Day 11: The Kids Rooms

Because my kids are responsible for picking up their rooms every day, I rarely make the time to go through either space with a fine-toothed comb.  Having done it now, I would love to make this a more regular habit.  I found trash, random toy parts, thank you notes from 2009...not to mention Barbie shoes that Jason could choke on and markers that would be the demise of any combination of Jason and furniture.

Here are the before and after pictures of my kids' (admittedly enormous) bedrooms.

Before - Kaylin's room - the bed corner

After - I nested one side of her play house into the other...it's just too big and bulky!

Before - Kaylin's room - dresser and reading corner

After - Kaylin can actually get to her chair now!  And look...I've added a cute little piano-playing baby for mood music!

Before - Kaylin's shorter dresser

After - We put all of the hair accessories and jewelry away, along with countless other odds and ends.  Kaylin helped!

Before - Ryan's room - reading corner

After - Not much to do...Ryan likes his room pretty tidy, so I just had to pick up some books and papers on the floor.

Before - Jason's corner of the room.  And Jason cruising straight for the unsuspecting goldfish on the table...

After - I changed Ryan's calendar to March, not February, and picked up a few things.

Before - Ryan's bed and dresser.

After - What you can't see is that I organized Ryan's top drawer, which holds his prized paperwork and countless, random artifacts.

One of the things I swear by are containers for smaller toys.  Ryan has two bins for small items and a larger basket for bigger toys.  It makes it easy for him to pick up at the end of the day.  That and the fact that his room has hardly any toys...they're all in the playroom downstairs.

Another genius idea (that I got from Org Junkie, I think) is to keep Legos in an under-the-bed drawer.  I had them in a big bin in the closet, but Ryan couldn't dig past the top layer, so he rarely played with them.  Now, they're stored in a long, flat box, making it easy for him to look for what he needs.

Before beginning today's assignment for the "31 Days to Clean" Spring Cleaning Challenge, there's a great article you might want to skim, titled "10 Tips for Keeping your Child's Room Organized."  They list several helpful tips for keeping the kids' rooms clutter-free.

Once you've completed this day's task, please feel free to link up below!