Organising the kids stuff

We’re lucky enough to have a pretty big house, but still, with six of us living here, it is FULL to the brim. The kiddos all have their own rooms, and we have a playroom – sometimes it seems that we have enough stuff to fill two houses over. Over the summer we’ve slowly been working our way through the entire house. Trying to clear out the things that we no longer use, and organise what is left.

It’s been a good exercise – the three girls especially were ready to let go of things they have outgrown, and the space it has given them {physically and mentally} has left them room to grow and morphe their rooms into their new visions and spaces that work for them right now. I thought we’d share some of the tips that have helped us over the summer, to take back control of messy spaces and find better ways of organising everything.

1| CLEAR OUT THE OLD

Before we could even think about organising, we needed to clear out. We went through everything. Every drawer, shelf and cupboard. Binning any rubbish, recycling old papers, and collecting together anything we could pass on. anything that was worth something, we photographed and listed and sold. The kiddos were grateful to have some extra spending money, and it was a good way of clearing out toys they no longer played with. Anything else that we couldn’t sell got donated to a charity shop.

2| REPURPOSE SPACE

Sometimes it pays to move rooms around, switch bedrooms up, change where you do daily activities. We’re about to move the table out of the playroom as it doesn’t get used {we have carpet in there, so messy craft activities happen in the kitchen} and just becomes a dumping ground for stuff. Moving it out will give us more room to play, and I plan on adding some comfy seating in there ready for when I’m sat in there watching Oren play. Consider if you are using spaces in the best way.

3| ADD MORE STORAGE

It’s all about storage, baby. Bookshelves, storage boxes, IKEA kallax units…. they are my best friends! We use kallax’s in the playroom for all the toys, as well as another for the craft supplies. baskets and boxes are essential, keeping toys organised by category, and easy to tidy away. I keep things low down that the little ones want and can play with themselves, and things that need keeping out of their way higher up. I have baskets in the living room and bedroom too for baby toys, so they can easily be tidied away but are always on hand. Another good idea, especially if you live in a smaller house and are overrun, is to utilise self-storage. It’s a great way to hold on to items you don’t want to part with – maybe toys and baby clothes you want to hold onto for future children, but just don’t have space for at home. Shurgard Self-Storage Edgware is a great place to start investigating this option!

4| MAKE TIDYING FUN

With little ones, I try to make tidying up part of the game. Teach them young to put one thing away before they get the next out. My kiddos have always been pretty good at this – and I’ve tought them to respect our toys and not throw things all over. Beastie sometimes is so shocked when he sees friends just throwing toys all over the place, emptying boxes out on the floor and not putting things away! I often use an egg timer to make tidying up into a fun race…

5| BUY WITH CAUTION

Once you are organised, STOP BUYING EVERYTHING!!! Seriously, it’s something I’m working on – but really consider purchases before you make them! We try to avoid all those little, collectable toys as they just end up thrown in boxes and never played with.  With toys, I’ve really found less is more – kids don’t need hundreds of toys, they just get overwhelmed. A few good quality, open-ended toys are far more valuable than twice as many toys that just don’t get played with.