One Mom’s Journey

I have been working with a dear from and a mom via email and helping her get organized.  While she admittedly wasn’t horribly unorganized to begin with, she knew she had room for improvement and that her current systems weren’t working for her.

She started by getting rid of what she didn’t need….and grouping like items together, throwing away small toy pieces and putting sets back together.

This is something you can involve kids in.  However, be prepared to not really get any help and meet with some resistance on what they want to get rid of.  I suggest that instead of having them ask questions about each object, ask them (if they are old enough) to fill a laundry basket or box with donations.

For kids’ clothes, a good organizational system is a must.  Most parents have more clothes than they know what to do with.  Add in fast growing kids, lots of sizes and the changing seasons and you have a recipe for a closet disaster.

My friend started by making piles of what to keep, donate and toss.  Then, she divided things up into seasons and sizes.  I always say that no container is too small for this process.  Use plastic shoe boxes to store sizes, seasons and even types of clothing (such as tee shirts) and then put those bins into large foldable totes, baskets or onto shelves.

The finished result was amazing.  Now she can find what she is looking for when she needs it.  As her kids grow she can continue to organizer her hand me downs and spend less on clothes.

Organizing kids clothes is a task.  However, investing the time now will prevent you from having to buy multiples of items you know you own.  You can also maximize hand me downs from sibling to sibling and among your friends and family.

For the clothes that are going into drawers, use a kids’ sized clothing folder and drawer dividers if need be to keep things in order.  I love the idea of rolling pants so you can see their size!