Spruce It Up Sunday {No. 3}

I don’t know about you, but both of my kids have a lot of stuff. It can be difficult to organize all their toys, especially when they get older and get more toys with small parts. The updates I made to my son’s closet can really be utilized for any closet.

Here is a picture of my son’s closet before I made any changes. I knew I was going to be adding the shelves and would have to pull everything out, so the closet was extra messy. It was normally a little more well-organized.

Problem:

• We only used one small portion of his closet for hanging clothes. Long sleeve shirts, jackets and too big clothes are hung in there. All the rest of his clothes are stored in his dresser.
• We have a lot of toys stored in bins, but they were all stacked up on the floor and we had to pull them all out to get to the one we wanted.
• The closet is fairly large for a child’s room. The whole right side of the closet was really under utilized.

Solution:

• Add 3 new wire shelves to the right side of the closet to maximize the space. This would allow for more storage space and better organization.
• For any closet (or really any space) – think vertical! By using the wall all the way to the ceiling we gained so much valuable real estate in there.
• Think function. Since we don’t hang very many clothes in this closet, this solution worked for us. If you needed more hanging space in a closet like this you could add extra shelves above the current ones, or add smaller shelves along the back wall, leaving the larger hanging side open.

The bottom of the closet floor holds the bin of monster trucks and car ramps, his larger train set, and in the back his RC car parts. We don’t use the car part tote very often, so it is fine in the back. This is another tip for organizing. Make the things you use often easily accessible. If it is not used often, you can place it higher up, further back or in the attic, etc.

The next shelf up has his smaller trains and his Matchbox Mega Rig parts. My son plays with the Mega Rig parts on an almost daily basis, so these needed to be easily accessible. We kept the boxes they came in because they have all the ideas for different builds printed on them. I cut the boxes to keep only the fronts and then placed them underneath the bin. This way, my son can pull them out when he needs them, and we are not keeping piles of bulky boxes.

The middle shelf now holds all the games. Boxed board games are in front. In the back of the shelf, we have two small bins. The top one holds small puzzles, flash cards, and other card games. The bottom bin has a few games that do not have boxes to store them in – such as our BopIt and our other Connect 4 game.

The fourth shelf up now houses all our arts and crafts supplies. We have a bin of crayons, coloring books and large art paper right up front. Next to that are our dry erase sheets for practicing letters, worksheets my son brings home from preschool and other letter tracing sheets I have purchased. In the black magazine files are construction paper and more learning worksheets. On the end are our playdoh supplies. This shelf is easy to get to for me, but not for my kids. They have to ask to get this stuff out as it can be messy and they need supervision. My 2 year old thinks it is fun to color on walls and furniture!

The top shelf holds items we hardly ever get down. The boxes in the back hold keepsake baby clothes, items from my shower, and little things I want to save for my son. I will eventually get a plastic bin to replace the diaper boxes. We have a few boxes from toys that I have opted to keep. We have small RC cars that are my husband’s. These are only brought out under special supervision. And you can’t really see, but on the end are all the lids to the bins for the Lego’s. Soon I will share how we organize his Lego’s and other toys in his room.

On the floor of his closet is more toy storage underneath his hanging clothes.

We utilized the space on the back of his closet door to store his sleeping bag/mattress and backpacks. I used command hooks so I won’t damage the door.

There is a small space next to the door, so we use that space to keep a bag for my son to cart around his special toys. And the bag below is toys we have gotten from fast food or restaurants. (Yep, I am that mom that feeds her kids fast food on occasion!) I simply attached cup hooks to the wall.

So shall we see one more before and after?

 So much better! And to keep it real for you, I thought I would share what it looked like in my son’s room in progress. This is what happens when a project that is supposed to take one afternoon turns into a three day project because you bought the wrong brackets.

What tips do you have for organizing kid’s rooms or making the most out of wasted space? I would love to hear.

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