I remember when my husband and I were expecting our daughter, we vowed not to let kids' clutter take over our home. Little did we know the clothing, toy, and gadget madness that would ensue in the following two years. While we've done our best to keep it under control you can definitely tell that a toddler lives in our home, and I'm constantly trying to find new ways to corral the clutter.
Don't get me wrong, we try very hard to thoughtfully incorporate our daughter's play things into our decor - after all, it's just as much her home as it is ours! But that being said our home is tiny and we'd like to prevent it from looking like a toy store exploded. As I fear it will only get worse before it gets better (we're expecting baby number two in a few short months!), to keep our house from being completely overwhelmed I've been scouring the internet for clever solutions. Here are fifteen of my latest favorite finds from around the web:
Row One:
1. Magnetic Car Mural: Honest to Nod - With small metal toys like these vintage cars you can take advantage of your wall space. All you need is a magnetic knife strip and a little time to create an organized (and even eye-catching) storage solution
2. Labeled Chalkboard Dresser: McBaby Bump - Help your little ones take control of their own clothing by labeling dresser drawers with words and pictures.
3. Barbie Storage: Container Store - Use the inside of a closet door to store small items like Barbie dolls, action figures, and art supplies with one of these handy shoe organizers.
4. Flip Down Wall Art Desk: Ana White - Go vertical with your child's art supplies by creating one of these handy wall mounted desks. Not only will it save space, but you can fold it up and hide away the mess when you're all finished crafting.
5. Child's Artwork Collage: A Thousand Words - Don't want to get rid of your child's artwork, but not sure how to store it? Take a photo of your favorite pieces and collage them together in a photo editing program.
Row Two:
6. Underbed Play Table: Great Little Trading Co. - Kids love trains, but they can take up a ton of space - especially if you want a train table. Try out a rolling under-bed trundle version instead and hide it away when not in use.
7. Rolling Storage: Dinge Die Ich Mag - Speaking of rolling storage, a simple box with wheels can roll away under a bench or bed and hold a multitude of items from clothing to toys.
8. Trundle Storage: iVillage - If your child has a trundle bed, consider losing the mattress and replacing it with storage containers instead.
9. Organizing Coloring Books: Mrs. Jones - Coloring books and crayons are one of the hardest things to store neatly. Try this clever solution and repurpose an old dish rack. It will be so much easier for your little one to find the book they want to use.
10. School Paperwork Storage: I Heart Organizing - Don't want to get rid of that journal entry your little one wrote or their first A+ test? Use a file box with neatly labeled folders (even include their yearly school photo)!
Row Three:
11. Peek-a-boo Toy Sack: Make It Perfect - I love drawstring bags as much as the next person, but sometimes the toys within aren't used very often - out of sight, out of mind. Fix that problem in a flash by adding a peekaboo window to the side.
12. Toolbox Storage: BHG.com - A toolbox has tiny drawers and compartments for storing tools, nuts, and bolts, but is equally perfect for those tiny toys that our little ones seem to collect.
13. Train Shelf: Green Kitchen - If your child has a collection of one particular item group them all together. Not only will they get a lot more play time, it can make for a stylish display as well.
14. Hanging Storage: BHG.com - Another way to take advantage of door space is with these DIY hanging fabric bags. Use your favorite fabric and coordinate it with the decor in your little one's space.
15. Bench: Hyggelig via Apartment Therapy - Fill the space beneath a bench with storage containers for toys that you want to hide away, or use as open storage for the ones that you don't mind sitting out.
Do you have a clever solution to curbing the kid clutter in your home? We'd love to hear about it!
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These are great ideas also for those of us who have tons of clutter but no children to blame.
haha, I love that Barbie doll idea.
"While we've done our best to keep it under control you can definitely tell that a toddler lives in our home . . . "
This leaves the impression that you would prefer to have your place look like no child lives there . . . I don't think that was your intent, but that's how it reads.
That's the plan I'm going for. You don't need to see anything but the toddler to know a toddler lives there.
What drawer is the toddler in?
We installed a wall of Ikea pine frame bookshelves to the wall (bolted to the wall for our budding climber). On the bottom 2 rows of shelves are canvas bins for toys, as well as some shelves with our son's library of board books (standing face out). Our books are on the shelves above. This way, everything at his level is accessible and OK to explore. The one thing that's not ideal (now that I've set it up this way) is that the bins can be a little hard to tell apart. Each one has a small window for labelling, so I'm going to try to put a little photo or illustration of the kind of toy that's in each bin (blocks in one, balls in another, trains in another, etc.) so it's easier for him to navigate. In retrospect I probably should've bought transparent plastic bins, but this is my first toddler... I'm learning as I go. Anyhow, overall it's working out quite well.
ugh. I agree. not having your place look like a toy store/pre-school doesn't make you bad parents, it makes you adults that value their space.
A home can show that a child is part of the family without looking like a toy store/pre-school.
1 & 5 are fantastic
The coloring book idea is great!
I don't really see how any of these count as "curbing" clutter. They just *corral* it...Which you state in the first paragraph. So maybe a title change would be nice for those of us actually trying to curb clutter accumulation. The only one that maybe qualifies is the framed mini pictures of children's artwork, hopefully so you can toss most of the real things.
I have a toddler too, and I did want to say that having a house that "looks like a toddle lives there" is hardly ever about having a child's things present, but about having the child's things in a mess all over the place. Toddlers often make their presence known through mess and noise. They haven't yet learned to self-regulate or clean up after themselves habitually. That's what I got out of the sentence, and it was explained in subsequent statements.
Too much stuff. I do like the labeled drawers though.
@denisegk and @lynnindc - Point taken. Maybe try this post: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/taming-toys-a-fresh-start-for-2013-182094
IKEA's TROFAST unit literally is the reason my sanity is saved by the end of the day.
Agreed, I don't leave my books and "kitchen toys" laying all around, so I don't want my child's toys to all be out at the same time, either. I like having a "permanent" mini-play station in each room--toy piano and blocks in dining room, wooden rocking horse and nesting boxes in living room, cupboard for rummaging in kitchen. Other than those things, toys are in his room.
*lying all around!
My sister cleverly labeled those plastic Sterilite drawers (available everywhere for ~$10) so the tiny toys could be corralled. Her boys had drawers for:
Balls
Cars
Animals
People
I loved it - easy to figure out where to keep stuff and they could find what they needed easily.
With a two year old and no space for a play room, the family room is stuffed with hiding places. Ottoman and tv unit drawers are filled with toys. The magazine rack has a handful of children's books. That way she can play with us in the evening and when she's off to bed it take less than two minutes to tuck everything away.
yes! thank you!
Some of these are nice. The car one kind of irritates me though. Maybe the problem there isn't curbing clutter but having wayyyyyyy too many cars. No child needs that many. Plus, keeping them on the wall would be a full time job in itself!