If you’re lucky enough to have a room at home which is solely intended for the kids, you’ll know what a difference it can make to the rest of the house.

A kids’ playroom enables you to keep all of their stuff in one place (well, most of the time) while giving them somewhere safe to play and keep themselves busy.

Unfortunately, keeping that space tidy and organised isn’t particularly easy. And, while a bit of mess is absolutely fine – and near impossible to avoid – there’s a lot you can do to make it organisation-friendly.

Here are our five favourite tips for first time parents, or anyone who has simply had enough!

 

Tip 1: Give everything its own accessible home

A bit like a well-organised office, everything within a children’s playroom should have its place. More importantly, each of those places should be easily accessible for both you and the child.

This is the best thing you can do to keep clutter at bay. Kids love it, too; tell them everything has its place, and they’ll view those little draws, nooks and crannies as homes for their toys.

What doesn’t work is huge bins full of random stuff. Your kids won’t know what goes where and they’ll resort to tipping the entire contents of those bins onto the floor to find what they want. All of the time.

To avoid this, invest in some smaller storage bins and units which are just big enough to act as homes for collections of specific toys.

 

Tip 2: Rotate toys

Once you have a method of organising toys into their respective storage places, it’s a great idea to rotate them.

Try and get into the habit of only having one or two play sets or types of toy out at a time. Better still, rotate what’s available in the storage units by occasionally switching around collections of toys (you can temporarily store those you remove in a larger bin elsewhere in the house).

 

Tip 3: Keep art supplies separate

Art plays a huge role in a child’s development, and art supplies are typically something they’ll reach for most regularly.

The last thing you – or they – will want to do is search for paint, pens, or colouring books when the need arises. This is why it makes sense to store all art supplies separately and ensure they’re easily accessible. (But don’t make permanent pens accessible to toddlers and turn your back for even a second!)

You can do this by using bins or caddies which can be moved easily. If an art project is best undertaken in the kitchen, for instance, you can therefore quickly move everything there, instead.

 

Tip 4: Use wall space for storage

If you’re running low on storage space within the playroom, don’t forget you can use the walls, too.

In fact, by using wall space rather than the floor, you’ll free up more room for the kids to actually play. What’s more, you can really add to the decor and functionality of the room by placing toys on shelving.

This kind of storage can turn into a toy in its own right, too. For example, if you install some of the shelves low enough, they can be used as a space on which to position toy animals, model cars, or plates and pans from a toy kitchen set.

 

Tip 5: Buy see-through storage bins

Our last tip will help ensure your kids don’t spend quite so much time lobbing things around the room in an attempt to find what they’re looking for.

It’s ridiculously simple: just make sure you buy see-through storage bins. This means the kids will be able to see what’s inside and therefore know where to head to get the toy they want to play with.

Finally, a disclaimer. We know that you’ll have read some of the advice above with a raised eyebrow. Kids love to break the rules, therefore you almost certainly won’t be able to stick to every suggestion above, but the key lies in introducing each organisation tip and working with your children to make it an exciting, easy space in which to play.

However, when your storage needs begin to extend beyond the space you have available at home, remember you can book secure, low-cost self-storage from the team at Squab!