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The most wonderful time of the year is upon us. The next few months will be spent eating entirely too much and making memories with family & friends…and then there are the gifts. If there’s one thing I’ve learned while being a mom it’s that people LOVE buying for children. With the gifts comes the dilemma of where to put everything. This is why a few times every year (usually before Birthdays & Christmas) I make it a point to go through the house to make space for what’s to come. I have a few tips for maximizing your space and keeping those cluttered rooms organized.
This year, the first thing I tackled was the stack of board games and puzzles that was taking up a good portion of our 4 year olds closet. The boxes were super bulky, and were starting to look pretty worn down. I found some zippered pouches on Amazon and they were the perfect solution.
These bags came in several different sizes so I was able to fit every game perfectly. I also took the time to snip the name from the side of each box, and tape it to the front of the bags so we can easily tell what’s inside. I was able to fit 8 board games and 4 puzzles into one 21 x 15 inch drawer. This seriously freed up a ton of space and even better – no more torn up boxes!
Next up I wanted to find better homes for his smaller items (like Legos, marbles, etc). These clear flip-top boxes I found at Home Depot are the best! They’re cheap ($2 each), stackable and the fact that they’re clear allows your kids to see what’s inside so they can easily find what they’re looking for.
For larger items that don’t fit into cube storage, I like to use these wooden crates. They’re super affordable and bring a little bit of texture to the closet space. You could also stain or paint them, but I prefer the natural wood. We bought ours at Walmart several years back, but you can find them pretty much anywhere for around $10 each.
Now that I had everything sorted into bins & containers, it was time to find a home for all of it. Adding a shelf inside the closet made a huge difference and gave me quite a bit more storage (with some to spare). It’s amazing how much more functional adding a shelf or two will make a space.
Our nursery hasn’t had much in it other than clothes and diapers, but now that our baby is getting bigger, I’ve been pulling more toys out of the attic. We added these $30 cube shelves to the closet and it gave us a great place to store everything neatly. Down the road we’d love to have nice, built-in closet systems installed, but these work perfectly for the time being.
We hope you found some of this helpful as you prepare for the upcoming holiday season. We know all too well that this time of year can be just as stressful and hectic as it is joyous. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Here are a few additional tips to help keep your rooms clutter free.
Things to Remember
Store, Sell, Donate or Trash
A few times a year, inventory the items in your home to figure out what can be put into storage and what could be sold, donated or thrown out.
Baskets + Bins are Everything
Decorative bins are super functional, but also look good and can add texture to any room.
Dressers are Not Just for Clothes
Get a huge dresser. The dresser in our nursery not only holds clothes, but also functions as a changing table, diaper storage and extra linen storage among other things.
Utilize Empty Space
Look at every empty space is potential storage. We built this train board that fits under our son’s bed. We love it because it doesn’t take up any floor space in his room when he’s not using it.
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