A clean, attractive and well-organized bedroom will provide a great start to a successful school year for both mom and kids. Here are 14 suggestions to make the most of your child's space:
- Keep the basic shell of the room tasteful, neutral (meaning, no over the top theme), and timeless. Instill the fun personality in things you can easily update or change as the child's tastes evolve.
- Choose a paint color for the walls that you can live with for a long time, unless you love painting walls. I dislike painting with a passion, so once a room is painted in our house, that is it. No more.
- Reality check: children's rooms really don't need a lot of decoration. Kids have colorful and interesting things they like to display. They really don't need MORE stuff in their rooms, that is what leads to all the visual clutter. Keeping things simple, classic and clean usually makes for a more pleasing overall effect. Make the most of what they already have and use the best of it to decorate the room. Put up hooks or pegs for hats. Put attractive toys on display. Have colorful bedding or curtains. Showcase artwork.
- Children need lots of shelving for display. They will have ever changing vignettes of special toys and memories. Why throw all those Star Wars characters and little dolls in a box when you can line them up on a shelf? Put shelving wherever you can. Shelves can display special projects and memories. Books on shelves provide decoration and educational value!
- Children should have several places to feature their drawings and art. Try backs of doors, bulletin boards, and clips on walls to hang their creations. Or use frames that you can easily insert their latest masterpiece. Encourage your child to do their own artwork and update it regularly. Keeps them busy!
- Chalkboards are great for kids. Not only can they use them to create, you can use chalkboards as a tool to help them learn to organize their own to do lists and daily schedules. Instead of remembering everything for your child, you can encourage them to write notes on their chalkboard. Uses of chalkboards are endless. You could have a board for "what to bring to school the next day," a board for a memory verse they are learning, or a place to leave love notes to each other. We have all of those types of boards at our house!
- Give children easy organizational systems that they can learn to use. Under bed containers are a favorite in our house. We label them with changeable labels and categories that are practical and usable for a child. Fill the space up with the storage containers as much as possible to avoid the random toys, socks and pj's that seem to gravitate to the dark corners.
- Closed or semi-closed storage bins are a must for children. Cleaning up is a never ending task. Being able to toss and hide things quickly keeps everyone happy. Open shelving is fine for a few display items, but everything else should be contained by a bin or basket so it less visible.
- Divide toys into broad categories and label the bins. Labeling everything TOYS just won't work. We have our bins on a shelving unit with labels like ACTION HEROES, CREATURES, BUG STUFF, LEGOS, SPY STUFF, CARS. The labels are easy to change if he outgrows some of the toys.
- Avoid traditional toy boxes. If you have traditionally sized large toy boxes, use them for dress up clothes or costumes. I have found them to be generally too large for effectively organizing toys.
- Make sure each child has a good reading light next to their bed.
- Set up a reading corner. We put an adult-sized chair and a lamp in each child's room (if there is enough space) to allow for bedtime stories with mom or dad.
- Divide children's rooms and playrooms into zones whenever possible. A place to play with costumes in one area, building sets in another, art supplies in a craft area.
- Set up cleaning routines for children. Once their room is set up with a place for everything, give children cleaning routines to maintain their own belongings. If you incorporate a daily 10 minute "cleaning frenzy" (our word for a fast paced cleaning session) into the before dinner routine, kids should have no trouble keeping their rooms in order.
Photo credit: Pottery Barn Kids
The Inspired Room blog is a happy mix of interior design, homemaking ideas & inspiration for authentic living. And, it's fun! Come on over!
Loading ...
Great article! I am working on re-organizing my kids' rooms and so this article couldn't have come at a better time! Thanks!
I love the shelves in that first photo of the pink room. That is next on our list for my daughter's room. We have a toy box but use it like you suggested, for dress up clothes. I actually enjoy painting, so I think there will be quite a few colors on my daughter's wall as she grows
Great tips! This made me want to go organize her room some more
I really like the tip about keeping things theme free. And the shelf idea is great. My son has two old Pepsi crates hanging by his bed. The display constantly changes.
Awesome article & very appropriate for me at this point.
I am getting ready to change over my 2 yr old's room to a toddler themed room & my older boys, 14 & 9, to a more teen/preteen, lets keep it clean room.
Thanks! Glad the tips are helpful! Have a great day!
Fabulous- I'm calling my daughter to make sure she checks this out- and it gave me some ideas for re-doing… some grandchildren spaces in my home.
Thanks
This is great! Now that my boys are a little older I'm looking to re-do their rooms this fall. *sniff sniff* No more baby room!
This offers some fantastic ideas – I know I am going to try some things mentioned on here!