How To Organize and Declutter Kids Spaces | 3 Easy Tips
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I’ve been seeing a lot of comments on Social Media about how this time of year should be called ‘Maycember’ as it tends to be an overwhelming and hectic month of May which is just as busy and chaotic as December! Our month of May has been packed with activities and it’s hard to believe the school season ends in less than a week. As our daughter brings home the various projects she’s done at school and we start to shift our activities to summer camps, I wanted to share how I stay organized with all the school paperwork, miscellaneous items and changing needs of a growing child that happen throughout the year.
These systems have been in place in our house since our daughter was in Pre-K and are still going strong as an easy, low cost ways to manage the constant stream of items coming into our home and changing lives of a growing child.
Organized Living – Kids Spaces
“Watching you grow up has been the most rewarding journey of my life” ~ Author Unknown
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Tip #1 – Utilize bins to quickly sort items and clothes
Similar to how I tackle a larger space when I am working to declutter throughout the year, I use the same simple system in our daughter’s room on a daily and weekly basis. The process and supplies are simple. We have one storage bin labeled Keep (this is a broad category) and one storage bin labeled Donate. I involved our daughter in creating this system and she asked if she could write the bin labels. It’s a small way to involve her in the process and have some ownership in keeping her room tidy.
The Keep storage bin is often filled throughout the month as we are picking up her room and I use this as a placeholder of sorts for random papers and little items I am not sure if she wants to keep, trash or donate. This helps us keep her room routinely picked up throughout the week and then either when the bin is full or we have more time on a weekend, we will take out the bin and review the items. I find about half of them she wants to throw in the trash and the rest we take a few minutes to put back where they belong.
The Donate storage bin is generally used for clothes that no longer fit. I find it is easy for us to make these decisions as we are putting away laundry each week or as we are transitioning her closet at the end of a season. Having the bin in the closet makes it simple to keep her up to date with what she can actually wear that fits and makes it easy for me to have a donation pile ready to go for our next run.
I shared in this post on organizing kitchen spaces and this post on projects to declutter and organize after the new year other ways I have used these storage bins throughout our home. I have found they are the perfect size for many organizing solutions. In this space, I like how they can store a decent amount so I don’t have to empty it every week but not so much that it is overwhelming to go through when it’s time to empty the bins.
Tip #2 – Create a photo library to preserve projects and artwork
The amount of papers and projects that come home throughout the school year is impressive and can be overwhelming to know what you should keep for a memory maker and what is ok to let go. The struggle is real for kids and parents! When our daughter was in Pre-K, I decided I needed to figure out a better way to manage and store the various (and adorable) projects she would bring home. I loved watching the development of her brain and skills as evidenced in the progression of advancing artwork over the years but I also knew I did not want to store every item she ever created.
So instead, we have a system of selecting a few items each year we want to keep in the original form and the other projects we think are worthy of a memory maker, I take a photo and store it in a folder on my phone. This system requires no storage space or organizing system other than a quick creation of a folder in my photos app for all the artwork and projects. This also allows us an easy way, at any time or place, to pull up an old memory and not have to store these items in our home.
I have involved our daughter in this process since she was 5 years old. When we first started this system, we kept more artwork and took more photos than we do now. I have found this system has helped develop in her a healthy way to appreciate experiences and moments in time throughout her life, without feeling like she needs to keep everything she’s ever created. Now when it’s time to review a batch of projects that came home during the year, she’s more decisive and discerning around what she thinks is special to keep and what we can preserve through a photo, making it easy on both of us to do this sort and purge!
Tip #3 – Implement a daily system to review and purge
The final tip and perhaps the most important one to stay on top of the amount of paperwork coming in from school and camps, is to do a daily sweep of the backpack and any items, like a school folder, coming home. Some days there is very little and other days it seems like they cleaned out the classroom by sending kids home with massive amounts of paperwork.
I have a daily process with the school folder to take a quick look at what’s coming home and I will review these with our daughter to confirm I can throw away the daily papers after I’ve had a chance to take a look. Since we have the established system of preserving artwork and special projects by taking photos, when she is sent home with a batch of these items, she is good about guiding me on which ones are good to trash and which ones are worthy of photo storage. This process takes 2-5 minutes each day and minimizes any stacks of paperwork accumulating during the school year.
Final Thoughts
The days go by so fast and it can be easy to become overwhelmed with the busy pace. This is when simple systems around your home to stay organized can be very powerful to manage the chaos. Building these ideas into your daily or weekly practice takes just a few minutes and makes it easier to stay focused on what really matters – time with family and friends.
If you have a system in your home for managing kids spaces, share in the comments! I would love to hear your ideas.
This post pairs well with a Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay which is one of our favorite wineries and a great place to visit during the summer months. If you found this post useful, please consider sharing it on Pinterest with others! Cheers!
These are great tips for decluttering and organizing kids areas! I’m a huge fan of bins and love utilizing them for storage and keeping everything in its place!
Absolutely loving this post! “Maycember” is so real—this time of year feels like a sprint to the finish line. I really appreciate you sharing your organization tips; it’s inspiring to see how simple systems can make a big difference amidst the chaos. Definitely taking notes for my own space!