Project Simplify: Week 1 Kids' Stuff

Tsh over at Simple Mom is spring cleaning and organizing four hot spots this month. First up is those pesky kid spaces. It is funny how quickly craft supplies, books, and projects can multiply around my house. I definitely needed the motivation and weekly goals to keep me accountable and working towards completing some of these trouble areas so I decided to join in. I also have a little extra job. We will be moving into our new home in about three months. I really want to organize and reduce our stuff before packing and taking all the mess into the new house. Further, with three kids running around I am trying to pack a few boxes a week to make things easier this summer. So what two areas did I tackle this week?

First was Sydney's desk area. This is the only area that is just her's. Her sister is only allowed at the desk when invited. This means that all prized possessions get put thrown on the desk for safe keeping. Between school, church, Awanas, and projects at home this desk quickly gets lost. So with her help we went through everything. We wanted her to be able to use the desk again so only her radio and a couple pictures were going to be kept on there. We hung up a couple favorite pictures and projects on the cork board and the rest either were thrown out or filed in our keepsakes for last year. As you can see things look much better now. We will see if she can keep it that way.

The second area was this area of their bookcase. These four cubbies are supposed to hold art supplies that they are allowed to use any time like coloring books, sketch pads, crayons, markers, stencils, etc. It is also for their small but growing collect of Korean books. No wonder they can't find the pencils they want to use without help.

Although it took a bit longer, I had both girls help me. First we took everything off the shelves. I had Violet organize all the pencils, crayons, and markers while Sydney picked out which coloring, sticker, activity books she wanted to keep. I helped her narrow down a bit more and then we put all her books up high and all Violet's on the lower shelf so she can get then herself.

It worked well to tell Sydney she could keep everything she wanted as long as it all fit in a magazine holder. It also is making clean up much easier. They will each put all their books right back into the holder and back on the shelf. I noticed that they are using them more now and Sydney has been reading her Korean books more these past couple days. I think that while the kids have trouble keeping things simple and organized they really like to be able to see what is available, are more likely to play with it, and have an easier time picking it up. I'm thinking that we need to do a major simplification of all their toys before we move.

How do you keep kid's toys and stuff organized? Any tips or tricks you can share? Next week is all about the kitchen and/or pantry if you'd like to join in.