Organizing the Kids Closets

May is over. June is here. It’s time again for Laura’s Monthly Organizing Round-Up. This month’s challenge was the kids room – in part, in whole, or whatever! My chosen task was to organize the kids’ closets.

I mean, yeah, we organized them when we originally organized the kids’ rooms for the first challenge. At that time, there was still a large amount of stuff going back into the closets. It was organized, it was accessible, it worked. But it was still quite full.

Since then, I’ve reorganized the girls’ closet once or twice. Once when my friends came over and helped me in December. It still looked pretty good.

But the other closet – OH BOY. In the last year and a half we’ve used up some of our due-to-over-clutter-overstock, we’ve acquired some new things, we’ve been lazy about putting back some other things, we’ve gained new baskets, we’ve emptied others.. and then it looked something like this :

(As always, the pictures are linked to larger ones.)

The three tubs for the kids’ off season clothing and hand-me-downs were also in there, but I’d already taken them out to pull out the rest of the summer clothes and put away the rest of the long sleeves and pants. During the process, I also purged (see below.) The less that goes back into the closet or tubs, the less there is to organize, right?

With those out of the way, I began by pulling out everything that I did not want to stay in there. I decided to store the red gift wrap box, the extra crib rail and the electric piano in the attic. I pulled out two boxes I found that didn’t belong (I thought I was done with boxes after the Closet Challenge, but not so! I have no idea what these were doing in there or when they got put there. I have gone through and put away one, the other is waiting.) The gray tub for fabric didn’t stay either – I think I’m going to put that in the attic, too, I just need my hubby’s muscles to get it up the ladder.

The next step was pulling out all the board games to move to the girls’ closet. That left everything that DID need to stay. I pulled out all the remaining buckets, tubs, and miscellaneous things and sat down with a big pile in the middle of the living room floor to sort and organize. After putting it all back in the closet, (along with the one gray tub for Little Prince’s clothes and two small boxes of clothes for the future) it now looks like this:

Everything on the bottom shelf is craft and project related. Playdoh, paint, crayons, pencils, paper – you name it. And it’s all labeled. 🙂 On the top in the pink bins are kites, bubbles & bubble wands, and pool toys. On the top left is Little Prince’s off-season and hand me down clothes, a bag of gift bags (I use those more than the wrapping paper which I mostly use at Christmas), the humidifier, some egg cartons, and the paper cutter.

On top of the dresser I’ve used two stacking bins to contain diapers and wipes (until he’s potty trained!) and backpacks and shoes. Located above are the hanging baskets with belts and hats and a few other things.

The only thing on the floor is his big trucks (keeps them from taking up play space in his room, as well as propping the door open,) and the little hamper, which I added so Little Prince can help me do his own laundry – and he does!

Now check out the girls’ closet:

Princess’ clothes are now in the white dresser in their room, so Drama Queen gets the brown one in the closet all to herself. Inside one of her drawers, she still has three white baskets: one for undies, one for socks, one for belts – alongside the baskets is a space for rolled up tights. To the left, her clothes hang on the lower shelf where she can reach them. And to the left of that she gets the two lower pink bins for her shoes. To the left of the bin is a spot for her boots and and hanger with clippies for hats.

Princess gets the top two shoe bins, and above that there is a spot on the shelf for her boots, which is next to her “accessory station,” with belts and purses. What doesn’t go in her dresser hangs on the top rod. The whole system works well with our new laundry system. At the beginning of the month I pulled the hamper out of their closet and instead put two laundry baskets under their bed – labeled with their names. Throughout the week they collect their own dirty laundry and then once a week they wash, dry, fold and put away their own clothes. They balk a little at the folding and putting away part but the system makes it as easy as possible.

In the top of the closet, I brought in all the games – it made sense since we usually play games while Little Prince is sleeping. Now we don’t have to remember to get one out before putting him in bed. Also in the top of their closet you’ll find a basket of linens, a basket of bike gear, a shelf of souvenirs and momentos, their two buckets of off season clothes, sleeping bags, and a box of hand me down shoes and trash bag (until I get another bin) of hand me down clothes from Princess to Drama Queen that don’t fit yet.

I enjoy walking into their closets and being able to find things easier. I LOVE that the girls are now taking care of their own laundry. I’m thrilled that Little Prince has already begun picking up on the order in his closet. He knows where to put his dirty clothes and he’ll grab a diaper and the wipes box and bring them to me. He’ll go in and pick out his own clothes to wear. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… it would be AWESOME if he turned out to be a NEAT child who grew up knowing no other way. 😉

Stop by Laura’s for more kid’s room challenges.

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