Project Simplify – Organizing Kids Clothing and Toys

Whew! We’re over halfway done with Project Simplify and I will be honest that I am ready for it to be over! 

It has been good to get a handle on some of my spaces that have gotten way out of control and unorganized over the past few months, but it is taking up so much of my time – to the point that other things, like regular cleaning, cooking, and blogging, have suffered. That’s why this post is a couple days late.

I am thankful for the progress I have made though. I just wasn’t prepared for how much work it would be.  I guess I was in a little bit of denial about how unorganized some areas around my home had become.

So, this week’s project was kids clothing and toys, another one that made my heart sink, but that I knew it was important to take care of.  My kids clothes had gotten way out of hand, as you will see in the before pictures.

Here are the before pictures (There’s a lot, but this is only half of their closet!):

Here’s the problems:

• Our kids have WAY to many clothes, especially my son.  We have been so blessed to receive all of my son’s clothes as hand-me-downs from some good friends, but there are so, so many clothes (that are so cute and in great condition) that is a little overwhelming to sort through them all.  We also have some great hand-me-downs for my daughter and since I buy almost all of her clothes used, I usually end up buying more than she really needs.

• Our kids’ bedroom is a converted attic that is supposed to be the mater bedroom and it has a very large closet (especially compared to ours).  So, I do not really have to limit their clothing due to space constraints. The pictures above only show half of each of their sides of the closet, there is another side to each picture with more clothes and bins full of clothes!

• Also, because the closet is so large, I had several bags and boxes of “stuff to give away” that I never actually gave away, and was just sitting there.

• I am definitely a keeper of kids clothes.  We do plan to have more kids in the future, and obviously we’re unsure what gender they will be, so I want to be prepared and not have to worry about buying any more clothes. But, I probably keep way more clothes than we actually need, or will use.

Here are the pros:

• The kids closet is large enough for their clothes and to store all of their outgrown clothes, as well as clothes that don’t fit them quite yet.  We don’t have to worry about storage space, we just need to keep it organized and accessible.

• We also have enough space to store outgrown toys and other baby gear for future children, as well as store some toys away for toy rotation.

Sometime last year, I had started to go through the kids clothes and sort and organize, but somewhere along the way I got stuck, and left the project unfinished.  I had a falling apart box of giveaway clothes (the last picture) as well as totes of the kids clothes sorted by gender and size.  So, that’s what I started with.

Here’s what I did to complete my unfinished project:

• Sorted through the kids current clothes and pulled out those that didn’t fit anymore and put them away in storage boxes.
• Pulled the clothes out of storage that the kids are growing into, and for the next season, to be washed and put away for them to wear.
• From these current clothes and future clothes, I sorted out anything that I knew that they wouldn’t be wearing and added it to the giveaway pile I had already started.
• I looked at the storage bins I had already created and labeled them appropriately.  I did not take the time to go through those bins to sort out stuff to give away.  I know we are keeping too many clothes, but that is going to have to be another project for another day.
• I went through the box of random baby stuff in the middle of the closet and sorted out more than half of the stuff to give away.

So, here are the after pictures:

Since my kids can now see the floor, they thought it would be fun to put the tunnel through the closet!

I love Tsh’s idea of haning a lower rod so that the kids can reach their own clothes, we have been breaking lots of hangers latelyn when Kaelyn tries to pull her clothes off the hangers.  I’ll have to get hubs on that soon!

This used to be where the box of giveaway stuff was.  Because my kids like to play in the closet, I have to block the access to the crawl space behind the closet.

Yes, this is the “after” picture.  I told you this boy has a lot of clothes!  This is after pulling out the too small pants and washing and putting away the pants that are currently his size! I know I still have some more to sorting through to do!

And here’s the giveaway boxes:

That was a lot of work! But, the closet makes me happy to look at now, instead of overwhelmed!

As far as their toys, I had already recently gone through and picked out some to give away/garage sale. 

I’ve also been meaning to implement some kind of toy rotation for a while now, so this was good motivation for that.  Remember the empty file boxes from my paper decluttering last week?  I decided to use a box for each child and have them each choose toys that they’d like to put away for awhile, but I didn’t get as much done with the toys as I would have hoped, so I don’t have any before and after pictures.  Or I’m afraid my after pictures would look just the same as my before! 🙂

March is almost over, can you believe it! How is your green spring cleaning and organizing going?