My Boys' Bedroom, aka My HOMESTEAD Nemesis- By Jaimie

Do your kids' bedrooms/playrooms drive you crazy? If you answered no to that question, well, quite honestly I don't believe you. It seems like every mother I know faces some kind of daily war with toys and general kid stuff. Little lego pieces in every corner, collections of various sticks and rocks spilling out into the hallway, half finished coloring pages falling off the pile that keeps growing larger, etc. You can imagine your own toy nemesis.

I have been waging war on the stuff in my boys' bedroom for quite some time. I hate to go in there. They complain that they can't find something. But the biggest problem is that they don't want to play in there! It just isn't fun to play in a messy space and I don't blame them. I believe that it is especially difficult for younger children to focus on creative play when they have so much visual stimulation and distraction. They literally are unable to see past the mess to play productively.

I've tried over and over to help them organize their room. It only lasts so long before it's back to square one. So, over the last few months I began to formulate a plan. The first thing I did was keep a running list of everything that they played with. If I saw the toy being used, it went on the list. I did this over a period of about two months. They consistently played with only a handful of toys: legos, nerf guns, wooden dominos for building, k-nex, lincoln logs, and matchbox cars. They also regularly used their colored pencils and paints for lots of art creations.

Lastly, they both had several random collections with pieces that always roamed around the house: rocks, keys, coins, sticks, etc, that they didn't want to part with.

Armed with this information, the second thing I did was of course purge everything that they weren't using. We removed everything from their room and made piles of what we were keeping and what we were purging. That was pretty easy. The hard part was the collections! I made two separate piles, one for each of my boys. I sat with each of them as they sorted their personal pile. Following the KonMari method, I had each of them pick up each item and make their own decision about if they loved it or didn't need it anymore. I was extremely surprised that even my five year old (the collector) was able to get rid of half his pile!

After everything was sorted and purged, it came time for storage. I've made lots of mistakes with this in the past. But this time, taking advice from the KonMari method, I learned that each child needs their own personal space to store the things that are important to them. So, I gave each of them a drawer in their dresser all their own. I told them that they could put anything in there that was special to them. We were able to fit each of the boys' collections in their own drawer. This amazed them and they are so proud of their drawers. They even made sure that Grandma came over to see!

I put the rest of the toys in clear bins or containers that are clearly labeled. They can see exactly where all the toys will go. But beyond that, I made sure that all toys were stored only in one area of the room. Storage is not scattered throughout the room and everything fits on their toy shelves or in a few bins next to them. It's much easier for children to focus on putting things away when everything is stored in one place. This is the only place in the house where their toys are stored.

I removed the storage of their craft things from their room completely. They are stored on a shelf unit in the hallway. Making it clear that there are completely different zones for storing unrelated items sets the children up for success in putting things away. Toys are on the toy shelf and bins next to it. Personal collections are in their "special" dresser drawer. And crafts supplies are on the shelf in the hallway. Simple to remember.

Finally, I gave them a little quiz. My five year old loved the game I made of it! Through the cleaning process, I had deliberately left a few random pieces of different toys in the living room. In order to test him, I had him go find them and see if he could put them all away in the right spot. He was so proud of himself when he did it all correctly that he wanted to keep playing the game! Ha! This proved to me that he was definitely capable of cleaning up in the future. No excuses!

Even though I don't encourage playing with toys in the living room, there are inevitably toys that migrate through the house. For these things, I stationed an empty basket next to the hallway. When I'm picking up or sweeping, I throw whatever I find into the basket. It's an easy way for me to get the clutter contained and the boys know they are responsible for putting everything in it away when they clean their room at the end of every day.

I'm writing this at the end of another day of creative play. I just poked my head in their room after they proclaimed they were done picking up. Awe...sweet success! I'm happy to report that the system is working!