows where everything goes.

Next up, I will apply the same principles to the play room. That is going to be a much bigger job.

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Photo by rick020200

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