Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The great purge--- cleaning out my kids' closets!



A large part of no-spend September involves my girls and their stuff. Apart from a few cute pieces that I got for them in NYC, I did not go crazy like I usually do with the back to school shopping. I wanted to purge their stuff and really take stock of what we have, get rid of stuff we have to and make the most of what we do before I decide to buy anything more. 

So three simple steps (taken from Organised Home)-- here we go!

SORT:


This is a sign from someone's laundry room, but I think it applies.

First of all, when you're doing the first two steps, make life easier and don't do it with your kids around. There will be lots of stuff that don't fit well or are not weather appropriate that they may want to hang onto.

I do my sorting several times a year, at the beginning of the year, in the spring and once again when school begins. That way, my kids' dresser drawers and closets aren't totally jam-packed and they can actually open them.

First of all when stuff gets too small, I put it in a cute little big  basket at the bottom of their closets (thanks Shay). When those get full, I deal with them. In C's case, I sort them out into 3 categories: 
the 'Keep for Other Kid' pile, 
the Donate pile and 
the 'Not Good enough for Anyone Else' to use pile. (ie. garbage)

The Too Small for Me Bin

The Keep for Other Kid stack is then labelled and stored in the basement until A is ready. 
(Tip: be sure to properly label the containers. Through my own experience, it's a pain to go back into those containers and scrummage  around to try and figure out what each bin holds. I use A4 sheets and I'm very explicit about the season and age for clothes e.g. summer clothes- ages 4-5)


In A's case, once again there are categories: the Keepsake pile, the 'Too good To Donate, hope my brothers have a daughter someday soon', the Donate and the Garbage pile. The Keepsake pile is small, I don't save everything. So is the "Too Good to Donate, just a few hardly worn/great condition items."

The Donate Pile is put into huge garbage bags or old diaper boxes and dropped off to different charitable organisations as quickly as possible not to further clutter the house.  Isn't it very satisfying to get rid of stuff!?


STORE:



As much as possible, I try to put each kid's stuff in their room so that all of their things don't
take over the house... Yes, they have a play area downstairs as well but most of their stuff is in their rooms . I even put their linens and towels in their room. May not work for everyone but their rooms have enough space for them. I try to figure out fun and simple (and cheap!) ways to stay organised. i.e. the Dollar Store, Walmart stuff. 




For example, look at these kitchen organisers I use to stack their shoes. So cheap but pretty useful




And these are cute containers that can really fill a drawer.


Although the OCD part of my personality would love all white bins, I got some colour to make it fun for my kid. 

I also put the stuff I don't want them to get into on very high shelves.

Also, I blogged before about hair clip hassles and how I've solved them.  improved the situation in my house.


SIMPLIFY:



Closet-
okay, point form for this one.
+ I know it's simple, but all hangers facing in one direction to make it easy for everyone.
+ I installed a second set of rails to hang clothes to really utilise the space as well.
+To make it easier, put all shirts together, dresses together, pants and skirts.
+I also put all the out of season clothes at the back of the closet or on the top shelf-- otherwise you find C in a snowflake sweater dress like she wore last weekend.
+I  group by colour but that doesn't always stay that way with a five year old.
+You'd notice at the end there are a bunch of hangers... this is huge.  I leave those at the end so they don't bulk up the clothes and are easy to find when I do laundry and need to find them.



Drawers- as simple and as minimal as possible.  Kids simply can't stay organised with their drawers hardly being able close.

And a spot for dress up stuff. Who doesn't love dress up?'



And finally, make it easy for your kids to know where it goes back! Because Mama doesn't have the time to clean closets all the time.

What about you? What are your best organising tips?

Looking to declutter your kids' toys, check out this great article! 

Along the lines of this topic, my 'Tips for transitioning to a big kid room" remains one of my top posts to date.
And as we're talking about clothes, check out another favourite of mine from last year on how to dress little girls. 


Linking up with Salma, Raj and Nisha for Three Things Thursday.
And also with Annie and Nat for Thoughts on Thursday.


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9 comments:

  1. Nice job! Want to come do ours next!?

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  2. I love the Too Small Bin! That is a brilliant idea!!!

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  3. I'm constantly organizing my boys' closet! LOL. I have so many put away for my younger one because he is almost 5 years younger than his older brother. But it has definitely saved $$. I also utilize underbed storage bins, hanging compartments and bins in the closet. It sucks to be OCD, but organization is nice!
    -Morgan
    California To Carolina
    The Gym Bunny

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  4. Great tips! I did that recently with both my kids rooms and the first room I made the mistake of doing it while the kids were there. It ended up messier than before lol! So next time I tackled it sans kids. Thanks for linking up, have a great rest of the week :)

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  5. You did such a great job - I think I need to do this before the next season starts (winter) I love having a clean closet to start the month haha!

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  6. I just went through the girls' stuff and now its my turn next - my closet is SUCH a disaster!

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  7. Love the "too small for me" bin! We have a "too small for me" pile. Ha! Now to find a cute basket!

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  8. It's quite a challenge to organize, decide what to keep, throw out, give away and save, good job, but you are excellent with organizing stuff, eg dinesh barahi

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  9. They have a beautiful closet and clothing.

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Hearing from you makes me so happy!!

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