Toys, teddies, and other toddler things can take up a lot of space in your home! Kids rooms have multiple uses – from the sleeping area to the playroom to the study area, it’s no wonder they can end up out of control. While it’s not unusual for kids’ bedrooms to be cluttered and messy, getting to grips with a gradual pile-up of stuff will make managing the space in kids’ rooms and much easier in the long term, as your children grow from toddlers to teens. Check out some of Nesta’s top tips on where to start when decluttering a kids’ room and how to manage storage and space in the longer term.
Start from the bottom up
The easiest and best place to start when decluttering a particularly messy room is the floor. Start by clearing floor space and picking up anything that shouldn’t be there. Remove items that don’t belong in the room such as cups, towels, etc. Next, look to clear out items that are broken and beyond repair. Starting like this will give you a good base and you can then move on to classifying items and put similar items together in the same area to make them easier to locate (i.e. clothes, pajamas, and shoes in one area, arts and crafts stuff in another area, etc.). Storage dividers will make sure that items do not get mixed up in drawers and clear plastic storage boxes are great for toys and books, as it’s easy to see what’s in them and they can be stacked up to save space.
Get the kids involved
While getting the kids involved in clearing out the room might feel like a time-consuming way to go about things when you could do the work faster on your own, teaching them about how to store and put away items and getting them involved in the process instills good habits which they will hopefully take on in the future so that they will do their own decluttering when they are old enough! Although younger children may not understand why things go in certain places, designing or painting some colourful boxes is a great way to get them interested in using storage.
For older children, urge them to go through items with you and decide what to keep and to donate outgrown clothes, books, toys, and games to charity. Starting small and doing this one section at a time, or one category at a time will make the process easier for kids who are finding it hard to let go of things they no longer use.
Make floor space a premium
Most children end up with the smallest bedroom so floor-space is at a premium. Fix a series of hooks within easy reach so clothes, laundry, shoes and toys can be hung off the floor. This is quicker, easier and cheaper than fixing shelves. Hooks are also a safer option for younger children than a free-standing bookcase or storage unit, which the more adventurous child may be inclined to climb up on! Collections of cars and hair accessories, for instance, can be given a bag of their own, which can be hung on a hook. A hanging cloth shoe-rack is also a great way to free-up floor space and keep pairs of shoes together It can also be used to store other easy to misplace items such as socks and smaller things like markers and colouring pencils.
Consider storing rarely used or sentimental items in a secure storage facility
Naturally, there will be some items that your kids no longer use that may be of sentimental value or may have outgrown. There may also be items (such as strollers, baby chairs, Moses baskets, etc.) that are not in use now but may be needed again. For items like this, a storage unit or locker can be a great solution. Nesta storage offer a wide range of room sizes all across Dublin with flexible rental terms to suit your needs. What’s more, all our locations are monitored by 24-hour CCTV, individually alarmed rooms, onsite staff, and personal access codes so you can be sure that all of your items are safe and secure. For more information on our units and to discover what the best option for you might be, visit our FAQs section.
