Most of my organizational posts on this blog have to do with fitting into a small space, for a good reason. Though this is our fourth home in our marriage, all of them have ranged between 1100-1200 square feet. That was an excellent size for newlyweds, but fitting into a home that size with babies, toddlers, and big kids has required some creative thinking.
Since I'm a teacher, I get two weeks off around Christmas, and I love to spend at least part of that time purging and organizing. I find if I do it once around Christmas, and once at the start of summer, things stay pretty under control. So the past few days I've been working in my kids' rooms with them, getting rid of some things, organizing others, making room for new toys, etc.
Since their rooms are clean (for this short moment!), I thought I'd take some pictures of some of the ways we maximize space. For the record, I have 3 kids, ages 7, 5, and 3. The two younger ones share a room.
First, we use
Command Hooks on the inside of the kids' closet doors for them to hang hats, sweatshirts, and jackets. This way they can quickly run upstairs and grab a jacket when we're heading out the door, and I don't have to come up with them to get something down - so tricky.
Second, we use every available square inch of their closet space. On the right, in the banker's box, is my son's art bin. We need to get another one to go on top of that for my youngest, who is starting to collect the bottomless pit of precious pictures and paperwork. The kids have that space to fill with whatever they want, and when it gets full, they have to purge.
On the left, the top blue tote is for clothes that are outgrown. Keeping a tote for outgrown clothes close by makes it so that whenever I notice something isn't fitting, I can just toss it in there, without waiting to do a big clothing round-up.
On the bottom left, in the clear tote, is our book bin. Each of the kids has a small bin of books they choose from to read at night, and when they need a change, we pull out the big bin of books and they can switch some out.
Also in my kids' closet is this bookcase, where we keep toys. The bottom bin for each kid is their books, and the top two shelves are their toy bins. Any toys above and beyond that amount are kept in storage, and we let the kids rotate them periodically.
Another thing I try to do is to maximize every bit of under-the-bed storage space. From left to right: my son's pajamas, my daughter's pajamas, Legos, Kinex, and dress-ups. I especially love the shallow storage for the Legos, because it prevents my son from needing to dump out a big toy box to find what he wants. The tote is long and shallow, which makes it easy for him to look for the pieces he needs.
I got these cute little bins at Target last night in the Dollar Spot, and I'm heading back tomorrow to get about a dozen more. They're about 8 inches square, so they hold a decent amount. I let each of the kids have one for a "junk box" for little odds & ends and special things that don't have another place. When the box gets full, we'll go through it. The kids are loving labeling everything with my new label maker I got for Christmas!
So that's what we've been doing to make some space in our tiny space!
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