Six Pretty Ways to Organize Your Kid’s Stuff

If you have kids, you know what a struggle it can be to keep all of their stuff organized and put away.  There are plenty of toy organizers and brightly colored plastic thingamajigs to corral of all of the kiddie gear, but what if you want your storage options to be a little less Mickey Mouse and a little more Joanna Gaines?  I got your back and it can be done.  Here are six pretty ways to organize your kid’s stuff!

1. Tiered Trays.

   These babies are all the rage in the décor world right now, so you can find them at practically any home décor store that you may visit.  This one is a Better Homes and Gardens galvanized tiered tray and it came from Wal Mart (GASP!) and was a meager $18.  I put this in the nursery next to the changing pad, and not only does it hold all of the diapering essentials, but with a few faux flowers thrown in the mix, it’s super pretty too!

2.  Acrylic Apothecary Jars

I searched like a mad woman for cute storage for baby’s bath essentials.  You know, rubber duckies, q-tips, nail clippers, etc.  Of course whatever I chose couldn’t be breakable, but I wanted some type of jars.  I Googled, I Amazoned…  Nothing.

Then I stumbled upon the wedding section at Michael’s and was thrilled to find a plethora of shapes and sizes of acrylic apothecary jars that I assume are used for those candy buffet things.  They had all the shapes and sizes of regular glass apothecary jars, only they were non-breakable and cheaper.  Score.

I used the three that I got to store q-tips, rubber duckies, and a few colorful loofas.  Pretty, safe and colorful.  Love.

3.  Curtain Rods.

I know, I know.  Curtain rods?  Say whaaaat?!  Go with me.  You know all of those bajillions of perfect masterpiece works of art that your toddler comes home with daily?  The ones that have glitter and macaroni flying off of them and look the exact same as the 54 that came home last week?  Since you OF COURSE have to keep every single one of them, a clever way to store/display them is a must.

I happened upon this solution by accident since the previous owners of this house left behind lots of extra curtain rods and curtain rings.  I added two of these left over rods to a weird angled wall in the hallway that leads to my girl’s rooms and it has been a perfect landing spot for my little Picasso’s macaroni masterpieces.

4.  Collapsible Bins.

They’re cheap (about $5 each), they’re colorful and cute, and you can find them pretty much anywhere.  By anywhere I mean Target, Wal Mart, and Lowes.  Also, you do not necessarily need one of those cube bins that they sell with these guys.  They work perfectly on bookshelves too!

5.  Baskets on the wall.

This one could be my favorite of the six.  You’ve already seen one of my baskets on the wall in the pic showing the apothecary jars with the loofas above.  I took one of those $11 wooden apple crates that you can find at Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, and Wal Mart, stained it and screwed it to the wall.  Simple, cute, cheap.  My favorites.

The crate on the wall in the bathroom stores colorful bubble bath, those weird bath tub finger paints, toilet paper, and holds a basket that has even MORE bath toys in it.

This idea worked so well that when my daughter got tall enough to start kicking all of her diapering supplies off of the changing table, I decided to get two more cute wire baskets that match the décor in her room and screw those suckers to the wall too.  Easily within my reach, but of the reach of temper-tantrum toddler feet.

This next piece is my favorite for sure.  It is a tiered basket rack that screws to the wall that I got for $50 at Hobby Lobby.  It was more than I wanted to spend.  (I’m kinda having a light bulb moment about how cheap I am right now…)  But anyway it is perfect.  It fits in the space between the doors to my girl’s rooms and is the perfect catch-all for their stuff.

When it’s nap time, I load it up with all of the random doo dads that get scattered through the house throughout the day, and then it’s all gathered in one spot and ready to be put away when they wake up.  Think toys, shoes, laundry…  all of it goes in this bin so even though it’s not officially “put away”, it’s not littering up the family room floor and causing trip hazards everywhere.

If you don’t have a nap time landing pad for your kid’s stuff – get one!  Game changer people.

6.  Good ol’ fashioned shelves.

These little shelves have been with me for years and every time we move I loath hanging them even more.  Am I the only one who can’t EVER get them exactly level or tight to the wall on the first try?!  Yes?  I did pretty well this time around, but they still bother me.  Anywayyyy…  I have this precious collection of Dreamcicle figurines that my Grandmother gave to me when I was growing up that I wanted to display in Lila’s room.  Knowing that her sticky hands would smash them to bits were they in her reach, I needed a solution that would display them beautifully, but keep them out of the reach of her toddler paws.  SHELVES.

This creates a nice display and keeps them in place – as opposed to everything else on the bookshelf below it.

So there you have it!  Six pretty ways to organize your kid’s stuff!  Of course there are many more solutions out there than just these.  My number one rule for organization is an oldie but a goodie – “a place for everything and everything in it’s place.”  (Yes I have mild to moderate OCD.)

If you’re on the hunt for clever storage ideas, take stock of what you have, find it’s “place”, and then get creative with how you store it!

I’m always on the lookout for great storage and organization ideas, so what are your favorite storage tricks?