Want to see a real life decluttering project? Summer holidays here in Australia, and I have a few decluttering projects on my list.
Several years ago I went through and decluttered my home once and for all, and I had a LOT of stuff EVERYWHERE! It was overwhelming! Read more about my decluttering journey here.
Decluttering my whole home, and outside areas probably took me about 2 YEARS!! But now decluttering thankfully is just about smaller areas that get out of control… like the kids’ toys!
The Boys Bedroom…
We have a smallish house which I appreciate because I have less to clean, less to look after and less space to store stuff.
My 8 and 10 year old boys share a room, and their toy shelves badly needed decluttering. Hmm – stuff was on the floor, underneath the bed, piled on the drawers and more. Every surface in the bedroom was covered in stuff!
You can read more about how to teach your kids to declutter!
Decluttering Toys
What I did…
- Gave each child an empty box for stuff they wanted to keep.
- Created an obvious rubbish pile, a donate pile (there wasn’t much to donate), and a return to somewhere else in the house pile (that pile was big!).
- Then everything got taken off the shelves and the boys had to sort through it all, knowing Mum would possibly throw out anything they left.
- I took responsibility for moving stuff to their beds for them to sort through, cleaning shelves (Gosh there was a few icky don’t know what that use to be patches to clean up!), returning items, throwing out obvious rubbish etc.
Good for them! There were several conversations between the boys about whether to keep something that was broken or not, keep a larger item that they don’t play with often etc.
Toy Storage Ideas
Nerf Guns
After considering some fancy Nerf gun storage ideas, I decided on sticking with simple storage containers. I can’t believe we managed to fit over 30 Nerf Guns in this two fabric boxes below, on the bottom shelf!
We did have a conversation about perhaps decluttering the Nerf gun collection. But that was a no- go! So I will see whether they stay organised or not.
LEGO Storage
The kids’ combined LEGO collection lives in several plastic baskets under the coffee table and under a fish tank in the living room. Right now though it looks like this…
Related Post: Best Way To Store Lego
Board Games
All personal and family board games and card games are stored in my office room, next to the kitchen and living room. That seems to work well!
Book Storage
All my kids are at the age now where they are into reading novels, or comic books. So we have a small basket on the floor in the living room where library books live. Then bookshelves in the living room which house most of our books.
Related Post: Kids Book Storage Ideas
Shelves Above The Bed
Each boy has 2 shelves above their beds for their own personal items. One shelf was a re-purposed piece of laminate that was an off-cut from my kitchen reno. The other one is a picture ledge from IKEA.
It seems to work well, though they do get dusty and can accumulate sticky lollies and who knows what! My thought is to add in another shelf above the bed if needed later.
Under The Bed Storage
I don’t do anything with the space underneath the bed. I use to store books and toys there but found it made the area too difficult to clean. So now I prefer to leave it clear so the boys know that cleaning their bedroom means everything out from underneath the bed.
And The End Result Of Our Toy Declutter…
More Fun Organization Ideas For Kids
- How To Organize Toys
- How To Organize A Kids Room
- 15 Ways To Display Kids Artwork
- Cute Ways To Organize Girls Hair Accessories
- DIY LEGO Table Ideas
- Lego Minifigure Display Ideas
- Stuffed Animal Storage Ideas
