It’s Week 10 (plus?) of the Less Mess Challenge and we’re working in kids’ bedrooms this week. My kids’ rooms always need a good refresh! Decluttering and organizing kids’ rooms is a big job, especially if you’ve got multiple children or children that are “collectors.” Let’s go through these rooms, tidy them from top to bottom (when was the last time you dusted those ceiling fans?) and declutter everything in between!
Tips for Tidying Kids’ Rooms
Tidying kids’ rooms can be a challenge. Between all the stuff and the opinions, it’s not an easy feat. Here are some of my best tips for organizing kids’ rooms.
Be Respectful
Kids’ rooms are often a reflection of their interests and personalities. They take their spaces seriously—after all, it’s probably the only space that’s their territory—and we need to be respectful of that. While it can be tempting to roll in with giant trash bags and toss as much as possible, but that will only lead to sad kids who can’t trust you in their spaces.
Instead, it’s important to be respectful of your kids. You wouldn’t want someone going through your room with a trash bag taking whatever they please, right? Let your children know ahead of time that you’re going to be spending some time cleaning and decluttering their room. Give them the option to be involved. Let them know you’ll be going through their things.
Use Logic to Help Declutter
Less is more for toys and STUFF for kids, but even if we know this, sometimes our kids don’t. Speak to them logically about it. Explain to them they will have an easier time keeping their rooms cleaner. They’ll also be able to clean their rooms faster when they have fewer items — which means more time to play!
Designate a Recipient
If your child has a hard time letting go of items, sometimes having a great place for that item to go can be helpful. Maybe knowing that clothes or toys are going to a little cousin or a children’s hospital might make it easier for your kiddo to give some items up.
Set Limits within Kids’ Rooms
It can be VERY helpful to give children boundaries and limits. Whether your number is spatial (you can keep all the stuffed animals that fit in this basket) or numerical (“Twenty shirts is a great number for a 5-year-old, let’s see how many you have and see if we can get it that number to twenty!”), it will help your child learn to take charge of his stuff on his own.
Letting your child know that you’re going to stick to this limit will also help him rethink that request for extra toys when you’re walking through Target (“If you get that stuffed animal, you’re going to have to let go of one you have at home, and I know you love the animals you have.”)
Apply this concept to any kind of hobby or collection your child has a hard time resisting — Lego sets, books, Pokemon cards, rocks, whatever!
Need to declutter some books? Here are some helpful tips!
Consider Rotation
If you have more than you’d like in a space, but someone just can’t let go, consider rotating items in and out of the space. This can be done with toys, books, and even seasonal clothing.
Read up on Toy Rotation in this article.
See how I implement Seasonal Book Rotation in this post.
Lead by Example
As always, it’s important to lead by example. If you provide your kids with limits, but don’t have a limit for yourself, what message is that sending? If you ask them to clean their room, but your room is a mess (it’s not, because you took part in the Less Mess Challenge and your room is neat as a pin) why should they listen?
Decluttering and Organizing Kids’ Rooms
As always, whether you just have a few minutes or a few hours (or days) do what you can when you can and take pride in your work. Let go of perfection and embrace improvement. Do as many rooms as you can, perhaps just doing quick declutters in each space, or extend this week’s task for an additional week or two.
Avoid conflicts. Having clean, organized kids’ rooms is fantastic, but it’s not worth excessive stress and conflict.
If You Only Have 30 Minutes: Quick Declutter
- Throw away any obvious garbage or broken toys.
- Change the sheets (if necessary) and make the bed. While you’re checking sheets—how many do you have for each child? Can a set or two go?
- Pull out items under the bed and make sure they belong.
- Clear the top of the dresser or desk, if present.
- Clear the floor.
- Put items in their home. If they don’t have a home, assign one. If there’s no place where you can put an item, create one by adding a shelf/dresser/bin or remove items (this may take longer than a half an hour)
If You Have an Hour: Declutter & Surface Clean
- All tasks above, plus…
- Quickly look through dresser drawers and tidy them. Pull out anything that’s too small. Clear out anything under the dresser. Dust the top.
- Tidy the closet, look through clothing, pull out anything that’s too small.
- Tidy and dust any shelves.
- Vacuum the floor.
If You Have a Few Hours: Declutter, Deep Clean & Organize
- All tasks above, plus…
- Wash all bedding — comforters, blankets, and shams.
- Go through the nightstand drawer and tidy it.
- Empty the contents of the dresser, one drawer at a time. Make sure it fits, belongs, and is folded nicely before returning it to the drawer.
- Fully empty any closet shelves. Sort items into categories and return them to the shelf neatly. Use bins, if necessary (A too small and too big bin are always good ideas for children’s closets).
- Go through desk drawers and assess every item. Toss wrinkled papers, candy wrappers, old markers, crewed crayons, pencil nubs… you get the idea.
- Look through any toys, bins, or treasure boxes. Speak with your children about passing items down that they no longer love/use/need.
- Dust the baseboards, ceiling fan, and windowsills. Wipe down light fixtures, doors, and switches. Wash the windows.