Kids can be messy. Trying to clean the house when you have small children can seem like shoveling your driveway in the middle of a snowstorm. If you are overwhelmed by the mess your little ones make, you’re not alone. Kids’ clutter is one of the biggest issues for most of my clients and online followers.
Contrary to popular belief, you can have kids running around like little tornados and still have a clean and organized home, without having to pick up after them all day-long. Actually, once you have put some of my favorite organizing systems in place, you will never have to pick up toys again! You may be rolling your eyes right about now, but let me assure you, the right organizing solutions can work miracles in even the most toy-cluttered homes. Our house is definitely proof of this.
Let’s just lay it all out: children come with a ridiculous amount of stuff. Anyone with a newborn can attest to the fact that, despite being the size of a football, babies can fill your home with so many gadgets and gizmos that any resemblance of your grown-up, pre-baby space vanishes before they even come home from the hospital. When my kids were first born, we bought so many contraptions that swung them, rocked them, and vibrated them; my living room barely had room for living. Those giant rainbow-colored jiggling machines were sanity savers in those first few sleep-deprived months of parenthood, but as the baby clutter grew, so did my stress and the dislike of my home.
The landslide of children’s items coming into my home didn’t stop after infancy either. With three kids growing fast, buying clothes is a year-round event, and there seems to be a holiday requiring new toys every few months. With three sets of grandparents and six sets of great-grandparents buying my children gifts throughout the year, it didn’t take long for my home to become a giant, brightly-colored disaster zone.
Every night I would clean up all their toys, books, and games, just to do it all over again the next day. My life was like the movie Groundhog Day, if only the movie was about a stressed-out, overly-emotional mother who was living in a pile of rainbow-colored junk. I mean, why does everything made for children have to be so loud and so painfully bright? It’s a bloody miracle I made it through those years without going completely bonkers. I was desperate for a clean and organized home we could enjoy as a family, not just a fun house for kids aged five and under. The mess was making me miserable, and when Mom is miserable, the entire family is miserable.
I was running a home daycare and at one point, I had nine little ones running around all-day. One of my more…spirited daycare girls used to literally swing from my chandelier, and I felt like I was living in a zoo with tiny mess-making monkeys. After too many years of stepping on toys and endlessly cleaning, I decided to try different organizing methods to help save what little sanity I had left.
My only organizational goal in the beginning was to spend less time cleaning up the toys every night. I literally tried every organizing system I could find for kids’ toys. I could have built a new house with the wasted toy boxes and plastic containers that never keep the toys organized for very long. When I finally found the holy grail of toy organization, I never had to pick up a random child’s toy again (cue the angels singing background music). Once this system was set up, the playroom became a beautifully clean and tidy toy-topia literally overnight, with no upkeep needed on my part. The best part? Once the toys were organized and easier for the children to find and play with, the kids were so much happier and rarely needed me for entertainment anymore. I know what you’re thinking, it may seem unbelievable, but I promise you, my toy-organizing system really is magic. Don’t worry, I’m going to cover this life-changing toy-organizing system later in this chapter!
Here’s the greatest thing about organizing: it isn’t just about having a pretty or tidy space, it is about making your space so functional that it saves you time, energy, and requires minimal effort to maintain.
After the toys were organized, I started searching for other ways to set up organizing systems for my kids and my daycare. The new toy system had such a huge impact on everyone that I wanted to keep the momentum going, and the more I organized, the more I began seeing amazing and unexpected results. The kids were happier and way more independent, and I had more time to spend with them than ever before.
A few months after I was running my daycare “like a boss,” I had a parent tell me how thrilled she was that I was running a Montessori-style daycare. She gushed about how her friends at a play date were all amazed at how her young toddlers could put on their own coat and shoes, and how they cleaned up after themselves so well. I didn’t mention to her that I had no idea what “Montessori method” even was, or that the only reason her children had this newfound independence was because I was tired of doing those things for them. I simply smiled and nodded.
After she left, I did a little Google research on the Montessori method, and I have to say, they are totally onto something. Montessori schools and daycares base their core values on creating environments that teach children to be more independent. Children play independently, clean up independently, and are able to easily master basic life skills that some teenagers can’t even do. Organization is key in creating these educational and fun play spaces for children in Montessori-style schools and daycares, and you can easily recreate these systems in your own home, too.
I saw a huge change in both my own children and my daycare children after I had set up new and easy organizing solutions for them. They could put on their own shoes and coats, get their own drinks and snacks, pick up their toys, and sweep and mop the daycare room;because they could easily access everything they wanted and needed, they rarely required any assistance from me.
The results from my daycare efficiency project were incredible. The children were happier, my home was cleaner, and I had so much more time every day. I was no longer a frazzled, overworked stay-at-home mom, and yet I was doing a much better job as a parent than I ever had before. I am going to share a few of my favorite tips and tricks with you when it comes to organization for small children. These little changes can make a huge impact, and they can help your children become happier, tidier, and more independent little humans! So let’s get started!
Toys
Let’s talk toys! This toy method works for all small children, and it will ensure that their toys stay clean and organized for good! Everyone who has tried this method with their children agrees that this simple concept can banish toy clutter for good. First, you must get rid of all of your toy boxes. Toy boxes just do not work.
What works for children is a sorted, labeled, open container system. Step one to creating this system is to sort all the toys into similar categories. Make these categories really simple. Here are a few examples: dolls, building blocks, action figures, puzzles, cars, and balls…hopefully you get the idea! Now place each one of these categories into a container that does not have a lid. Be sure the container is large enough to hold everything in the category, without having to force the toys inside. You can always create two containers for each category if you have too many for just one container. I love using deep plastic containers from the dollar store or canvas bins for toy storage. Once all of the toys are sorted into bins, clearly label the front of the bins with a large and easy to read label. If your children are too young to read, use picture labels instead.
Once all of your containers are sorted and labeled, place them on low shelving units so that the children can easily get them down and put them back all by themselves.
When you first set up this system, you will need to enforce the one-container-at-a-time rule. This is a temporary rule you need to enforce only until your children become used to picking up the toys from that one container all by themselves. The rule is: you can only play with one container at a time and you must clean up that container and put it away before you can take out another one. This will ensure that the mess will never get out of control for your little ones and train them to quickly and easily pick up their toys.
Once you feel your child can move to two or three containers at a time, just remind them not to mix the containers while cleaning up. Only dolls go in the doll bin, only cars in the car bin. Here is why this is important and why this method works: if the toys are sorted, children never have to rummage or dump toys on the floor to find what they are looking for. It is easier to find what they want and much more fun to play when toys are sorted into categories for them. Of course, it also makes cleaning up easier, too.
My children have been using the sorted toy method for over six years, and I have never had to help them clean or organize their toys since we started using this method. Their bedrooms and the playroom are always clean, and they can easily find everything they want to play with without any help from me.
Toy Rotation
Toy rotation is a must-do in order to keep toy clutter under control. It also has the added benefit of keeping your child way more focused, and it makes playing with old toys seem new and fun again. This simple concept is a lifesaver if your child has a lot of toys. Once the toys are sorted into separate containers, store half of those containers out of sight. Dedicate a closet, under a bed, or a spot in a storage area to keep half of your child’s toys. We have a toy closet, and once every couple of weeks or so, I rotate those toy bins with the ones currently in their room or play room. I can also pull out a new toy bin whenever I need a quiet minute, and it’s always like Christmas morning all over again.
Once the toys are stored out of sight, most children forget all about them. When you bring them out, it’s like they are getting brand-new toys all over again, and it reignites their interest in them. If your little one seems bored or is reluctant to self-play, toy rotation is going to be a game changer for you. Here is a “you’re welcome” in advance.
Coats And Shoes
Hooks are also a must for small children. You just cannot expect little kids to hang up their coat on a hanger when they come home from school (despite daily nagging). It will almost always end up on the floor. Instead, install hooks either inside the closet or by the door where they can easily hang their coats and backpacks when they get home, while still keeping your home tidy and organized. Be sure to hang hooks at their eye level, so that they can easily reach the hooks. You can also install hooks in their bedroom for pyjamas and other clothing they have worn once, but are not yet dirty enough to go into the wash.
The same idea works for shoes. While we did (and still do) have a closet for shoes and coats, my children rarely took the time to put their shoes away when they got home. By giving them a dedicated shoe basket or cubbies located right by the door, my children could easily put their shoes away as soon as they got home.
The added benefit of being able to say, go get your shoes and coat on, and knowing they can do this without any help from you can save you so much time on those busy and rushed mornings.