Staying Organized....with Kids

One of my goals while on maternity leave with my second daughter is to tackle some much needed organizing projects throughout my home. Unfortunately, my baby doesn't seem to want to sleep much during the day, so I don't have as much down time as I had hoped. This weekend I was able to get my oldest daughter's closet reorganized. She is 3 and we moved her into an new bedroom due to arrival of her baby sister, so we needed to put in a closet system that worked well for her. We were able to get the new closet system installed, my husband and dad put it all together and got it installed before the baby arrived, so that was one thing checked off our list. I hadn't been able to concentrate on organizing it until now. Here is what it looked like before I started the organizing process.

The new closet system was great and it was definitely a good start to getting the space put together. We purchased the closet system from Home Depot, it is the Martha Stewart Collection. We spent under $200 for the system and for a kids closet, I think it works great. Now that the new system was in place, I needed to figure out how I was going to organize it and keep everything together with easy access for my daughter to get to the toys since she didn't need a ton of space for clothes. I decided to purchase some canvas storage bins, which are definitely a must have when it comes to kids and their things. The bins are lightweight, easy to carry and I found some really cute white with metallic gold polka dots storage pieces from Target. I love their kids Pillowfort collection, it is so cute, fresh, and fun.

I purchased several types and sizes. I love the square bins because they fit so nicely and are easy to carry and provide a lot of storage. I also got some small bins because my daughter has a lot of small toys that she plays with now, and keeping them together is always an issue. I made sure to get a larger bin with handles as well. I knew that would come in handy for just about anything.

These storage bins are pretty inexpensive, ranging from around $7-$10 each. I have used them before and they hold up well.

I decided to put things on the upper shelves that I knew my daughter wouldn't want to access, so I decided to use one of the canvas square bins for blankets. I folded the blankets and sheets that didn't fit in the bin next to it on the upper shelf, shown here.

I made some adjustments to the shelving so I could accommodate more of the bins and as I decided what needed to go where, I could arrange the shelving accordingly. I put her dress up clothes in another square canvas bin that is on a higher shelf than she can reach, but she knows to ask to play with those, so I figured it would work in that location. I then decided to put all of her swimming items, goggles, swimsuits, coverups, swim shoes, etc, into the large bin with handles so that all of those items were in the same place and we could easily access them for summer swimming or swim lessons.

I was able to arrange the shelving to allow for some book storage and placed her shoes on a shelf under her clothes. Once the those items were organized I turned my attention to the toys...oh the TOYS! So many, many toys! She has toys out in her room, plus a whole playroom closet on the main floor. I am hoping that utilizing some of her bedroom closet for toys will help keep the toy clutter to a minimum. We have noticed that since she has more room for toys and she is old enough to play on her own that she does tend to like to keep her toys in her room. I decided to use the remaining two large square canvas bins and the two small canvas bins with handles for toys.

I placed her larger toys at the bottom of the closet, so she could easily access them, plus they take up more room, so they really needed to remain on the bottom. I have decided that I think I am going to get a four cubby unit to put at the bottom left of her closet so that she has some more storage options and I can put more canvas bins there with different toys that she can reach. I also want to put picture labels on the bins so she knows what is in each bin and we will work on putting those items back in the bin labeled with that picture. I think that will help her stay organized. We will see how it goes and how long this closet stays looking like this...I give it until the end of the day!! Here is the AFTER!