It is a classic line, Moms and Dads have been yelling it for years. “Clean your room!” I think I heard that from my mom more than I heard her say she loved me Now that it is back to school time, the kids are doing other things and they don’t want to clean, (Not like they ever wanted to) so keeping a good organization system will really help. It makes clean up much faster when everything has a home.

Before the holidays start and all of the new toys start coming in, it’s time to figure out what to do! I used to live in a 2500 sq ft 5 bedroom home so finding places to put things was ever an issue. There was plenty of space but then, during my divorce, my boys and I moved to a 2 bedroom 900 sq ft apartment. You want to talk about having to come up with new ways to organize things? Toys were the worst and at the top of my hair pulling list.

I wanted to share a few tips on how I organized them to keep my sanity and not kill myself walking around. If you have a small space, this may help!
1. Limit the number of toys that your kids have. You don’t have to deprive them but did my boys REALLY need over 100 cars? NOPE!

2. A big thing for us is Thomas the train. Every type of train, every color of track etc. I found a cube unit on clearance years ago and it has really come in handy in my small space. Blue Bins have plastic trains, red bins have metal trains and so forth. Each of the bins are labeled as well so the kids can clean up quickly. (It’s not a great pic but I included one below)

3. Organize them by how often your children use them. You want those things easily accessible. put other things away and rotate the toys. If they want something different they can ask for it.

4. Keep like items together. All “odd” toys or nothing that goes to a set, I keep in one bin.

5. Get your kids involved. Chances are if they help you figure out where to put things, they will remember better.

6. Throw away the fast food toys! Yes they are cute for the first few days but they really make a lot of clutter. If you MUST keep them, put them all in one bin as mentioned in #5.

7. If you have the room, create work stations. Have an area for reading, a corner for crafts etc.

8. Every time a new toy comes into the house, an old one has to leave. The boys have learned that someone else would really appreciate their old toys and they like being able to find things now.

9. Do not use the closet for storage.. Why? I learned the kids see that as a toss point… open the door and toss it in! Doesn’t matter if you have the best system in there, it gets to be a disaster.

10. DONATE DONATE DONATE! We just filled up 3 garbage bags full of toys in the past 2 days. You would be amazed what they don’t want, have outgrown or is broken.

I am secretly hoping that when we move to our new house that I will have a lot more space ad the kids can have a rocking play area that is so organized I even amaze myself! Small spaces are so tough to organize, especially when there is no storage room to begin with. We may have some toys on the floor but love grow best in little houses right?

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