Marie Kondo Organization Tips For Kids may not turn their rooms into something that looks a magazine layout, but the tips will help tame the clutter and disorganization.
We can’t all be Marie Kondo and honestly, I am not trying to be. I just want to manage the clutter and keep my house from looking like it just blew through OZ. While some of Marie Kondo’s techniques just aren’t me, her organization, folding, and purging techniques are fantastic. So this is my take on applying the KonMarie Method to Kids’ Rooms.
Marie Kondo Organization Tips For Kids
Start early teaching kids to tidy up early. Even a 2-year-old can fold and put away socks and underwear. You can make it easier for them to learn to tidy up by keeping their rooms free of excess clutter and by creating a place for everything in their room.
Spark Joy?
It’s hard for kids to decide what sparks JOY for them, everything material item gives them joy as far as I can tell, but some of it just has to go. We are going to focus on Marie Kondo’s techniques and philosophies for the following categories: Clothes, Books, Toys, and Sentimental Items.
Marie Kondo Storage Ideas
Marie encourages you to have designated spaces for everything which makes it easier for kids to tidy up. Bins for shoes, Barbies, stuffed animals, etc. This also eliminates the endless searches where they can’t find their American Girl’s prom dress and therefore tear everything apart looking for it. If it has a place they are more likely (no promises people, these are kids we are talking about) to put it back and be able to find it next time they want it. Take a trip to Dollar Tree and fill your cart with bins in pretty colors that will look good in your kid’s room. If you have big shelves I recommend laundry baskets for bigger stuff, and then some bins without holes for Barbie shoes and other small toys. Here are tips for using Dollar Tree Containers for KonMarie Organization.
Kids Clothes
Clothes, of course, need a place, they should have a drawer or basket for everything from shirts to pajamas. Dump everything on the bed, yes everything, closet, and drawers. Start a toss, donate, and keep pile. I have a basket just for outside play clothes too so my daughter doesn’t wear her new Justice jeans to play in the mud. Have your child help you get rid of anything that no longer fits, or your child never wears, even if the tags are still on it. If your child won’t wear it, it has no place. Only put back things that you and your child love. Keep a small manageable box of clothes that are a size up or for the next season.
Kids Books
Books are hard for me, I am a book worm and my children have so many picture books from their baby days, and chapter books they can’t live without- I get it, you will pry my favorite books out of my hands when I am dead. Grab all the kids books from around the house, the shelves, the basket by the couch, on the coffee table, out of backpacks and put them in a pile. Surely, there are some that would be so happy in the hands of a new little boy or girl? Donate or sell them at a yard sale, keep only the most loved books on the shelf, tuck one or two in the memory box if you must. I am not gonna lie, a few in our get rid of piles found their way back to the shelves-baby steps friends, baby steps.
Toys
We are going to apply Marie Kondo’s ideas to toys for the kid’s room. If you are like me, you throw away handfuls of Happy Meal toys everytime the kids aren’t looking but Marie Kondo goes much deeper than that.
I allowed my child to choose on their own which toys they no longer loved or played with. We had a few discussions about giving toys to children who may not have any, how we can enjoy the toys we do have more when we can find them and have room to play with them. My daughter embraced this pretty well, filling a box with things that were still good but she knew weren’t her favorites and could let them go without tears. My son… he is a work in progress.
Sentimental Items
This would be artwork, baby shoes, hospital bracelets, and other sentimental things. Decide how much you want to keep and store. Size your storage container accordingly. Let your child choose a few items to keep. Then place them in the container. Keep only what will fit in the box or bin. You might have to make some hard choices. For me, I kept only the outfit my kids wore home from the hospital, one special stuffed animal, their hospital id bracelets, a random selection of preschool artwork, and a few cards that had special messages in them.
You will have to decide what works for your family but I can’t stress enough how decluttering, organizing, and storing everything in the same size and color bins to store and organize has made a difference in our closets!