Hey guys! I’m so excited for this post today. About a year ago I shared these posts about our Baby room organization + how I organize baby clothes (that post has been lost, but I’m going to explain again in this post how I do it!). I am STILL using this method to organize my boy’s clothes, but our toy organization has gotten a little more sophisticated. I also think it is so fun to see how his room has changed. There is so much more I’d like to do with his room, but we’re waiting until we buy our home. Anyway, here’s his room in its current state!
Stay til the end for a tutorial on how I make these great toy labels that are SUPER kid friendly, and help them learn how to put toys away, too!
Okay, please ignore our blanket wall. We live in an apartment with HORRIBLE insulation, so we’ve sealed off his window with plastic & covered it with this blanket to help control the temperature. With curtains he would totally be messing with the plastic, constantly. So, that’s our solution. Haha! Anyway, he has this tent in his room that he LOVES so we throw extra blankets of his and stuffed animals in there. Then, we used one of his old swaddle blankets and some push pins to make this stuffed animal net!
He’s got a different crib now, we could not get his through the door at our old apartment on moving day and we had already packed everything so we didn’t have a tool to take it apart. My husband literally had to break it apart and trash it because we had to go and we were running out of time (yay for out of state moves) but anywho, he’s got a new crib, and we went with Graco again, they’re our favorite! We also JUST added these super cool glow stars and he LOVES it. We bought the art string wall from Target, I’m working towards getting all of the items in this sports themed kid’s bedroom collection for him- I’ve gotten the sheets, art string, wall art, and the lamp so once he has a toddler bed we’ll just need to get the rest of the bedding! This rug is from Amazon, and you may remember it from our Tot School organization post. It got relocated!
Also from Amazon is this little kiddo sized book shelf. It’s obviously overflowing, but I’m trying to rotate books out from this spot to the living room because that’s where we most often end up reading. Once we have a home I REALLY want to do the Ikea spice rack book shelves, but for now this works perfectly for us, and it was cheap!
Here’s the first of my DIY toy labels I made, and you’ll see a few of them I made throughout the room. This container came from the Dollar Tree, and I really want a few more- they’re great for organizing toys with many pieces.
I made another DIY label for his play food container. My boy loves cooking in his kitchen. His favorites are PIZZA! and PIE! and BACON! hahaha typical male, right?
I keep this bin on top of his dresser, and it contains toys that he really needs a little supervision/help when playing with, or else he just goes into boy destucto mode destroying everything and throwing small pieces around the room. These little books go with his LeapReader, which I don’t entirely trust him to use on his own just yet.
Here’s another label- this is for his DINOSAUR bin!
Disclaimer, there are many dinosaurs missing from this bin- I really need to check under/behind the couch in the living room for the rest.
Here is our lovely bin of things we’re donating or giving away to folks who can use it (like old clothes)! We got rid of a good bit of stuff. P.S… have you downloaded your spring cleaning checklist yet? It’s free!
Finally, here’s the closet. For our boy’s clothes, I keep pajamas and clothes that are strictly for running around the house or playing in his “dresser” which is the media chest from our bedroom set (it just so happens to match his crib, too!) so we’ve upgraded from his sterilite container. I use baby hangers with these clips to hold pants, so that outfits are matched and ready to go. I have not packed up winter clothes yet, because where we are we will likely have a few more sneaky cold days. I’ve got warm clothes on one side and the summer clothes we’ve gathered so far on the other. It was so time to do all of this, because I have a huge Carters summer clothing haul that I’ll be sharing later this week!
The Luvs box is where I throw clothes that he’s done wearing (too small, too warm, etc…) so that they can eventually be sorted and given away to someone we know or donated. The bin at the top of the closet are some clothes that I’m holding onto on the off chance that we have another boy. These are mostly more expensive outfits and clothing (like blanket sleepers!) that might not be as easy to find or inexpensive to replace the next time around, and some outfits that I just really loved. Watch me have a girl, ya’ll. But anyway, that’s what is in that box.
You can see down below I have more labeled bins with his Smart Wheels collection. We usually keep these up because there are a ton of pieces, and one of us needs to help him set it up so he can play or it turns into chaos.
So that’s that! I am loving his organized room, but it will only last a few days, maybe a week. I have to go through at least once a week and re-organize his bins. But now, he can help! I took a note from my days working at the childcare center on the military base when my husband was still in the Marine Corps. We always include pictures with our toy labels so that the kiddos could easily know where to put things away. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me to do this for my little guy, but hopefully now it will help!
Here’s how I made them… it’s SO easy! All you need is Google and a Word program on your computer!
Okay, so hop over to Google and search whichever toy you’re wanting to label & organize (blocks, books, etc..)
When you are searching in Google images, make sure your image size is at least about 500 px (in that gray bar at the bottom when you hover over the image), this way the photo shows up well. My OCD wouldn’t let me use an image that was distorted or pixelated. Ha! The bigger the better, because you can always make the image smaller. Save the one you like best.
Next, open up your word program. It may look slightly different (I’m using Microsoft Word in Microsoft Office 2010) but the process should generally be the same. On mine, I click “Insert” and then “Pictures” which allows me to insert the file I saved to my computer.
Finally, pick a cute font, make it big, and add your text. Bold fonts will be easier for your little one to read (once they get to that level!).
Finally, I printed and trimmed my labels, then covered them on our bins with packing tape! You could even laminate them first if you wanted!
I hope this has given you some ideas for ways to organize your little one’s room for function & to create more peace in your life! What tips and tricks do you have to share for organizing your little one’s stuff in their rooms? Please share in the comments!
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