How to Stay Organized when You Have Kids

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Oh, sweet children of mine. I love you to pieces. You bring so much joy to my life, and I absolutely cannot imagine life without you. But along with all of your amazing qualities (and there are SO many), you also can make staying organized really, really hard. 🙂

I am often asked, “How you you stay organized when you have kids?!” It’s a tough question! I’ve shared a few storage solutions for kids on the blog before, but I have kind of avoided answering this exact question, mostly because I am far (far, far, far) from an expert on this topic. In fact, on the day I sat down to write this post, the Cs’ toy area looked like this:

Not an expert. Clearly. #reallife

I’ve learned, though, that like so many things, organization is an ever-evolving process more than a destination. So while I in no way feel like I have “arrived” when it comes to conquering organization with kiddos in tow, I feel like I have learned some things along the way that I thought might be helpful to share.

I know that every home, every family, and every child is so incredibly different, so what works for me totally may not work for someone else, and that’s fine. Hopefully, though, this post can act as a starting point and give people some ideas to try or tweak for their own situation.

And now that I’ve given all of my caveats, let’s get on with the tips! 🙂

1. Give yourself some grace. (A whole lot of it.)

I wanted to get this one out there right up front! For the most part I share only the “pretty” photos on this blog, but as you saw above, when it comes to the day-to-day, our house does not sit around looking Pinterest-ready 24/7. And while part of me would like it to be neat and tidy all of the time, the other part of me realizes that we live here. We use our stuff. And I don’t want my whole family to have to feel like they’re walking on eggshells because I’m scolding them for not keeping the house perfectly clean.

I am constantly reminding myself that this is just one phase of our lives, and an amazing one at that! My boys are 4 & 7 now (such fun ages!) and while they’re not the world’s best picker uppers (Caleb may actually be in the running for the title of “World’s Worst Picker Upper,” if we’re being honest.), we’re already able to maintain our systems of organization more easily than when they were 1 & 4. Maybe by the time they’re 14 & 17, we’ll all have this whole organization thing figured out! {Or maybe not, but a mama can dream! 😉 }

Grace. So much grace.

2. Declutter. All the time.

Now that we’re giving ourselves grace and not holding ourselves to Pinterest-worthy standards any longer, I’ll let you know the biggest thing that gets in the way of an organized home, whether you have kids or not.

It’s clutter.

I am incredibly guilty of just finding new ways to store my clutter and calling it organization. If I’m just rearranging my clutter, though, rather than getting rid of it, it won’t take long for everything to start feeling unorganized again because I simply have too much stuff.

I purge areas of our house on a regular basis, but I am especially ruthless with toys. It seems like new ones are constantly making their way into our home {ahem, grandma & grandpa… 😉 } and creating a cluttered mess. Once per month or at least every other month I go through our toy bins and throw away anything that is broken or worn out. I donate anything that the Cs no longer play with and just do a general overhaul of what they have, only keeping items that are in good shape and are played with often. I give the boys a say in what I get rid of. I’m not going to throw out anything they are particularly attached to (unless it is detrimental to them in some way), but most of the time, we agree on what needs to go.

3. Create simple systems that kids can help maintain.

I know that I’m unlikely to keep up with an overly complicated organizational system, and my kids are even less likely to do so. I try to keep things as simple as possible, especially when it comes to organizing their things, so that straightening up is not just “my thing” and they can help. For us, this means that I use a lot of bins that are open at the top. I’ve found that when I use lidded bins, they’re more likely to set stuff on top of them rather than open them up and put things inside. Caleb also still needs help with some types of lids, so they get in the way of his ability to clean up.

Coats, shoes, and bookbags were another area where I knew I needed a simple organization system for the boys. I used to be tripping over their stuff constantly, but when we redid the kitchen, we created a mini mudroom setup out of our old pantry, that included hooks that the Cs could reach. Game changer.

I also put a basket in the little nook for their shoes, so they know that whenever they come in the door, they take off their shoes, put them in the basket, and hang up their coats and bags. It’s so simple, but it was a great fix for an organizational system we had that was most definitely broken.

4. Separate toys by type.

When Connor was little and started to amass a large collection of toys, I used one toy box and just threw all of the toys in there. What I found, though, is that I was wasting so much time helping him look for the toys he wanted because they were all in one pile. It didn’t take me long to switch to a bin system, with each type of toy having its own bin so that the Cs can easily find the items they want by themselves.

5. Label it.

I use labels as much as possible, again so that everyone knows where things go and doesn’t just rely on mommy to put stuff away. Connor is reading, but Caleb is not yet, so I still try to make sure that the majority of the labels I use have a picture and words.

Labels don’t have to be complicated. (I share some pretty printable ones in this post that you could use for a variety of things!) They can be handwritten. They can be chalkboard labels. They can be printed from the computer. I am a smidge obsessed with this label maker and use it all the time. I’ve also cut vinyl labels with my Silhouette machine. They can be as simple or as complex as you want, but they really do help, so use them!

6. Make clean up time part of the pre-nap/ night time routine (or both).

I admit, we are still working on this one. Sometimes you get to the end of the day and you just feel tired. But I know that when we all pitch in and work together to get the house straightened up before bed, it is much nicer to wake up to a clean house in the morning.

Sometimes I’ll set a timer and we’ll race to see how fast we can clean up. Other times I’ll turn on fun music and we combine clean up time with a dance party. Sometimes we turn it into a competition. There are lots of ways to make clean up time a little bit more fun. {Though Caleb (age 4) was watching Daniel Tiger the other day when one of the characters claimed that cleaning up could be fun and he literally shouted at the TV, “It’s NOT! It’s BORING!!” See? It’s definitely a work in progress! 😉 }

7. Have little jobs that are just “their thing.”

From the time he was about 2, it has always been Connor’s job to take the rolls of toilet paper out of the package when we buy one and put them in the cupboard where they go. It’s his job. He owns that job. He even got mad the other day when Donnie tried to give that job to Caleb. I find the more that I can build little jobs like this into their routine, the more willing they are to help because it becomes something that they “just do.”

Maybe they could be in charge of finding their snacks in the bags of groceries and arranging them in the pantry. Maybe they could sort the dirty laundry into whites, lights, and colors. Maybe they could be in charge of matching up clean socks. There are plenty of small jobs that even little kids can take ownership of that not only take the jobs off of mom’s plate, but get the kids into the routine of helping as well.

8. Make it fun with a chart.

If your kids are old enough to take on additional responsibilities like dusting or emptying the dishwasher, a chore chart might help motivate them a little bit more. (I have a free printable chore chart in both boy and girl versions in this post.) The Cs love checking things off of a list, and they are particularly motivated when they can earn an allowance for helping with extra items around the house.

9. Have a system in place to deal with all of the paper they bring home.

When the Cs first started school, I was shocked at how much paper came home with them! It took me a few attempts, but I finally figured out a system for handling all of the paper they bring in the door.

You can read all of the details of my system in this post, but basically, the majority of the paper is thrown away/recycled. I have an area in our living room where I display special projects, crafts, or excellent work. This display is constantly being switched out, with the older pieces being discarded. I keep a sampling of their work from each school year (25-30 pieces at the most) in a labeled and divided file box that we store in their closet. This system allows us to have a representation of what they’ve done each year without keeping piles and piles and piles of paperwork that need to be stored.

10. Have a system in place for hand-me-downs.

Along with paper, clothes were another area where I found we were collecting a lot of clutter. I wanted to keep some of Connor’s clothes that were in good shape for Caleb to wear eventually, but I needed a system to make that happen. I eventually decided on plastic drawers (I initially tried stacked bins, but they were too much of a pain to get into.), divided by size, with an inventory card so I knew what they had and what I needed to buy. More details on our hand-me-down system, including free printable inventory cards and sizing tags, can be found in this post.

Well that list ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be! Staying organized with kids is tough, but having some simple organizational systems in place can help our days run a lot more smoothly.

Will it ever be perfect? Nope, but that’s okay. We do the best we can, give ourselves a healthy dose of grace, and we might just end up with happy, healthy, well-adjusted kids who love their mamas to pieces. And that’s  a win in my book. 🙂

What tips and systems have helped you keep your home organized with kiddos? I’d love to hear about them in the comments! Have a wonderful day, sweet friends!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.