Declutter Your Kids Stuff!

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Storage Bins, Storage Bins, Storage Bins!
Does YOUR house ever look like a tornado hit it – or worse?? With two little boys, and watching other kids during the day – my house gets trashed pretty quickly! My solution? Have LOTS of storage bins with easy access! Want to get even more organized? Label containers clearly with pictures or words so that you child knows what toys go in which containers.
One way I “create” more room for my kid’s stuff or items that I want to save until they’re older is by hiding it behind other decorations or under the bed. If you look carefully at the picture frames you can see behind them is stored some boxes of toys. Yes, you can still see it, but it looks much nicer than piling it all up in plain sight. Get creative – maybe you can hide some things inside an ottoman, under a bed, in a closet. Storage containers generally fit nicely under beds. If you’re “hiding” too much though, you might want to rethink what you have and what you really need!
picture frames on bookshelf over dvds
 Best use of storage in our house EVER is our bookshelf that we saved up to buy! As you can see we have oodles of DVD’s and videos. It took us two years to save for our bookshelf from IKEA but I did not regret a penny spent on it! Another thing I’ve mentioned before is storage containers – no storage container goes unused in our household!
brown apple basket
Again, anything can be used – old orchard baskets, laundry baskets, storage tubs, drawers, etc.
In our household, we don’t mind our house “looking like kids live there” – as long as it’s fairly tidy.
Trust me – my house does not look clean every day. Make it simple. Enlist your kids help – even your 1 and 2 year olds can help!! There are a lot of tricky ways to store children’s items which is very much dependent on your house. Baby items for us are stored in the attic. Older or younger clothes stored in drawers and tubs in the bottom of a closet. Extra crib parts under another bed.
Tub toys under the sink. I make it a point every 6 months to go through the house and get rid of small toys – or items that I have not seen my kids playing with in at least 1-2 years. Donate it, pass it on to a friend, find somewhere other than your house or your garage to keep it!! Just make sure your kids don’t see you getting rid of it because it will end up right back in your house!!
Find that you STILL have too much stuff? GET RID OF IT! Seriously, donate it to local daycares, preschools, schools, churches, homeless shelters, thrift stores, etc. Once or twice a year I go through my kids stuff and if they haven’t played with it in at least a year it goes. Small toys go. Toys where we can only find some of the pieces go.
Quick Recap: Declutter once a day. Don’t worry about going behind your child and picking up all day. At the end of the day have the kids pick up the toys and put them in storage bins or on shelves. Do a quick clean up – don’t feel like you have to get every speck clean – it’s still liveable!
Enlist your kids help. Once your kids start walking they are old enough to be taught how to clean up!
Make it easy. Have quick access to storage bins and containers that you can throw toys in!

 

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One Comment

  1. JDaniel4's Mom says:

    I just took two bags of things to local charity. I could have taken several more.

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