Raising kids can sometimes feel like you’re drowning in their world. You spend all your time looking after them, cooking for them, ferrying them from school to daycare to little leagues, and cleaning up after them. Oh, so much cleaning.
It’s easy to get lost in the demands kids can make on your time, but if you want to start clawing back some independence from the chaos, you need to get organized. You will have to undertake the occasional purge, but those can quickly turn into battles you don’t want to start.
One way to stop feeling guilty during a purge is to let your kids make the decisions. Give them oh-so-much space (such as one bag, one bin, or one chest) and tell them to only keep the most important stuff.
It helps if you donate hand-me-downs and unloved toys and tell your kids that their old toys are going to someone who needs them more. But there are also some easy storage solutions you can use to bring order back to your home afterwards.
Toy Chests
There was once a time when every kid growing up had a toy chest. But when was the last time you actually saw a classic, wood toy chest resting at the foot of a kid’s bed? A lot of parents have switched over to using plastic bins. For starters, bins are cheaper. Plus, kids these days tend to have a lot of stuff, and that means multiple bins. But there’s a special kind of magic to a wood toy chest. Limiting yourself to one chest also means you can cut down on how many toys you wind up with. You don’t have to keep everything.
Cubbies
“Cubbies” can mean a lot of things, from wood shelves built right into the wall to plastic organizers. They can be made into part of a closet and they’re amazing storage solutions for multiple kids. Everyone gets their own for their stuff, whether it’s shoes, arts and crafts supplies, toys, or anything.
Wardrobes
These bedroom storage solutions are going to be your new best friend. A wardrobe will match your décor, fit your lifestyle, and add tons of new storage space to your bedroom or in a kid’s bedroom. When the kid’s closet is already full to bursting with toys, hand-me-downs, past school projects, and everything else you just can’t bear to get rid of, a wardrobe can give you room for the actual clothes. One of the reasons a wardrobe is great for organization is that it gives you both room to hang clothes and dresser drawers for socks, underwear, sweaters, jeans, and tees. A wardrobe can even be great in a baby room when you need somewhere to store bulky packages of diapers.
Once you’ve got places where you know you can keep your kids’ belongings, start getting tough about making them put it away themselves. You won’t find time to breathe until they learn how to look after themselves, so get a start early and teach them the value of responsibly putting away their clothes and toys. Slowly but surely you can get some of your independence back.
