Organizing A Toddler's Room

This past month was spent deep cleaning and organizing our three-year-old daughters room.**

The to-do list included:

• Moving all furniture and vacuum carpet 
• Shampooing the carpet
• Sorting through drawers and the closet. This included pulling clothing that was too small (the clothing will either be sold to a second hand store or donated) 
• Laundering the curtains, bedding, stuffed animals, doll clothing, and dress-up/play9 clothing. 
• Laundering her pillow
• Dusting all surfaces (including the dresser sides and top, shelves, play kitchen, lamp shade, etc)
• Cleaning the window (inside and out)
• Cleaning the picture frames and glass and the mirror on the dresser
• Sorting through toy bins and the toy trunk and relocating hardly played with toys (we also placed a few into the sell and donate piles)
• Reorganizing the closet
• Repacking her "quick-grab backpack" (which is kept in closet) with new toys, coloring pages, and crayons....this backpack is ready when we are in a hurry and need something already pulled together to keep her occupied
• Cleaning/dusting the ceiling fan  
• And finally making a long-term goal/wish list .... ex. paint an accent wall lavender (per daughter's request), have hubby fix nicks in walls, repaint/fix up dresser (it could use a little updating) 

Her dresser is just to the south when you walk into the room....just beyond that is the closet. The little chair just to the left of the dresser opens up to store extra things...she keeps some of her dolls in there! Directly to the right and above the dresser is a DIY hair band holder....you can read more about it here. The letter stickers on the mirror came from the dollar store. They are vinyl letters for sticking on the wall so easily can be removed....which I love!

Here are the west and north walls in her room. On the west wall is the toy trunk, toy mail box, toy kitchen (all found second hand) and a rocking chair (given to her by her great-grandparents). On the north wall is a three-tiered organizer (we keep books and puzzles in there), square cube organizer with canvas totes, and her bed. Each canvas tote is labeled with words and pictures so she can identify where things go when it's time to clean up.

Here is another picture of the north wall! 

And here is the east wall! I love all the bright colors! Even my ten-month-old son wanted to get in on the picture taking!

Here is a close up of the square organizer unit. I just love it! It is so easy to keep organized!

A close up of the labels!

And a close up of the top of the square unit. We love our books!

These cute shelves "house" many little trinkets/nick-knacks. I did a different post about the picture with her name...you can find it here. 

There is also a link to how to make this cute hospital hat keepsake! The butterfly we got from a local craft fair and the glow-in-the-dark stars she got in her Christmas stocking this past year!

Click here for more information on the map above her bed! 

Here is the link to the post about the DIY removable height chart we made for her room! 

A close up of her toddler bed (bought second hand) and table/chairs (given to us .... also second hand). The table had some scuff marks and crayon coloring all over it so we covered it with some cute contact paper!

 This is the back of her door where we keep all her jackets, hats, and scarves.

And here is the DIY hair clip and necklace holder her father and I made for her. You can find out more about it here.

It's never too early to get your kids interested about cleaning and organizing their room. The first thing you'll need to do is get your kid excited about it....make it fun...make it a game! My daughter follows me around the room with her swiffer duster or a rag to help me wipe up the glass cleaner. .... NOTE: She is only allowed to use these kind of cleaners with very close supervision. When the cleaner is not being used it is kept in a locked closet in our hallway.....we also keep all matches/lighters, detergents (both laundry and dish), medicines, and chemical cleaners locked up for the safety of our children and daycare kiddos.

**Each month we pick a room (or rooms, depending upon size) to "tackle". We focus on deep cleaning this room during the designated month. In January we focused on the master bedroom, in February we focused on the downstairs guest bedroom/craft area, in March we focused on Audrey's room....what's up next? The living room!

Also her room was not "staged" for this picture. 90% of the time when she is not in her room it looks like this! From the time she started crawling we began teaching her how to pick up toys and put them away. She knows that before moving on to another activity or room she must clean up after herself. I must say she does a fantastic job!