15 Awesome DIY Ways to Organize Your Kids Rooms
Updated on January 9, 2017
When it comes to keeping your kids organized, the task can become nearly all consuming. Little kids (or kids of any age, really- we weren’t exactly low maintenance teenagers once upon a time) take a lot of effort and commitment to keep on schedule, all clean, and happy and amused all at once! Organizing the kids’ space when they’re busy playing, learning, and being creative there might be one of the hardest parts of all, but we’ve always found that our DIY skills come in handy in a big way in that area!
Check out these 15 awesome DIY tips and tricks for keeping your kids’ bedrooms , play rooms, and general space nice and organized so that everyone feels stress free and you can give more attention to them rather than all their stuff!
1. Alphabet cubby drawers
Project Nursery guides you through the process of painting a set of cubby shelves to match a room’s decor and help you teach your kids a thing or two all at the same time! Each day when you help them clean up their toys, clothes, or art supplies and put them in the drawers of the cubby shelves, recite the letters with them so they can recognize what each one looks and sounds like. Later, you might even help them learn by organizing their things into the right drawers alphabetically as they get older!
2. Peg board hangers
Have you been finding lately that your baby’s changing counter has gotten crowded the older they get and the more stuff they need? We had that problem too. No matter how organized we tried to keep our surfaces, things just became to cluttered, so we took a leaf out of Mandy Busby Creative‘s book and put up a pegboard with little hooks so we could hang some things up instead! It eliminated some clutter and freed up some tabletop space, and it also transferred perfectly into the playroom for hanging toys and costumes when our kids got also.
3. Day of the week drawers
Are your kids a little bit older and trying to learn basic things like the days of the week and how to pick out their own outfits for school? Help them along by labeling the drawers in a small dresser and letting them pick out their clothes for the week each Sunday, placing them in the right drawers, just like How Do It did here. It’ll sure make for quicker mornings before school!
4. Window seat book storage
Perhaps you’ve been looking for a way to make your kids’ bedrooms of playroom both more organized and more comfortable? Then check out how Jengrantmorris made their own DIY bench style window seat with cubby storage under the cushions! We love that this will give your kids somewhere to put their random things but also a place to both store and read books, which is always a plus at any age!
5. Curtained storage shelves
We all know that nice, tall shelves with baskets or bags on them are a great storage option, but they’re not always the most visually pleasing things. Instead of letting them interrupt your whole decor scheme, La Dolce Vita suggests finding a pretty set of curtains or making your own from material you like and covering the shelves like a wardrobe. Then, even if the shelves get messy, the mess doesn’t have to show!
6. Chalkboard craft drawers
Babble guides you through the process of making something similar to the alphabet cubby drawers you saw above but on a smaller scale and for older kids who can already read. We love the idea of using little chalkboard drawers to help your kids organize their desk space so that the process of doing their homework is easy and uncluttered. Erase and relabel the drawers as needed whenever their classes change!
7. DIY stuffed animal swing
Is the biggest source of clutter in your kids’ rooms their stuffed animal collections? Adorable as they are, these squishy, furry friends certainly can take up a lot of space. We tried arranging them all on our kids’ beds to give them a place to sit but still keep them easily accessible, but there was hardly any room left in the beds for the kids themselves! Instead, we suggest building a cute little DIY stuffed animal “swing” that hangs on the wall with space for each little buddy to sit out of the way, but still within reach. Check out the steps for making your own on It’s Always Autumn.
8. Storage stools
Have you built or bought your kids an awesome crafting and colouring table in the play room but you find that their drawing supplies and books clutter most of the surface so they have trouble using it? Try replacing the chairs you have now with storage stools in order to free up some space! Shanty 2 Chic shows you how they affixed wheels to strong little cubed shelf stools and filled the inside with books, knick knacks, and kids’ stuff.
9. Clipboard art wall
Do you have a home full of budding little artists who are always leaving drawings and paintings lying around, scattered all over their rooms and playrooms? Try setting up a way for them to both organize and display their art all at once! Indulgy suggests doing this by fixing a series of clipboards to the wall to make a whole art wall just for their creations.
10. Plant basket wall storage
Have you ever seen those baskets made for hanging plants that have one flat side for attaching to the wall? Well, you’re unlikely to hang any plants in your kids’ playroom, but those baskets sure can come in handy for other things! Check out how Centsational Girl arranged some plant baskets at a kid-reachable height on the wall and filled them with blocks, stuffed animals, and books to keep this these up off the floor and all in once place.
11. Vintage suitcase dress-up storage
Are your kids future fashion designers and musical theatre stars who love nothing more than dressing up in costumes, even when it’s not Halloween? Then your playrooms are probably overrun with fancy dresses and fun headpieces! Instead of letting the play clothes take over the closets and dressers where the everyday clothes go, follow Real Simple‘s lead and pick up a few vintage suitcases and help your kids organize their play clothes in there instead!
12. Painted crate wall storage
Are you in need of some shelving but you’d rather stick to the nice rustic chic aesthetic you’ve got going on rather than crowding your hallway with a standing shelving unit? Try this cute painted crate idea from Bella Mumma instead! We love the way that they automatically form a shelf if you turn them on their side and screw the bottom into the wall. Paint them according to your colour scheme!
13. Crafting buckets
Are your little artists always leaving their pens, pencils, markers, and pencil crayons rolling around the table? Keep those art supplies contained instead by hanging some little buckets from the dollar store along a towel rack on the wall and labeling them with chalk on a little strip of chalkboard paint, like these little buckets on Pinterest.
14. Magnetic strips for toy cars
When we were little, our cousins were obsessed with toy cars. The little metal cards would be scattered across the floor, under furniture, down the hallway, and all over the basement playroom. If your kids are similarly enthusiastic about them, try helping them keep organized enough not to lose their favourites by sticking some magnetic strips to the wall just like The Style Files did! Your kids will actually enjoy sticking their cars on and off the walls as they play.
15. Bungee cord stuffed animal “zoo”
Did you like the stuffed animal swing idea but your kids still need more snuggly storage? Then check out how AK Griffiths transformed an old bookshelf with the horizontal shelves taken out into a zoo! They’ve drilled holes along the top and bottom and strung bungee cords in between like “bars” so kids can pull the animals in and out to play zoo or just store their animals in between play times.
Have you found other awesome DIY “hacks” for organizing your kids’ rooms in super fun ways? Tell us how you did it or link us to pictures of your work in the comments section!