Are you getting tired of the clutter taking up space in your child’s closet? Are their closets overflowing with toys and clothes that they have outgrown? Sometimes it can feel like a monumental job to tackle something like our kids’ closets , but if you take it one step at a time, you can get through it.
Use our Weekend Cleanup Challenge to clean out these spaces and get them organized and set up in a more manageable way. This challenge begins on a Friday and continues through Saturday and Sunday, so by Sunday evening, you should be looking at a nice clean, tidy, and organized closet.
Once your kids’ closets are tidied and organized, give your kids a tour of their new space and show them where everything should go in the closet. That way, they can help contribute to keeping the space organized and clean.
Day One: Declutter & Purge
Since our challenge begins on a Friday, we kept the task fairly simple and not too time-consuming. All you are required to do today is to declutter and purge, which means to empty the closet(s) completely.
As you are emptying the closet, take time to note anything that can be thrown out immediately. Sort your kids’ items into three or four piles: one pile to keep, one pile to donate or sell, and one pile to throw out. The optional pile will be for items for another child to grow into. These piles do not need to be super organized and try not to overthink your decision.
Go through both clothing and toys to see if there is anything that you can get rid of - clothing your children have outgrown, toys that are too young for them now or that are broken, and any garbage that might have accumulated in the closet.
Once the closet is empty, you’re finished for Day One. Leave the piles where they are, as they will be addressed tomorrow.
Day Two: Clean & Organize
Take advantage of the closet being empty to give it a really good cleaning. Wipe down the walls, dust off the shelves, and mop and/or vacuum the floor. Even take time to wipe down the baseboards. Taking time to do this now, will help contribute to keeping the closet clean for a longer period of time.
Now it’s time to tackle the piles that you created yesterday. Start with the pile of clothes. Examine each piece of clothing for stains or tears, and if you’re unsure if it still fits your child, ask them to try it on and make sure. For any clothes that are ripped or stained, you can either throw them out or recycle them into rags for cleaning.
If there are pieces of clothing that are still in good condition, then you can decide if you want to donate them or sell them. If you end up with a pile for both donation and selling, just set them aside for now. You can deal with those once the closet is finished.
Put any clothes for a younger sibling or cousin in a separate tote, bag, or box; those will go in your younger child’s closet, in an area you designate for “to grow into” clothing, or to someone else’s house for their smaller child.
Once the clothing has been addressed, it’s time to take a close look at the toys. Many children hang on to every little tiny toy they can get their hands on, such as those little trinkets from restaurants. Perhaps it’s time to let some of those little items go.
Try to be relatively ruthless when going through the toys, otherwise, you will end up keeping everything and being back in the same spot with a messy closet in no time. Toys that they have outgrown or haven’t played with in quite a while could be toys that you either sell or donate.
When you are finished, you should have a smaller pile of clothes to return to the closet, and a smaller pile of toys to put back in. Tomorrow will be the day you organize them!
Day Three: Set Up & Accessorize
On the third day of the challenge, you will want to take some time to plan how you want to set up the closet once you return everything to it. Will you use bins to store the toys? Do the kids need some new, larger hangers for their clothing? Would it be a good time to install a custom closet organizer?
You will want to answer these questions and have a plan in place before you start to set the closet back up again. If you’ve chosen to use storage baskets or bins, get those set up in the closet first. Decide which toys will go in each bin, and get them set up as well.
Consider adding a few little touches or accessories to spruce up the closet, such as new lighting, big wall hooks for their jackets, a stylish hamper for dirty clothes, or a new mirror. The organizing pros at Good Housekeeping recommend using an over-the-door shoe organizer to get shoes up and out of the way.
Last, return the clothing to the closet. You might want to sort the clothes by season, color, or style, to make it easier for your children to find what they’re looking for. Hang them up on hangers, or stack them in bins, however you wish to store their clothes.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you’ve finished the challenge. In three days your kids’ closet has gone from cluttered and chaotic to tidy and organized. Help your child to keep their belongings stored neatly by showing them around their new and improved closet and teaching them how to put their items away when they’re finished with them.