Kids Room Storage Ideas - 5 Storage Tips to get You Started

Keeping kids’ bedrooms in order can be a challenge for even the most organized families. Little ones are rarely naturally neat and, just like adults, need to learn organization skills and methods for maintaining a tidy environment. Smart kids room storage ideas are ones that respect children’s perspective and priorities, and are appropriate to their height and developing motor skills.

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5 Smart Kids Room Storage Ideas

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Taking inspiration from Elizabeth’s experience at the buttoned up boot camp, here are some clever and budget-friendly kids room storage ideas for creating order out of chaos in your children’s bedrooms.

1. Closet control

Children grow quickly and need a variety of clothing for all their different activities. Without some sort of organizing system, bedroom closets can quickly become a chaotic mess of jumbled and outgrown clothes making it difficult to locate that favorite sweater that must be worn to Grandma’s house today, or the lucky stripy socks that are the only possible choice for the first day of kindergarten.

Avoid tears and tantrums by installing a closet organizer system. Better Homes and Gardens suggest choosing a wire closet organizer. The beauty of these systems is that the components can be repositioned as your child grows and their needs change.

Children enjoy categorizing so organize clothing by type e.g. socks, hats, pajamas, or consider structuring by use e.g. nightwear, messy play, school clothes, and so on. Help your kids by labeling each drawer with a picture of what should be inside.

It will be easier for your children to keep their drawers tidy if they just contain a few choices and only what they need right now. So it’s a good idea to remove any outgrown clothing every three months or so, and to store seasonally specific clothing on higher shelves and rotate as needed.

2. Smart ways with storybooks

Younger children recognize favorite stories by the shape, size, color, and picture on the front of a book rather than by reading the words on the spine. Books stored in a conventional bookcase make it hard for children to find the book they want and can lead to heaps of books on the floor every time they are searching for their choice.

A better way to store books for younger kids is to display them in shallow racks with the covers facing out so that they can easily see and grab the one that they want. A great suggestion from diyncrafts.com is to attach plastic rain gutters to the wall to create simple and effective racks for storybooks. Another space-saving option suggested by Goodshomedesign.com is to attach budget-friendly simple spice racks as book display shelves on the sides of cupboards or chests.

3. Divide and conquer

Legos and other construction systems, toy cars, farm animals, tea sets, and so on can quickly become scattered around a room and jumbled up in larger containers making them difficult to play with. The key to controlling these types of toys is to provide a dedicated and labeled container for each type of item.

Clear plastic shoe boxes make great containers, or you can wash out and reuse large plastic coffee canisters or similar recycled food storage options. Involve your child in sorting their toys into the right boxes and they’ll quickly learn what goes where.

This approach also helps with ongoing tidying-up as you can insist that the beads are put away in their container before the box holding the building blocks is brought out to play with.

4. Keep toys fresh

Do you remember how exciting it was as a child to unexpectedly come across an almost-forgotten toy? Instead of being dull and boring, it promised to deliver hours of playtime fun simply because it was unfamiliar.

You can deliberately recreate this effect by putting some of your child’s larger toys away into the basement or garage and rotating them with the toys that are available in your child’s bedroom.

Keeping the toy selection limited avoids overwhelming children with choices, keeps clutter in the bedroom to manageable levels, and maximizes the appeal of toys by keeping them fresh.

5. Get creative

There’s no need to invest in expensive storage options designed specifically for kids. Many standard household storage options can be repurposed to serve equally well in a child’s room.

For example, over-the-door shoe storage hangers work really well for Barbie dolls, simply pop one doll in each compartment and avoid hours of brushing out tangled Barbie hair.

Similarly, gallon-sized freezer bags are great for dolls’ clothes. Work with your child to put together matching outfits and store each one in a separate bag.

A standard metal garbage bin can be painted a bright color and used in your child’s bedroom to store stuffed animals, while you can attach wheels to old drawers and use them for under-bed storage.

Almost any household storage option can be repurposed in this way for your child’s room, with just a little imagination and a few simple adjustments.

Hopefully you’re now ready with some smart kids room storage ideas. It would be great to hear about how you get on in the comments section below. Please feel free to include your own imaginative ideas and to share this post if you enjoyed reading it.