| | | | | | |

10 Tips For Controlling Clutter in Kids Bedrooms

The Intentional Mom Planning System is where you need to start with our incredible collection of product options. It will help you establish the basics for your life & home so you’ll finally have a plan, save yourself time, and go to bed feeling like you accomplished something every day (because you did). Save up to 60% HERE!

Kids bedrooms. Is there anything more scary to think about when it comes to keeping things clean, organized, and clutter free than kids bedrooms? Maybe, but they can certainly be a clutter collector.

With eight kids who all share rooms, I have become an expert in this area. I have mastered some techniques when it comes to making kids bedrooms livable and manageable for our kids. At the same time, these techniques keep my husband and I happy, too, since expecting perfection isn’t realistic.

Some of the most popular posts I have ever written such as How to Encourage Your Kids to Be Tidy, How to Encourage Your Kids to be Tidy Part Two, and Why I Packed My Kids’ Things Up are among my most read posts every day. As one mother who struggles in this area to another, I can certainly understand why.

In everything I have learned, I think there are 10 key ingredients in controlling the clutter in kids bedrooms, and here they are.

controlling clutter

(this post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you)

1. Limit the opportunity for clutter to collect

This means keeping the amount of “stuff” they have in their rooms to a reasonable and manageable amount. This amount is completely personal and also dependent on the size of the bedroom. You also have to take into account the availability of space in the other areas of the house for their things. It also depends on how many children are in the bedroom, and so much more. I cannot stress enough the importance of being reasonable in what is kept in your kids’ bedrooms and what is not.

2. Train your children to be involved in controlling the clutter in their room from the time they can walk

Kids who are only one can learn to put their pajamas on their bed for instance. Giving them age appropriate tasks from the earliest of ages is vital. Then, continue to train them while also holding them to age appropriate standard.

3. Decluttering/cleaning needs to happen at least two times a day

I have discovered that kids are easily overwhelmed when it comes to keeping their own space clutter free. For this reason, keeping clutter under control is essential. This is also true for us, but teaching this basic concept to our kids early is setting them up for success in this area.

4. To keep kids bedrooms clutter free, you must have the proper tools

As I have said in reference to other areas regarding the things we need our family members to be a part of, we have to make it painfully easy for them to do so. Make sure there is ample storage available for clutter prone things. I find multi-purpose things are especially clever. For instance, we have something similar to this in our boys’ room. They can use it to store things in or to sit on.

5. Label where you want things to go

Labels make it easy for anyone and everyone to put things where they belong. Without a label, your husband may not know where kids books or toys belong. This means that it will be very difficult for him to help even if he wanted to. Labels also avoid kids being able to argue, “I don’t know where that belongs,” as an excuse for being lazy. When labels are being used properly, it saves time since you will not have to continually go in and reorganize things. Again, this is the labeler I love.

 

6. Be specific in organizing and labeling, breaking things down into smaller groups of like items

When you have a bin labeled “trucks,” ideally you won’t be finding trucks put away in a different area. If your bin is only labeled as “toys” everyone will have a harder time finding things they are looking for. General labels will also make it more difficult to return things to the correct spot. Having a drawer labeled “winter tights” will be more organized than just having a place for tights and socks, for instance.

7. Don’t shy away from implementing “stuff rotation”

Whether it is clothes, books, toys, or something entirely different, proactively making sure there isn’t too much to get cluttered in the first place is key. One easy way to avoid this is to rotate the things in kids bedrooms every couple of months. Just as I spoke of when I packed my kids’ things up, having less is often a welcome sight in many kids’ eyes.

8. Involve your kids

Allowing your kids to be involved in how their room works ensures that they will be more willing to help you keep their space clutter free. Give them a space they enjoy being and that they can take pride in.

9. Avoid being an emotional collector

Don’t hang on to things for emotional or sentimental reasons. We all have things that are important to us, but limiting the amount of the things we keep just for the sake of keeping them is needed. Doing this is important for you. It is also important that your kids have a good role model in this area. There are numerous things you can do to preserve the memory while letting the item go. I shared some great tips in my post on being an emotional collector.

10. Only allow approved items to come into kids bedrooms

Kids bedrooms should not be a dumping grounds for things that belong elsewhere any more than our master bedroom should be. Also included here is to be selective on what you allow into kids bedrooms in the first place. As I have mentioned before when deciding on what to allow your child to have, keep in mind that everything they have must be stored. Always being mindful of this has kept me from allowing certain things into my home just from a storage standpoint. This was something I came to learn the hard way.

Clutter can so easily collect in kids bedrooms, but doing these 10 things has greatly helped limit the clutter issues we have in our kids bedrooms. They will help you as well!

clutter


Similar Posts