Kids Organization Hacks (From a Real Mom on a Budget)
Kids are BUSY, and that’s part of what makes them so wonderful! They love to move, they love to create, they love to DO. And with this blessing of active, learning kids, we get messes. Stuff being used, and moved about, and laid on the living room floor and sometimes forgotten.
Keeping kids organized feels like a full time job sometimes! As a mom, there is never a shortage of things to do, and having better organization systems means more time for being with them instead of cleaning up after them (or coaxing them to clean up).
Anyone can organize with hundreds of dollars in their back pocket. But keeping your kids organized on a budget takes some creativity and it takes better systems.
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Google “kids organization hacks”, and you’ll get pages full of wall-mount storage systems, furniture, shelving, and time-consuming DIY projects. Of course, these systems can be wonderful if you have some cash to spend. But for moms on a budget and kids with ever-changing needs (like me!), we need some family organization systems that are free or almost free.
These 7 kids organization hacks are systems that have helped our family be able to spend less time sorting legos, army men, and magnatiles into the right bins and more time reading together, having floor space to create and play, and enjoying our home rather than feeling annoyed by it.
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Pre-Organization Hack: How to Get Your Kids to Help You Clean Up
There is no better kids organization hack than to have kids who help. With four kids under 6, this is something we work on every single day!
If you want your kids be able to clean up their own messes, here are three things you need to know.
- If you’re overwhelmed by the mess, they are too. If you look at a room that looks like it was puked on by a toy monster and feel like you don’t know where to start, how can you expect them to? This problem can be remedied by 1) having less stuff and 2) not waiting until every single toy in the room is out to clean it up.
- Kids will rise to expectations. Be consistent. If kids are expected to clean up after themselves every time, they’ll rise to the occasion.
- Everything must have a place. Some systems are necessary for keeping things in order. A few bins, boxes, or baskets can do wonders for getting things back to an organized state. Kids need to know exactly where things go if they’re going to be expected to put them away. And it must all fit (see #2 below)!
7 Kids Organization Hacks That Don’t Cost Anything
Organizing with one kid isn’t so hard, but the more kids you have, and the older they get (it seems), the more things get moved about and the more organization is needed.
The cabinets full of carefully-placed art supplies, fancy snack stations that look like they should be on a cruise ship, and rows of neatly placed shoes are wonderful—if you don’t have kids in the house actually using them.
I’m just kidding (sort of).
These systems are great, but in very lived-in, homeschool house of four littles, we use things, so they need to be just as easy to put back as they are to get out.
These organization hacks work for me, but they also work for my kids! I hope they can make a difference in your home, too!
- Declutter/Get Rid of Stuff
- Keep Small Toy Bins and Dressers
- Only Keep Clothes That Go Together
- Have a Toy Rotation
- Keep Toys With Lots of Pieces Up High
- Have a Kids’ Shoe Bin (Rather Than Individual Shelves)
- Give Each Child a Drawer or Box for Treasures
1. Declutter/Get Rid of Stuff
Putting things away is so much easier when there is simply less stuff. Everything you have is something you have to manage. So if you have the time to stack 20 stuffies neatly on a bed or keep 30 shirts methodically stacked, go for it!
But if you’re like me and simply do not have time (or would rather spend it doing other things!), simplifying is the way to go!
With kids, stuff never really stops coming in, whether it’s birthday presents, Sunday school crafts, or a toy from the thrift store. So stuff also needs to keep going out.
I keep a donation box on the top shelf of my closet for tossing in things that haven’t been touched in weeks (or sometimes years). Clothing, toys, random kitchen items… just toss it in and enjoy the feeling of decluttering your home one box at a time! (My goal is to fill one box per month.)
2. Keep Small Toy Bins and Dressers
“Stuff” tends to expand to the space it has available… If you have a giant dresser – it will get filled with clothes! Toy boxes in every room? They will eventually overflow with toys!
One of the very best ways I’ve found to keep toys and clothes manageable is to limit the space that they have to fill!
My two girls share a dresser and my two boys share a dresser (with a few hanging items). It works! I do laundry about 3-5x per week, everything fits in the drawers, and we never become bogged down with excessive laundry or drawers that are too full to shut.
Same with toys! If the toy bins are getting too full, things need to either be donated or go down to the toy rotation bin downstairs (see #5 below).
Mom tip: The other trick here is that with little kids, we need to have enough room that everything fits without having to be folded nicely. I’ve found that it’s just not feasible to make a 3-year-old keep his clothes folded (that is, if he’s going to put his own laundry away and get himself dressed in the morning). For us, having enough space means that there is extra space so that the kids can easily toss clothes and toys in their drawers or bins without having to carefully fold or organize them first.
3. Only Keep Clothes That Go Together
This one might feel a little random in a post about kids organization hacks, but I had to add it because it makes managing laundry so much easier. And laundry can be such a big part of organization, especially when it comes to kids!
If you want to simplify clothing, I highly recommend not only minimizing, but only keeping clothing that goes together.
Jeans or plain-colored pants and classic t-shirts do the trick!
One of my daughters loves wearing dresses every day, so we bought her a pack of plain-colored leggings for winter that pretty much go with all her dresses.
Whatever your style, if you want your kids to be able to manage their own clothing as much as possible, get pieces that all work together. It makes it super easy to let the kids dress themselves and still look put together, and takes a task off your plate!
4. Have a Toy Rotation
Having a toy rotation makes it more feasible to keep a slimmer amount of toys in the living areas without having to completely get rid of toys your kids still enjoy.
We keep one large plastic storage bin in the basement for overflow toys. Every so often, I’ll go through (usually while the kids are sleeping) and switch out some toys. It keeps things fresh and interesting, but also allows us to have less to manage on a day-to-day basis.
Tip: Don’t let your toy rotation get out of control! Limit the amount of toys in the rotation (as I mentioned, one large storage bin is enough for us!), or else you’re just moving the problem elsewhere.
5. Keep Toys With Lots of Pieces Up High
This one keeps me sane! I just have zero desire to sort out a giant pile of lincoln logs, legos, and toy cars, and keeping toys with lots of pieces up high means I don’t have to (and neither does anyone else).
A few dollars’ worth of plastic bins or whatever type of containers you have on hand can work wonders. (Walmart often has small-medium bins with lids for just a few dollars.)
All of our many-pieced toys are kept on the top shelf of a closet. The kids are allowed to ask for them anytime, but they can only play with one at a time.
6. Have a Kids’ Shoe Bin (Rather Than Individual Shelves)
If you have older kids who have been carefully trained to put each pair of shoes away, individual shelves might work well for you! (I hope we get there some day!)
But with four littles 5 and under, having everyone stack their shoes neatly is a lot to ask (not to mention it takes a lot of shelving!).
We have ONE (medium-sized) basket in our shoe closet where all the kids throw their shoes. Even a 2-year-old can take her shoes off, open the closet, and toss them in the basket.
Each kiddo has 2-3 pairs in there and it’s enough space but still easy enough for them to find their shoes when it’s time to go.
(Shoes that aren’t worn as often, like church shoes, go in a different location so the basket doesn’t get too congested.)
This is one of those organization hacks that costs almost nothing and may not look beautiful, but it’s actually DO-ABLE for my kids, and that’s what matters! I’d much rather have one messy basket than beautiful shelving that doesn’t actually get used well and leaves shoes all over the floor.
(Depending on your space, how many kids you have, and how big their feet are, you could also use milk crates and assign 1-2 kids per crate.)
7. Give Each Child a Drawer or Box for Treasures
No matter how hard we try to only keep good-quality toys and to declutter, there are always going to be extra “treasures” around. The craft project they made during quiet time, the stones they found on the beach, or the bracelet their friend gave them…
Instead of getting frustrated when you find these items around the house, just plan a place for them! Right now, my big kids each have a “school drawer” in my desk where they keep their school books and any other crafts or treasures they want to hold on to. (If it gets too full, something has to go! And it’s not the school books.)
(My daughter also has a cute little storage box she keeps on her dresser for small items like hair bows, clip-on earrings, and her watch.)
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