Braving the Kids' Room
Anyone Have a Map and a Shovel?

Organizing ANY room is always a bit of a challenge, our lives are in constant flux, it seems, and our 'stuff' follows suit. Children's rooms, as I am quickly finding out, have a life of their own that is even more resistant to organization than my husband's underwear and sock drawer. Here are some tips gleaned from my observations as an elementary school teacher - after all, your house is somewhat of a classroom, is it not? - and as a mother of a 16-month-old three-seconds-or-less shelf clearer. I have found it very beneficial to look at my son's room as a kind of classroom - trying to meld storage and daily life with an attractive 'learning' (i.e. mess opportunity) environment.

One of the most logical things I have noted in successful classrooms is labels. My husband had an inordinate amount of fun teasing me about labeling our son's toy shelves, but it works. I have placed his current toys on the shelves, no more than 3 per shelf (that is my hang-up - too much visual clutter really gets annoying) and marked their places with masking tape (it comes off fairly easily except where I didn't do a good job sanding before I painted...) - later I plan to decorate these places with him, like drawing a parking lot where his cars go, etc. I also cut a little strip of tape, placed it in front of the toy and wrote the name of the toy and a drew little picture of the toy on it for the toys that are 'permanently' on the shelves. Neil is obviously too young to appreciate this now, but my kindergartners really enjoyed finding letters and words they knew during clean-up time. The pictures helped them clean up on their own and at a quicker pace, and learn categorizing and word recognition. I also think that this system keeps my husband and I from just slopping his toys in any old place, which is bad modeling for him. I would dearly love to label my husband's dresser top, for that matter.....

One idea I have not tried but am eager to, is those stacking drawers for 'bulk' toys such as blocks. I tried smaller bins earlier and didn't like them for toys, but am considering them versus drawers. I don't know which would be more accesible to Neil while being more attractive to ME at the same time. I will label the drawers with pictures and text like his shelves. I also use those chubs boxes for small things I have taken out of circulation such as his farm animals or extra blocks. He loves taking a box down periodically and opening one up to see what is inside - it is like Christmas, I think. I will confess to having an obsession with collecting all the nifty colors and envisioning huge rambling multicolored castles to play in...

I also ascribe to a tip I have read often here in the Dollar Stretcher of divvying up your children's toys. I have such a weakness for buying my son toys at garage sales!! He has enough toys to supply a day care! I have divided them up into 1) toys he's outgrown (save 'em for later) 2) toys to be sold at our next garage sale because he doesn't like them or I've replaced them with something similar and improved (such as a different shape sorter for those Fisher Price colored blocks - why have two?) 3) toys that are in temporary 'retirement' or that he hasn't grown into yet. I have to confess the 'toys to get rid of' box is rather pitifully small... I'd say about half of his toys are out on his shelves, maybe more. I use laundry baskets sacrificed to the cause for his outside toys on the front porch. I am pondering how to store his backyard toys safely out of reach of our chewing-fiend dachsunds. He also has a 3-shelf bookshelf in the living room with a few toys on it, and a small laundry basket we use to clean up his trail o' toys at naptime and bedtime before we put them away. I wish it had wheels! I will confess that I don't always get them ALL put away every day, but I try to during nap time and at bedtime. His interest is always rekindled by cleaning up, of course, and he is beginning to get the idea and 'help'... sort of (i.e. play with them some more...).

I have sorted through Neil's books and have divvied them up as well, leaving about 10-15 for him to choose from in two baskets on the floor - one in his room, one in the living room. It must be the latent librarian in me that suffers near physical pain when he pulls all his books onto the floor and gleefully walks all over them.... At this point, real paper books are read by Mom and Dad only, but he has so many board books that I think he hardly feels the lack. I have a tall cupboard where I keep older books and cassette tapes for the 20 year old tape player I scrounged from my in-laws to put in his room. All the toy shelves and such are in ONE corner, to minimize the area of destruction.

Neil's clothing drawers are the hardest things for me to organize. I keep all his clothing in a four-drawer dresser; pj's, socks, slippers and onesies in the top; shirts in the second; pants and one piece outfits in the third; and special outfits such as snowsuits in the bottom. I have used old shoe boxes, etc. to divide them, but tend to overflow. I refuse to buy those plastic organizer things. I will use a large ziploc to store onesies or such that are the next size up. I am fortunate to have another dresser/changing table with 3 drawers in which I keep diaper supplies in the top; cloth diapers in the second; and extra blankets and pads in the bottom. I store some extra clothes (a blessing from my best friend with two sons) in boxes in the closet or under his bed in the following categories: Too Small But Keep, Hasn't Grown Into Yet (Warm and Cold Weather), & Get Rid Of. I am working on hanging up some clothing, but he is too small to need that as yet. I recommend those closet organizer kits. They are well worth the expenditure, especially if you design your own. I am waiting for my husband to put them in the closets in this house so that I can REALLY get going on organizing them. He is probably procrastinating out of fear. Organizing is so much more fun than actual cleaning.

We have a diaper genie next to the changing table and a diaper bin for cloth diapers in the closet. I keep disposable diapers in the closet, with about 5 or so in the bin on the changing table. I finally got rid of that stupid diaper stacker! Since Neil has learned to open up the wicker laundry hamper, his dirty clothes are in the closet as well. His closet is organized, but very crowded. I keep his crib & bed (we are in transition) blankets and sheets in the linen closet in the hallway as well as his bath towels.

I will add here that a study area is important for older children. Children should have a relatively undisturbed, well-lit place to study and keep school supplies out of the reach of younger siblings. It doesn't have to exactly be a 'study sanctum' and many school desks for children are incredibly uncomfortable, but a drawer or two for supplies, and a table and chair somewhere that isn't covered with lego masterpieces or dinner or near the television is preferable. Fortunately I don't have to deal with this yet!

I hope that sharing how I do things is helpful to those who may not of thought of some of these things. One useful technique for working on environments for young children is to get down on your knees and look around. If your system of organization is not immediately obvious and the room looks unattractive from that height, then perhaps it is not quite as organized and kid-oriented as it could be. To me, organizing my son's room serves not only to save my sanity, but to teach him valuable organizational skills as well. If he voices an opinion on where he wants something in the future, then we will change things as 'ownership' of his room grows. I just hope he passes quickly through the shove everything under the bed and in the closet stage!!

Do you have a time or money saving idea that wasn't included in this article? Please send it to tips@stretcher.com. We get the best ideas from our readers!

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