If your kid’s rooms are a sight to see, or if you are sometimes afraid to go in, it may be due to a simple lack of efficient storage. I’ve learned that my kids do better with keeping up their rooms when they know exactly where everything is supposed to go. This fact led me to remove the toy box from the room my two youngest children share.
Now, you might be thinking I’m crazy, talking about storage and at the same time saying I took away a storage option, but let me explain. A toy box is a catchall. Anything and everything can be shoved into toy boxes. The items that are supposed to go inside the toy chest, don’t really have an exact position. This can lead to chaos. These items end up in other places, while other toys (and sometimes a shoe or two) end up in the toy chest instead.
Unless you organize the inside of the toy box with smaller containers for specific items, you will likely see the same problems. I moved the toy chest into the playroom and it is now used only for specific large toys (it also doubles as a table beside the toy kitchen set).
In the bedroom, I added sets of shelves lined with baskets. Each basket holds specific items, so my children now know where everything is supposed to go. Their stuff still doesn’t always end up in the right place, but it’s a much better system than what we had before. I still go in and re-do things from time to time, and remind them which items go where, but it’s far less chaotic than before.
Under the bed storage containers are another great options for kids’ rooms. They allow you to utilize all that extra space, without worrying about what might be hiding under there. Label each of the under bed storage boxes and make sure only those items go inside.