6 Tips to Keep the Kid Clutter in Check!

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Welcome to Day 26 of the 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess Challenge! We’re decluttering, reorganizing and taking a breath of fresh air to create a home we love. If this is your first time at the challenge, you may want to start here at the beginningAffiliate links used for your convenience.

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What is a home organizational challenge if we don’t talk about kid clutter? And by “kid clutter,” I mean toys that appear out of nowhere and get messy faster than you can say “clean up your room!” If you have kids (or grandkids), then you know this one is a hard-fought, uphill battle.

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Maybe this sounds familiar? These are from some of my sweet readers:

“My big home decorating challenge is staying organized with a growing toddler – there are constantly outgrown clothes to put away and store, toys on the floor of every room and new pictures to print or hang!” – Summer

“I have been in my house for 2.5 years and I still don’t feel like it’s home. With two small boys (almost 4 and 18 months) I have found it so hard to ‘cutesy’ up the living room with all of the toys. We do have a play room but they always want to be in the living room so all of the stuff accumulates in here. Any ideas to hide the toys but still have them accessible for the kiddos?” – Lisa

Ladies! I feel ya!

6 Tips for Keeping Toy Clutter in Check! | 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess

I know all of the moms who have grown kids just say “embrace the mess; you’ll miss it someday.” But when you’re living in it and stepping on legos and Barbie shoes at every turn, it’s sometimes hard to just enjoy it. 😉

In our home we practice a lot of giving and throwing things away, but it still can be overwhelming at times.

Tips for Keeping Toy Clutter in Check!

1. Hide the Toys. One of the best things I ever did was place a large toy basket in the living room area. It’s tucked neatly under my Everett console table on my gallery wall and that’s the only toy storage in my living area. It can be hard to ‘cutesy’ up the living room with all of the toys. I love this idea to hide the toys but still have them accessible for the kiddos.

A cozy console table and gallery wall decked out for fall in simple, turquoise and wood toned elements

Can you spot the toy basket?? 

At the end of the day, we throw every toy that’s left in the living room in the basket and the room is cleaned. Takes hardly any time at all. If the basket gets too full, then I’ll take it to the girls’ rooms and sort them all out.

This probably happens once every 1-2 months, because we *try* to make them clean up their toys and take them back to their room each day. It’s system that works for me and keeps my living room picked up each night. And it’s simple, which is key!

2. Designate Some Containers if You Have a Lot of One Thing. Now, toy storage in their bedrooms is a little different story. If I have enough of one type of toy to fill up a basket, then I will designate the basket for that specific toy.

Organized Kids Toys | 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess

I have three (and only three) designated baskets in my older daughter’s room: one for Barbies, one for a dollhouse accessories and one for American Girl doll stuff. Everything else can go wherever it wants to go (in the bins, of course).

3. Deal with the Christmas Overload. Your kids probably got a bunch of stuff for Christmas. I know mine did. And their birthdays are both within a week and a half of Christmas, so we get a ton of stuff! It’s time to purge.

If the gifts that your child received a month ago still haven’t found a home, then it’s time to do a few things.

#1 – Find it a home  That may mean you have to get rid of something else, or get rid of the toy itself if you can’t find a place for it. But you must find a place for it.

#2 – Consolidate  Did your child get something that they already had or something very similar? If your daughter has 4 different small princess castles in various shapes or size, then choose the one she plays with the least and donate it! I recently sorted through my daughters’ books and realized we had 3 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. There’s no need to keep them all!

4. Don’t Even Bring it Home. I give back (or get rid of) all of the little kids’ meal-type toys we receive. I may let my kids play with them for a little bit, but then they go bye-bye. I’m not going to have a designated bin for “small, cheap toys that will clutter my home.”

5. Rotate Toys. I am very limiting when it comes to the toys my kids keep, but it can still feel like a lot sometimes. I’ve recently started rotating the toys that they have access to.

Why? Because my kids play better when they have less options!!

6 Tips for Keeping Toy Clutter in Check! | 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess

My daughter’s room when I started. Not too bad, but still needs some work.

Have you ever experienced the phenomenon that happens when you send your child into their overstuffed room or cluttered play room to play, but they last for maybe 5 minutes and then come back out and say they can’t find anything to play with!?

And then you start cleaning up the room and all of a sudden they are mesmerized with a doll their forgot about underneath a pile of dress up clothes. It may be a clever ploy to try to get out of cleaning, but I find that if my daughters’ rooms are cleaned and decluttered, then they will play in there for hours!

6 Tips for Keeping Toy Clutter in Check! | 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess

Her room with the stored toys in the clear bin. 

So, I’ve started packing up a large, clear tub worth of toys and stowing it away for about a month. Then I’ll bring those toys back and take another bin of toys away. It’s like they received a gift all over again and play with these “just-broke-out-of-baby-jail” toys. ðŸ˜‚

This system keeps our home less cluttered and my kids play so much better on their own when they have less!

6. Store the Baby Toys. I regularly go through my daughters’ toys and remove the toys that are really too young for them. Of course when my oldest daughter outgrows her toys, they get passed on to my younger daughter. But all of the baby toys are going in the attic.

6 Tips for Keeping Toy Clutter in Check! | 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess

Tip: when putting toys away for a younger child or a future child, make sure to remove the batteries. Otherwise the batteries will corrode and ruin the toy. (I know from experience. #newmomfail)

The Messy Work: Choose one area or category from your kid’s room and declutter! Use your free printable organization checklist to keep track of what you’ve tackled and what’s left to do!

In the mess with you, Laura

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3 Comments

  1. Hi Laura, thanks for the great tips. You daughters’s rooms look so tidy! 🙂 I like the idea of rotating toys; I also noticed that my kids just can’t play if they have too many options. -Nicky

  2. Laura, I look forward to all of your posts. I have never commented on anything, I just take it all in. I really like the name “The Turquoise Home”. I grew up in the Florida Keys, so that is one of my favorite colors, sometimes too much!! I have enjoyed all your blogs on how to make things out of hardly nothing, to painting your kitchen cabinets. It has given me the incentive to get myself going and do something, even if it is a little something, I have fibromyalgia, severe migraines , and a lot of other problems, but when I read the things you do ,managing two children and a family, I applaud you. I had four girls,worked,college at night and I look back and wonder where the time went? Enjoy your girls! I have taken your advice, and am cleaning out room, by room. It will take me awhile, but then I will paint them! No need to apologize, I get it.It is a lot of work! Well, I will leave you be,there is lots of organizational things to do here and give yourself a big hug and pat on the back you are doing great things!!!Carolyn

    1. Hi Carolyn! I’m so glad you decided to share with me! Love hearing from you, and the reminder to enjoy my girls. I’m much better about balancing work and home life than I once was. Not perfect, but better. I spend more time with the screens turned off now and it’s wonderful! Thank you so much for the encouragement!! xo, Laura

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