Tips for de-cluttering and organizing toys in your kids' playroom

I have been re-organizing my kids' rooms during the past week. I have noticed a lot of mishaps on my behalf. It really should not take me a week to organize two bedrooms, however, it has and to be honest, I am still organizing. During this time, I have realized that a lot of this re-organizing could have easily been completed in steps or stages so I am going to share ten tips for de-cluttering and organizing toys in my kids' bedrooms.

1. First of all, get rid of toys when your child has outgrown them. Do not hold onto them (unless you are expecting or planning to have another child). Donate the old toys to any charity of your choice or a less fortunate family. One persons trash is another persons treasure.

2. Bins, bins, bins! Purchase colorful bins to sort smaller toys. This is a great way to introduce your child to colors and to have a clean play area for your child. I sort items in bins. My son has a bin for his crayons and markers, a bin for his Hot Wheels, a bin for his blocks, a bin for his flash cars, and many more bins. Bins are a great way to organize a room and they are very affordable, many dollar stores sell them.

3. Make a fun cleaning song to encourage your child to help clean and organize his or her play area. You can find numerous clean up sons online or on kids' television shows. My son loves the "Dora the Explorer" clean up song. This make children enjoy cleaning up and will give Mom some much needed help.

4. Toy boxes with book shelves are another great way to keep a kids' room organized. We have one made by One Step that we picked up at a yard sale for $5. We place the larger toys in the toy box and the books on the book shelves.

5. Prior to Christmas and Birthdays look through your child's toys. Both of my children are November babies so they get tons of toys for their birthdays and then a bunch more on Christmas. I have started to go through the toys prior to their birthday and the holidays to make room for the new toys that I know they will receive. This has really helped me to be more organized and get the rooms clutter free beforehand. It is much easier to go through the old toys without the new toys in the room.

6. Another major tip is to clean out the toy boxes when your children are not home. Children become attached to their toys even if they do not play with them. At least my children do. If you clean out the toys when they are not around, you do not have the child crying about keeping the toys and it allows you to focus.

7. Purchase a stuffed animal hammock. You can pick one of these bad boys up at your local Kmart and Wal-Mart for a few bucks. These are great. They hang from the ceiling so you have less toys on the floor. Your child can see all of their toys and if they want one, you can simply take it down for them.

8. Shelves are another great way to de-clutter a room. Shelves provide extra space that you may not have on the floor and are a classy way to organize. Shelves are also great for toys that may be collectible or are more fragile than others. Shelves are also fairly easy to install.

9. Under the bed storage is another great alternative for organizing a room if you do not have a lot of room. Under the bed storage is great because the room looks clean and neat and still provides adequate space for your child to play.

10. Last but not least, teach your children to pick up their toys and start from a young age. If you can make organizing fun, it will really help both you and your child in the long run. We sing and play games when we clean up and organize. We have races, I will tell my kids that I can clean up the room faster than they can and they love it and the room gets organized and cleaned in a jiffy.

Organizing a kids' play area is a chore, but if you use some of these tips it may become less of a chore. Cleaning and organizing is necessary, but shouldn't be an all day event. If you organize in baby steps, it will give you a lot more time to run around and play with your kids' rather than be cleaning their rooms all day. I hope that my tips help a few of you. Happy organizing!


Disclosure: I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hot Wheels® blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here.