Learning how to organize your room (and keep it clean) is an important life skill for kids. Check out these kids room ideas to declutter your child’s bedroom and get organized. If you’ve been wondering what is the fastest way to organize and clean your room for kids, this is it!
How To Organize Kids Room Cheap and Easy!
How do you declutter without being overwhelmed?
Decluttering is an overwhelming job for most of us.
So, how can I motivate myself to declutter?
- Set your eyes on the goal of what it will look and feel like once things are decluttered and organized.
- Plan the decluttering in stages.
- Start small. Start with a desk or a closet. Don’t try to declutter three rooms in one day.
- Take periodic breaks to remove the donate and trash items to the garage, trash bin, or car (to drop off at donate). Removing items from your vision periodically throughout the process will allow you to experience the accomplishment as you go, which can be motivating.
- Make a “Celebrate Your Accomplishments” goal. Plan to go out to dinner, order in, or do something fun once its done.
How do you make decluttering fun?
Decluttering with kids can be quite a chore, so you can set the mood by approaching it with a positive attitude. Make it fun by setting timers or seeing who can sort the most things the fastest. Also, listen to music, audiobooks, or podcasts to make the time more entertaining and go faster.
We like adding clean up games like this to our chore time!
Before you get to how to organize a kid’s room or even wonder how to clean a child’s messy room, you’ll first need to declutter kids room.
::shudder::
You might be wondering how to declutter child’s room without them throwing a fit about every item you want to donate.
The easiest thing to do is to set aside one day (per child’s room, if needed) and get it all knocked out at once quickly (before anyone changes their mind on the donated toys pile!).
This part is tricky because usually I would say to get your kids involved in every step of learning and helping, but if you have a little hoarder (like me), this step could be days of painful decluttering (and crying and gnashing of teeth).
So, you’ll need to use your best judgment on whether your kids should be involved in this decluttering phase.
But…
If you can (and it’s not too painful), get them involved!
(Because there is nothing worse than listening to your kid complain about something you got rid of during the declutter bedroom day.)
But…
Should I clean or declutter first?
You should definitely declutter first. It’s hard to clean when there are so many things in the way that you’re not even sure you’re going to keep. Declutter with a Keep, Donate, or Trash mentality, and then clean after the decluttering (which should be an easy process by then!).
ALSO CHECK OUT MORE ORGANIZE AND DECLUTTER IDEAS:
OK, let’s get to it!
Here’s how to attack that messy child’s room and the best way to organize child’s room…
Decluttering Children’s Bedrooms
So, how do you declutter a room quickly?
Here’s how to declutter a room in one day:
- Prep your kids a few days ahead of time. (Don’t just spring it on them!) Talk to them about the importance of decluttering and how it’s an opportunity to donate unused items to those in need.
- Start with a plan. What will you tackle first? (Closet? Under bed? Clothes?)
- Gather supplies. Laundry baskets make great sorting bins. You’ll also need trash bags. Purchase any new organization bins, bookshelves, etc. before you start the decluttering process or else they’ll just be sitting for weeks waiting for you to get some new shelves or bins so you can organize them.
- Create a clear workspace sorting area. Try the middle of the room or the hallway.
- Label sorting bins (like laundry baskets or boxes) with Keep, Donate, Trash, Maybe.
- Start sorting! There will be some things that your kids are unsure about (especially in the beginning). That’s OK! They can think about things, but make a rule that only three things can be in the maybe bin at one time. Something has to rotate out to a Keep, Donate, or Trash to make room for another Maybe.
- Move on to the next area. Repeat sorting process.
- Organize keep items.
- Clean as you organize.
- Make bedroom chores checklist. Once it’s over create a kids’ chore chart that must be done daily. Work with your children to create lists for each room. Also, be aware of when your child works best. If they are night owls, don’t make all their chores due in the morning.
►Don’t miss my ALL TIME favorite laundry solution later in the post! It’s helped my kid keep her bedroom floor clear of dirty clothes!
How can I get my child to declutter?
How To Declutter Kids Toys (Quickly!)
Declutter children’s toys by:
- Removing all toys from one area and place into a pile. (The closet, playroom, toybox, or where you keep the majority of the toys.)
- Creating signs for categories of toys (Lego bricks, stuffed animals, dolls, cars, art/coloring supplies, etc.). When kids play, they often look for categories of stuff (playing with all their cars), so categorizing them will help them find toys quickly that they can return to the right place. Don’t forget to create a sign for Donate and a sign for General (toys that don’t fit into any category). Tape each sign on laundry baskets, foldable bins, or just place on a clear space on the floor.
- Quickly sorting toys into categories. Make it into a game by setting a timer and seeing how many toys each person can place into category before the time (like 5 minutes) runs out. The faster this process goes, the less time your kids will have to consider each toy!
- Trashing any broken toys. Unless it holds a special family or sentimental significance, there’s no need to waste time trying to figure out if you can fix a toy.
- Immediately taking donated toys out of the room. Once you have a small donation pile, remove it from your child’s view so they don’t take time to go through them again. Repeat this process periodically during toy decluttering.
- Reorganizing toys in categories. Store in ways that kids can remove one bin or bag to play with that category of toys.
TIP: We found a storage bin like this very helpful for categorizing and organizing toys, especially when my daughter was young. She could remove the bin from the shelf to play with that category of toys and then when she was finished, put the bin back on the shelf!
How To Declutter Games (And Board Game Storage Ideas)
If you’re a gaming family (like us!), you know that board games, card games, and puzzles can quickly take over a room or closet (especially since they’re all different sizes!).
Here’s how to declutter games and organize:
- Place all games, card games, and puzzles in one pile on a table or floor.
- Categorize the games into categories like board games, card games, video game, puzzles, games that are rarely played (haven’t been played in last 6 months), and donate.
- Immediately discard any games that you know have pieces missing (that prevent play) or are broken.
- Review the rarely played game category. Why aren’t you playing them? Did everyone hate it? Is it too hard to understand? Did your kids age out of it? Was it just not … fun? Most of the games from this pile should probably go into your donate pile.
- Go through all the other games. Ask your kids to rate them on a scale of 1-5 (5 being best game ever!). If it gets a lot of 1 scores, move it into the donate pile.
- Immediately remove donate items to the garage (or car) and donate them ASAP.
- Organize games by category, then size. (For example, stack all gard game together, smaller boxed games together, etc.). Always store them with names facing out on the edge for easy access.
Where to donate board games:
If you have old board games, card games, and puzzles that are still good, but you no longer play, don’t trash them! Instead donate board games to:
- Family shelters
- Classrooms
- Nursing homes
- Retirement centers
- Preschools
- Community centers
- Independent bookstores
- Churches
- Children’s hospitals
- Donation centers (like second hand stores)
How do you declutter children’s clothes?
How to declutter a child’s bedroom closet and clothing:
- Take everything out of the closet and place in one pile.
- Sort clothes by season (and add an “all seasons” category).
- While sorting, place worn out, too small, or clothes your kids just won’t wear (think: that sweater is itchy! things) into the donate pile. (Some things may need to be trashed if they’re too worn out.)
- Replace clothes back into closet and drawers by season, then by type. For example, summer short sleeve dresses all go together. If you are short on space, pack seasonal items away in clothing storage and rotate them out with seasons.
- Kids grow fast! Regularly (every month or two) quickly scan through the closets and remove anything that no longer fits.
How To Organize Your Room
Children’s Bedroom Storage Ideas and Ideas For Toy Storage
Once you’ve decluttered, you need to organize … and then do your best to keep it organized. That means your need to start with good storage solutions for your child’s room.
How to Organize Your Room: Toy Organizer
Let’s face it: we probably need to start with organizing kids’ toys because they seem to easily overtake everything in a child’s bedroom (or, to be honest, the entire house).
How to Organize Your Room: Laundry
Dirty clothes is a big deal at our house because my daughter just drops them all on her bedroom floor until it’s like wading through quicksand.
(Sound familiar?)
I recently found THE BEST laundry solution ever because, for some reason, my daughter thinks it’s SO COOL and keeps her laundry picked up now.
This super cheap laundry bag suctions to your bedroom, bathroom, or laundry room door. (I recommend putting one in every child’s room, they’re that cheap.) You can attached (or reattach) at any height for littles to older kids.
And?
The best part?
When the clothes are ready for laundry, you unzip the bottom, the clothes drop into a laundry basket, and BAM! ready for washing!
It’s definitely one of my new favorite organizing tools!
How To Organize Kids Room When It Is Small
How to Organize Your Room: Toy storage ideas for small spaces
OK. All of these suggestions are great, but what if you have a super small space?
- Regularly (like monthly) declutter toys, arts and crafts, clothes and other items. Regularly doing this will help it from getting out of control in a small space!
- Use creative storage solutions for small spaces like tops of cabinets, garage, high laundry room shelving or cabinets, wall space, and under beds.
How to Organize Your Room: Clothing storage for small spaces
Under bed storage is gold if you have a small space. Thin, zippered storage bags are perfect to switch out seasonal items (or bulkier clothes like sweaters) for great storage solutions!
My daughter also really organized her under bed space by using those plastic underbed clothes storage bins with wheels. It helped her organize seasonal clothing and bulky sweaters and made a huge difference in keeping her own room clean!
Also, don’t discount these collapsable hangers that will double your closet space!
Learning how to organize your room makes great life skill practice for kids, so don’t forget to include them!
STARTING HOME SCHOOL? CHECK OUT OUR HOW TO HOMESCHOOL GUIDE
