How to Organize a Kid's Room So It Stays Organized

A kid's room is a bedroom, a playroom, a library, a closet, an art studio, a homework office and, for some reason, a snack bar. Kids also occasionally use the floor as a filing system.

No wonder it gets messy. The goal isn't a room that looks like a catalog. It's a room your child can use, and put back together, mostly without you. Here's how to set one up so it stays that way.

Start by Decluttering the Room.

Start by Decluttering the Room

You can't organize your way out of too much stuff. Before you buy a single bin, sort everything into four piles: keep, donate, sell and toss.

Include your child when it's their stuff. Kids 4 and up can help decide. Ask "Do you still play with this?" and let them answer. You don't need to turn it into a courtroom proceeding over every broken plastic dinosaur. Broken things go, outgrown things get donated, and favorites stay.

For the whole-house version, see How to Declutter Your Home. Getting ready for the holidays? See How to Organize Kids' Bedrooms Before Christmas to make room before the gifts arrive.

Organize the Room Around Activities

Think about what your child actually does in the room, and give each activity a zone:

•      Sleeping: The bed, a nightstand, a lamp

•      Dressing: The dresser, the closet, the hamper

•      Playing: Toy storage and open floor space

•      Reading: Books and a comfy spot to sit

•      Homework: A desk or table (for school-age kids)

You don't need walls or dividers. Just keep things near where they're used. Books go by the reading spot, art supplies go by the table, and pajamas go in the drawer closest to the bed.

Keep Storage at Kid Height

If your child can't reach it, they can't put it away. Put everyday toys, books, clothes and shoes on low shelves, in low bins and in bottom drawers.

If a five-year-old needs an adult every time they want to put away a toy, the system is not really theirs.

Save the high shelves for things you want to control: the paint, the glitter, the 500-piece puzzle and anything with tiny parts.

Use Broad Categories

Use Picture Labels for Younger Kids

For kids who can't read yet, tape a photo or a simple drawing of what goes inside on the front of each bin. A picture of a car on the car bin. A picture of a block on the block bin. No literacy required.

As they learn to read, add the word under the picture.

Limit the Number of Toy Categories

Six to eight bins is plenty for most kids' rooms. Every bin you add is one more decision at cleanup time. Too many bins, and the room becomes a miniature warehouse.

Give Large Toys a Parking Spot

The dollhouse, the play kitchen, the ride-on truck and the giant stuffed giraffe each need a permanent spot, against a wall or in a corner. A marked spot means they go back there every time, instead of migrating to the middle of the floor.

Rotate Toys if the Room Is Overloaded

If the toys don't fit, don't buy more storage. Put some away. Keep about a third of the toys out, store the rest in a closet or the garage in labeled bins, and swap them every few weeks. Old toys feel new again, and there's less to clean up.

Anything that's consistently ignored, broken or outgrown is ready to leave.

Create an Easy Book Area

•      Favorites: On a low shelf, facing out if possible, so kids can see the covers

•      School books: Together in one bin or on one shelf

•      Library books: In one basket, and only one

Library books have a special talent for vanishing beneath beds two hours before they're due. One designated basket saves you the late fees.

Make the Bed Easy to Make

Use a fitted sheet and a comforter or duvet. That's it. Skip the flat sheet for younger kids, and keep it to one or two pillows. A bed that's easy to make actually gets made.

Kids don't need fourteen pillows and advanced linen training.

Organize Clothes by Type

Give each drawer one job: one for shirts, one for pants, one for pajamas, one for socks and underwear. For younger kids, put a picture label on the front of each drawer. Fold shirts in a row, facing up, so kids can see them all without digging. More help: How to Organize Clothes.

Keep an Outgrown-Clothes Bin

Keep one bin on a closet shelf. The moment something's too small, it goes straight in. When the bin is full, decide what gets donated, passed down, sold or stored for a younger sibling. Label stored bins with the size and season.

Children grow. Frequently and inconveniently.

Put the Hamper Where Clothes Actually Land

Watch where the dirty clothes end up, then put the hamper there. Use an open hamper with no lid, so tossing clothes in takes zero effort.
You'll find that children can get dirty clothes into a hamper when it's about two feet away. Miracles happen.

Make the Closet Child-Friendly

•      Hang a second rod at kid height for everyday clothes. An adjustable closet rod costs about $15.

•      Put shoes in a low cubby or on a floor rack.

•      Add hooks at their height for backpacks, jackets and pajamas.

•      Move dressy clothes, off-season clothes and keepsakes to the top shelf.

And clear it out first. You cannot teach closet organization in a closet with no available space.

Create a Homework or Study Zone

School-age kids need four things: a flat surface, good light, a comfortable chair and their supplies within arm's reach. A small desk, a lamp and a cup of pencils will do it. You don't need to build a miniature corporate office.

Some kids work better at the kitchen table, where you can help. That's fine too. Keep a homework caddy they can carry from room to room. More tips: Tips for Kids' Homework Success.

Control School Papers

Give every paper that comes home one of four destinations:

•      Action: Permission slips and forms go to a parent, the same day.

•      Study: Current work and study guides go in one folder.

•      Keepsake: The best of the best goes in the keepsake container (below).

•      Recycle: Everything else.

More help: How to Organize Paperwork.

Create an Artwork System

Display a few favorites at a time on a corkboard, a clip wire or a magnetic frame, and rotate in new pieces as they come home. Photograph the rest before they go, or save the very best in the keepsake container.

Displaying every piece ever created makes the wall disappear.

Use One Keepsake Container

Give each child one container for the special stuff: favorite artwork, report cards, award certificates and the first lost tooth's envelope. Look through it together once a year, at the end of the school year. When it's full, they decide what stays. The limit is the container.

Create a Reading Corner

All you need is a soft place to sit, good light and books within reach. Try a floor cushion or a bean bag, a clip-on reading light or a lamp, and a low shelf or basket of books. Pile in a blanket and a stuffed animal for company.

No themed canopy required.

Limit Stuffed Animals

Give the stuffed animals one home: a basket, a bin or a hanging net in the corner. When it's full, it's full, and the kids pick which ones stay. Limited to a basket, stuffed animals are adorable. In groups of seventy-three, they become a population-management issue.

Store Dress-Up Clothes Simply

Use a few hooks, a short rack or one open bin. Kids should be able to grab a cape and hang it back up without help. Toss the costumes with broken zippers or torn seams, and pass along the ones that don't fit.

They do not need archival textile storage.

Give Sports Gear Its Own Zone

Put a bin or a few hooks near the door for the ball, the glove and the shin guards. Better yet, if you have room, store bulky gear in the garage, the mudroom or the entryway, closer to where it leaves the house. See Entryway Organizing Tips.

Don't Overfill the Room With Furniture

Adding a second dresser or another bookcase to hold all the stuff just makes the room smaller. Reduce the stuff first. Kids need floor space to play.

Organize by Age

Toddlers (1 to 3): Keep it simple and safe. Use a few open bins on the floor or a low shelf and board books in a basket, and keep plenty of floor space. Keep anything with small parts out of the room entirely.

Preschoolers (3 to 5): Use picture labels, low hooks and a drawer for pajamas. Kids this age love sorting, so make cleanup a game. More ideas: Bedroom Ideas for Preschoolers.

School-age kids (6 to 10): Add a homework spot, the school-papers system and the keepsake container. They can handle more categories and a nightly reset on their own.

Tweens (11 to 13): Let them have more say in the system and the décor. Give them space for hobbies, chargers and a growing wardrobe. And give them a door they can close. Some of the mess is their business now.

Make the Room Safe

•      Anchor dressers, bookcases and TVs to the wall with anti-tip kits. Kids climb drawers like ladders, and furniture tip-overs injure thousands of children every year, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

•      Choose toy chests with no lid, or a lid with a support hinge that holds it open at any angle, so it can't slam on fingers or trap a child.

•      Keep small parts away from kids under 3. If it fits through a toilet-paper tube, it's a choking hazard.

•      Watch for button batteries in remotes and light-up toys. Make sure battery covers screw shut.

•      Keep cords from blinds and curtains tied up and out of reach.

•      Put heavy items on low shelves, not high ones.

Use Under-the-Bed Storage Carefully

Use shallow, labeled bins with lids for off-season clothes, extra bedding or rotated toys. Things you need every day don't belong there.

If you just shove everything under the bed, you haven't organized it. You have lowered it.

Make Cleanup Fast

Give kids the same cleanup order every time:

1.     Trash in the trash

2.     Dirty clothes in the hamper

3.     Toys in their bins

4.     Books on the shelf

5.     School stuff in the backpack

6.     Pull up the covers on the bed

Give one instruction at a time. "Put all the cars in the car bin" works. "Clean your room" does not.

Do a Five-Minute Nightly Reset

Set a timer for five minutes before bed, and put on a song. Everything goes back to its home. Five minutes a night means the room never gets bad enough to need a whole Saturday.

Use a One-In, One-Out Rule for Fast-Growing Categories

For categories that multiply, like stuffed animals, books, art supplies and toy cars, when something new comes in, something old goes out. Otherwise, birthdays and holidays can turn the room into a storage challenge twice a year.

Teach Kids Where Things Go

Organization is a skill. Kids aren't born knowing it. Show them where things go, put things away together for the first week or two, and repeat yourself. A lot. Eventually it sticks. For ideas, see Chores for Kids by Age.

Let Kids Help Design the System

Ask your child where they think the blocks should go, or which bin should hold the art supplies. Kids follow a system they helped build much more willingly than a system imposed from headquarters.

Organizing a Shared Kids' Room

When two (or more) kids share a room, everyone needs some space of their own:

•      Their own drawers or a separate dresser, with name labels

•      Their own shelf or bin for personal treasures

•      Their own hooks, one per child, at their height

•      Their own side of the closet, divided with a shelf divider or different-colored hangers

•      Shared bins for shared toys, clearly labeled as shared

If the age gap is big, put the older child's small-parts toys on high shelves or in a lidded bin the little one can't open. And let each child have one spot that's off-limits to the other. A private bin or a bedside drawer goes a long way toward keeping the peace.

What Should Stay in a Kid's Room?

•      Clothes that fit

•      The toys they actually play with

•      Books they're reading or love

•      School supplies, if they do homework there

•      A few keepsakes

•      Bedding and a lamp

What Should Leave?

•      Broken toys

•      Outgrown clothes and toys

•      Toys and games with missing pieces

•      Things they never use

•      Stuff that belongs in another room

•      Your own overflow storage. The kid's room is not the family's attic.

Kids' Room Organizing FAQ

How do I organize a small kid's room?

Declutter first, then go vertical: wall shelves, over-the-door organizers, hooks and a second, lower closet rod. Use shallow bins under the bed for off-season things, and rotate toys so only about a third are out at once.

What's the best toy storage for kids?

Open bins on low shelves, with picture labels for kids who can't read. Keep the categories broad, like blocks, cars, dolls and art, and stick to six to eight bins. Give big toys a parking spot against the wall.

How do I get my kids to keep their room clean?

Make it easy. Store everything at their height, use broad categories, put the hamper where the clothes land, and do a five-minute reset every night. Give one specific instruction at a time.

How do you organize a shared kids' room?

Give each child their own drawers, shelf, hooks and side of the closet, plus labeled shared bins. Keep the older child's small-parts toys up high, and give each kid one spot that's off-limits to the other.

The Goal Isn't a Perfect Kid's Room

There will be Lego on the floor. There will be a sock under the bed. That's normal. A lived-in room is a sign that a kid lives there. The goal is a room that's easy to reset, by them, in five minutes.

No matching bins required.

Want Help Organizing the Rest of the House?

My book Room by Room gives you a practical, no-guilt plan to declutter and organize every space in the house, kids' rooms included, one room at a time.

And The Daily Home Reset gives you a 15-minute daily routine, including the nightly reset, that keeps the whole house under control.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Keep Organizing

The kid's room has a system. Keep the rest of the house organized with these related guides:

•      How to Organize Your Home Room by Room: My complete guide to giving everything a home.

•      How to Declutter Your Home: The four-pile method for every room.

•      Easy Toy Storage Solutions: More ways to corral the toys, in every room.

•      Bedroom Ideas for Preschoolers: Set up a room that grows with your little one.

•      How to Organize Kids' Bedrooms Before Christmas: Make room before the gifts arrive.

•      How to Organize Clothes: Drawers and closets that stay organized.

•      How to Organize Paperwork: Tame the school papers and everything else.

•      Tips for Kids' Homework Success: Set up a homework routine that works.