Hi, friends! Welcome back to our Organize Your Entire Home in 20 Days series!
You have done such a good job cleaning out and tidying up so far! We've worked through the entryway, coat closet, your kitchen cabinets and counters, the pantry, living room and the dining room!
Now that we have tidied up the common areas of the house, we’re going to start going into different bedrooms.
First bedroom up, your kids! Today we will be focusing on the kids dressers and closets.
Today would be a great day to get your children involved in the decluttering process so they can help you make decisions and they can start to build good habits on keeping their spaces tidy.
Start them out young!!
Keep in mind their age at this point. Younger kids will have a harder time getting rid of things, even if they don't really care about these items. This applies to clothes and toys.
For example, we had a client who's daughter loved an old t shirt. It no longer fit her, so in order for her to keep this shirt and continue to enjoy it, we framed it! Now she can look at it and remember it versus it taking up space and gathering dust on the shelf.
The first step in the organizing process is to start pulling everything out of the dresser and closet.
Pull out clothes, shoes, hangers, toys (only if the toys were in the dresser or closet though, don’t worry about ALL of their toys today, we will dive into all their toys on Day 9!), memorable keepsakes, and anything else that may be hiding in those areas.
By pulling everything out of the closet and drawers, you will be able to see what items really belong there and what items were just taking up space and need to go somewhere else.
After you have brought everything out of the dresser and closet, the next thing to do is start grouping all of the items together in similar categories.
If two of your kids share a dresser and closet, sort each of their items in their own separate groups.
Put all of the shirts together, all of the jackets together, all of the shorts together, all of the toys together, and so on until all of the items that were pulled from the spaces are grouped together.
By grouping together all of the like items you will easily be able to see what clothing and toy items that you have and may have too many of.
After you have categorized all of the clothing, its time to decide if you'll be keeping, donating or trashing them.
If you haven’t done so already, enlist the help of your children while making these decisions, there is no point to holding onto clothing they don't even like to wear!
Items that you want to keep should be things that serve your family a purpose and you definitely will be using in the future.
These are going to be things like memorable keepsakes, clothes and shoes the child still wears/fits into, and toys that the child plays with regularly.
Items that need to be donated are things that are still in good condition but no longer serve a purpose for your family.
These are going to be things like clothing and shoes that no longer fit your child and can’t be used as hand-me-downs in the future, toys that none of the children in the house currently play with, and any item there is an excess of.
Items that are trash are things that don’t serve your family any further purpose and wouldn’t serve anyone else purpose either.
These are going to be things like clothes or shoes that have stains or are torn, toys that are broken, or that art project your child made but doesn’t care about any longer.
If you are having difficulty deciding on what items should be kept or donated, ask yourself questions such as, when was the last time someone in my family used/wore this item? Does this item still serve its original purpose for me? How many of this one item do I have and is more than one really necessary? Would someone else better benefit from having this item than I would?
By asking yourself these questions about items you aren’t sure of, you are opening your mind and being honest with yourself about the needs of your family. Any items that you keep but you don’t need will continue to add to the clutter around your house for no reason.
By giving away these items, you are not only clearing the mess from your house, you are also allowing someone else to use these items that may need them more than you.
Also keep in mind that if your younger children or future children can wear these clothes, you can store them in bins, labeled for the age groups they fit! That way, they are out of sight in a storage room until you need them.
Once you and your children have made decisions on all of the items, step away from the piles because now we are going to take some time to clean the dresser and closet.
Since there is nothing left in the dresser or closet, now is the best time to clean in those hard to reach areas.
Start by dusting the highest to reach surfaces and work your way down, wiping any flat surfaces along the way. Don’t forget to wipe inside the drawers and the outside of the dresser.
After all of the flat surfaces have been wiped down, vacuum/sweep the floor inside the closet and underneath the dresser (have someone help you move the dresser if needed!).
Once the dresser and closet have been cleaned, its time to contain and put away the items.
For best results, hang all of the nice and formal clothing in the closet and fold the casual clothes to be put away in the dresser.
When putting clothing back into the closet, hang the clothing items back up in the categories that you previously sorted them in (shirts, jackets, jeans. etc.).
In addition, hanging items up in a color coded system will also make finding clothes easier and makes the closet look more tidy. Check out this blog post on 10 Closet Hacks You Must Use for additional tips on getting a closet looking clutter free.
Once all of the clothing that needs to be hung up is in the closet, focus on the clothing that you want to keep in the dresser.
Since casual clothing is worn more frequently, it needs to be easily accessible to the child to reach on his/her own.
In the same way that you hung up the clothing by categories and color, do the same for the clothes that will be folded.
Dedicate each drawer of the dresser to a certain category of clothing (underwear, T-shirts, shorts, bathing suits, etc.). Watch this video on tips to fold the clothing so that the clothes are easy to see and are kept organized while in the drawers.
After you have all of the clothing items put away, the next step is to put the shoes away.
Do you have a shoe organizer? If yes, then perfect, start putting the shoes in that. If no, you should consider investing in one.
Having shoes stored away in an organizer really helps with keeping the floor clear and the room looking tidy. Target has some great options for shoe storage that are cute, functional, and inexpensive.
Finish up by gathering the remaining items and sorting them into their own separate bin for each category. Label any bins you use and place them on a shelf of the closet or in a cube organizer.
By having a home for all of these miscellaneous items, the room will continue to look neat and your children will know where items belong when they are finished using them.
For any of the items that were in your children’s dressers and closets at the beginning of the process but don’t actually belong there, now is the time to deal with those leftover items. Have your children help you place the items where they actually belong within your house.
Many people believe kids rooms are just destined to be messy, but that doesn’t have to be the case!
By using these tips, you will be able to clear out the clutter that was in your children’s dressers and closets so their rooms will be a clean space as well.
It's also smart to start your kids off cleaning and organizing young -- that's the best time to form these habits for later in life!
If you are feeling overwhelmed with the organizing or would like extra help, please reach out to the Clutterless Home Solutions Team.
Talk soon,
Clutterless Home Solutions