How to Declutter Kids’ Rooms {The Six Week Decluttering Challenge}

Hey guys!  We are starting on week four of The Six Week Decluttering Challenge – I hope you are hanging in there!  Hopefully all of the clutter that you have already gotten rid of is inspiring you to continue on!  This week we will be working on how to declutter kids rooms {ncluding their bedrooms, playrooms, and any other areas of your homes that have collected kids’ items!}  If you are also working on The Household Organization Diet with me, you have probably already gotten a bit of a jump on these spaces since we are working on the kids’ bedrooms  for the HOD this month too.   Just think of it as a double bonus! 🙂

If you aren’t familiar with The Six Week Decluttering Challenge, you can find all of the guidelines HERE.  You can start at any time – so just make a commitment and get to it!  I promise you that all of your hard work will be worth it in the end.   All you need to do is print out the sheet below, come up with your goals and stick with it!

DOWNLOAD THE PLAN HERE

We all know that kids’ rooms can quickly turn into a war zone if things aren’t organized and decluttered on somewhat of a regular basis.  Especially with the younger kids, clothes can be outgrown in a few months and toy preferences seem to change overnight.  It can definitely be hard to keep up!  Remember to keep your projects limited to do-able tasks to avoid overwhelming both you and your kids!

  If you are still having trouble, here are some tips and ideas to get you started…

• Clothes – Empty out the closet or clothes drawers and go through all clothing items.   Make sure that what you are keeping fits and that your child will actually wear it {kids can definitely be picky!}.  If your child does not want to try things on, take a shirt and a pair of pants that you know fit well to use as a reference for sizing as you go through the rest of the clothes.  There are usually still at least a few items that you will need have them try on, but this will cut down on outfit changes substantially!  If you have a large lot of clothes or brand name clothing that is in newer condition, you may want to try and sell them; however, the return on clothing is often relatively small.  Make sure that it will be worth your time if you are going to try selling – if not, donate them!  I also have a donate bin in each of the boys’ closets for items that are too small for them so I can sort them as I come across them.  You can find more ideas on organizing kids’ closets HERE and HERE.

• Toys – If your kids are old enough, it is best to get them involved in choosing what they want to keep and what they are able to part with.  Look for any broken toys or toys that are missing important pieces that make them unusable, and toss these in the garbage.  For the toys that are remaining, look for the obvious toys that your child no longer uses or plays with and set these aside to donate or sell.  If you are still left with more toys than you actually have room for, start having your child prioritize what toys are their favorites until you run out of room.  Having a finite space that everything has to fit in to helps give kids a better understanding of how much they can keep.  When it comes to donating or selling the extra toys, I have found that my kids seem to have an easier time letting go of things when we talk about how much another child will be able to enjoy their toy now that they no longer play with it.  As hard as the process can be letting go, once it is done there never seems to be a second thought to it and I have never had one of the kids regret anything that was discarded.

{You can find some creative ways to organize kids’ toys here}

• Books – Divide the books up into two piles – one pile of books that they still read and one pile of books that they have outgrown or just didn’t like.  Obviously, books that they didn’t like or didn’t read that much are pretty easy to donate; however, I am really sentimental when it comes to getting rid of some of those classic books that we read over and over again when my kids were little.   This is probably a decluttering no-no, butI have allowed myself one small bin of my most treasured kids books that I keep in our basement. Hopefully I will be able to read them to our grandchildren one day, but, if not, they still hold some of my favorite childhood memories.  What can I say?  It’s my weakness. 😉

{You can read more about our reading nook here}

• DVDs – DVDs are probably getting a little less common with all of the ipads and Netflix these days, but if your kids have a collection, sort through them all looking for any that are no longer watched or have been scratched beyond repair.  For those that you do want to keep, make sure that the DVD is matched up with the correct case.  Again, keep only those DVDs that you know your kids are going to watch again multiple times – there is no sense in keeping it for that “someday” that they might actually want to watch it again.  Once it is gone, you will probably never think of it again!

• Video Games – For those of you with older children, don’t forget to go through their video games {even though they are likely in another room of your house!}.  I hadn’t been through my kids’ games for years, so we had quite a few old ones that we were able to get rid of.  The boys actually did a pretty good job of sorting through their games on their own and we took the ones that they no longer played with to our local video store for a trade-in.  For the most part, the games weren’t worth much, but the boys were happy with their $22 store credit that they came away with and I was happy to have the games out of the house!

• Artwork/School Work – Getting rid of your children’s beautiful creations can sometimes be a hard process.  While you definitely do want to keep those most cherished keepsakes, you don’t have to feel like you need to keep every piece of artwork that you child comes home from school with.  I think that it is always important to acknowledge the work that goes into any project that your child works on, but this does not necessarily mean that you have to keep it long term.  Look at creating a display area in your home for your children’s most prized work – they can then help to determine what gets to the display and what they no longer need.

  For those items that you are going to keep, I recommend having a finite space {i.e. a Rubbermaid bin} that you will stick to.  Keep only what is most meaningful to you and your child – handprints, special messages or notes that they wrote, their best artwork, etc.  If you have trouble letting go initially, go back through things a few months later – you will often find that it is easier to identify what is most special to you.  Some pieces of artwork will bring back favorite memories, and other artwork you won’t even be able to remember.

{Find more ideas on displaying and organizing kids’ artwork here}

Hopefully that will give you a little boost to get going!  You can do it!

For more boys’ bedroom ideas, check out this post…