Organizing your child's room is a PROCESS

Hello everyone, my name is Laura, from I’m an Organizing Junkie, and I’m thrilled to guest post for Laurie today while she recovers from her back surgery

Today I’d like to talk a little bit about organizing our kid’s rooms. Such a daunting task this can be that is for sure but I’m here to offer you some simple steps for getting it done in no time flat. I will also explain how to get your kid’s involved in the process.

I have created a simple acronym to allow you to break down your organizing project into simple, straightforward steps that will help you achieve optimal organizing results. The acronym is appropriately called PROCESS because organizing is not a means to an end but an ongoing process.

Here are my PROCESS steps:

Plan of attack – plan your project – which area(s) do you want to address – make a list – evaluate present system, what is working, what isn’t working, devise new system – determine budget – develop timeline

Remove items – start from a clean slate – empty the space completely – remove then sort & purge

Organize into piles – donate/toss/sell/keep/relocate – sort like with like – purge excess – the more you purge the less you have to find a home

Containerize – find storage solutions – containers establish limits and boundaries – designate a space for items being kept – consolidate

Evaluate plan – how is your system working for you – are you able to work your system? What needs to be modified? A good system should be easy to maintain

Solve/simplify anything that isn’t working for you – revise accordingly

Smile, relax and enjoy your hard work!

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Now let’s walk through this PROCESS using your child’s room as an example.

Plan ~ to create an uncluttered space that is easy for your child to maintain.

Remove ~ pile everything without a home into the middle of the room. This makes the next step so much easier.

Organize ~ Then sort all like toys with like. Make sure all sets are together. Broken toys, toys missing parts, and toys no longer played with are thrown away. Think reasonably about the space you have available for storage.

Containerize ~ use a container of some sort to keep toy sets together (ex: little people, lego, pirates, power ranges, polly pockets, puzzles, trains, etc). This is where you’ll have to be tough depending on your space because you can only keep what you have the space to store. So even if your child has every lego set known to man, if you don’t have the space for it what you’ll be left with is clutter if you don’t pare down.

Once you’ve managed to containerize the toys, you have now established for your child limits and boundaries on those toys. In other words if they get a new train and it fits in the container great they don’t have to get rid of one but as soon as that container gets full and not another can go into it, then it’s up to them to decide what they need to part with in order to fit the established boundary.

You empower them to make that decision themselves alleviating potential power struggles. Remember it’s your boundaries and limits but their choice what they do with it.

Of course if they don’t do it you’ll have to do it for them and if you happen to get rid of the wrong thing you can bet they’ll want to be involved the next time.

Evaluate plan ~ on a regular basis you will need to do an evaluation of your system especially as interests change and new toys are introduced. Determine what isn’t working and why.

Solve/Simplify ~ it might mean new storage solutions, it might even mean less toys altogether.

Smile ~ well at least until the next time 🙂

Join me over at I’m an Organizing Junkie where I blog about all things organizing and attempt to get others “hooked” along with me.

Get well soon Laurie!

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