Organizing Kids Rooms | Organize Kids Clothes

Hi there! Are you ready for a super long post? Today I’m sharing how I organize kids clothes! I’m going to share my best tips and tricks, including how I fit enough clothes for two girls in one closet and only two dresser drawers! My girls are about 2.5 years apart in age, but wear the same size so that does give me an advantage in not having to separate sizes. However, these tips and tricks will work no matter your clothing storage needs. A lot of my folding methods will sound familiar if you’ve read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. If you’ve read her book and have had difficulty because you’re more of a visual learner, this post will be extra helpful for you!

 

Organizing Kids Rooms | Organize Kids Clothes

Do your kids have closets that look like this? I can help. And they will be so happy with the results that they’ll actually help you keep it clean. I know I sound crazy, but kids respond beautifully to organized spaces, and want to keep them that way! Let’s do this.

I always start with drawers. Dump them out. Yep. Dump them all out in a pile on the floor. Now you’re not going to put a single thing back in a drawer until we get through sorting. Start by making only two piles. One to keep, and one to get rid of. Now take the get rid of pile out of the room. We don’t need in in there anymore. If your kids are over the age of 7-8 or have an attachment to clothes, always check with them before getting rid of something. The get rid of pile will eventually be sorted into three piles. To consign, to donate, and to throw away. Don’t consign anything you wouldn’t pay sale price for, and don’t donate anything you wouldn’t buy at a thrift shop. If it can’t be consigned or donated, use it for scrap fabric or just throw it away. Typically the only clothes I can’t consign or donate are things like underwear and very destroyed shirts and jeans, after they’ve been demoted to work/play clothes.

There’s a third category of clothes called sentimental clothes. These are things like sports uniforms, baptism outfits, old team shirts, graduation gowns, etc. You’ll only have one or two of these a year, typically. Once these are outgrown, I recommend having a small box per kid (or one for all your kids) to keep these items in. They shouldn’t live in your everyday closet, as they’re sentimental rather than daily or special occasion use items.

Now it’s time to work on our keep pile. Grab a small shoe box and a large divided plastic tray. I usually buy these trays in packs at Sam’s Club, but you can also tape together thin shoe boxes to make the same style of divider. Use what you have, rather than buying more dividers. I can guarantee you have something in your house that will work.

Now let’s get to folding. The goal is to fold every piece of clothing into a rectangular shape that stands up on it’s own when folded. That way it can be set upright in a drawer like files in a filing cabinet. See those balled up socks? Nope. That will stretch out the ankles and makes it hard to find the right pair. Smooth them out flat, lay one on top of the other, and fold them in half once or twice.

For stockings, lay them out flat. Fold one side on to of the other, and fold the toes up towards the waist. Keep folding them in half until you have a neat rectangle.

Underwear is folded by laying it flat, folding the two sides over, and folding it in half. Now just place all your underwear, socks, and stockings in the divider standing up like files in a drawer. This makes is super easy for kids to pull out what they need without disturbing everything else!

For tricky things like swimsuits, I like to fold the straps down halfway and the fold the bottom up over them. Then fold the swimsuit in half once or twice to make a rectangle shape.

For thin gloves I fold the thumb in, and then fold them in half. They sit in the shoe box so neatly!

I fit the swimsuit, gloves, and removable jacket hoods all in the same small box. There’s still a ton of room in this drawer for pajamas too.

To fold pants just lay them out flat like stockings, fold one leg over the other, then fold the ankles up to the waistband. Then fold them in half or thirds.

For shirts lay them front down, and fold one half over the other. Then bring the arms in front and down the length of the shirt. Then fold the bottom up to the top.

And fold it in half one more time.

Set them in your drawer.

Onesies get folded the same way as a shirt, just with pants attached! One side over the other, feet up to neck.

And then continue folding in half or thirds until you have a rectangle that will stand on it’s own. Set them in the drawer. I had this random pair of water wings, so I folded those in half and tucked them neatly behind the box of seasonal gear.

See how pretty and neat it is? This drawer is all done!

Jeans are folded the same way as pajama pants, except I fold the legs up to the bottom of the pockets, and fold the waistband down and continue to fold it in half or thirds depending on length.

Jeans are great for file folding, because they stand up great in drawers.

Shorts are easy to fold, and leggings are folded the same way as pajama pants. That’s another drawer completely done.

Now you know what I’m going to say. Yep. Take all of the clothes out of the closet. Everything. Including sports uniforms, fancy dresses, and that odd thing your kid never wears that’s hiding in the corner. That too. Dump it all on a bed or the floor, and separate it into keep, get rid of, and sentimental. Get the sentimental and get rid of clothes out of the room, and put them where they belong. I had a big get rid of pile as my girls had outgrown several holiday dresses.

Now out of what you want to keep, lay one item from each general clothing category on the bed. I have categories for dresses, short sleeve shirts/tanks , long sleeve shirts, skirts, and jackets/outerwear. Now two quick notes. Sports uniforms that your kids are still using are their own category. Also, for girls pay attention to their dresses. My girls like t shirt style dresses, and tend to grown taller much faster than they grow width wise. So these two 4-5T size dresses that still look very nice are actually still being worn when they’re size 8, as tunic length tops! I just pair them with leggings and they’re still wearable! So these go in the short sleeve shirt category now. Finish dividing up all the clothes.

Now go ahead and start hanging up all your clothes by category. I used different hangers for the dresses as they have larger necklines than the other clothes. I noticed that the short sleeve shirt section was looking too crowded, with all the team and spirit shirts they only wear once in a while. So I decided those would be best folded too.

A short sleeve t shirt folds up just like a pajama top.

Except you might need to fold in in thirds to fit in the drawer well. I had plenty of extra room in the pants drawer, so I put the shirts in there. Everything is still neat and easy to access, and if you fold things properly they won’t wrinkle.

And there’s much more breathing room in the shirts section now.

For skirts, I like to use skirt hangers. Stores will often leave these on the skirts the you purchase them if you ask them too, or you can find these in most stores laundry sections as well.

I put sports uniforms on one end of the closet.

And extra hangers on the other end.

Neat, easily accessible drawers where you can see everything at a glance?

And a clean, organized closet with a section for every type of clothing? Well, that just makes getting dressed and putting away laundry a much more pleasant task! I hope you enjoyed learning how to organize kids clothes with me, and I hope this helps bring some peace to your home too!