Kids’ Playroom Organization Ideas

The playroom is a great space for kids to have fun, get loud and be creative. But when your playroom is cluttered and disorganized, it can quickly become an unproductive space full of broken toys and unused games that your kids won’t even play in anymore.

Decluttering and organizing a playroom is a big project, so we will be doing it in steps. Each step will go through more specific tasks to help you along the way. We begin with decluttering, and will walk you through how to decide what to keep and what to either donate or toss. After that, we’ll focus on how to organize a playroom, with some cool ideas for organizing toys, books and games. You will be a pro by the end of this blog!

Are you ready to declutter and organize your playroom like a pro? Crank up the tunes, grab some coffee (or a glass of wine…) and let’s get this playroom organization started.

It’s great to have a lot of toys for your kids to play with. However, if there are too many toys in a small space that aren’t organized into bins, onto bookshelves or in cabinets, you might find that they aren’t played with as often or for as long as you would have anticipated.

Although it can be great to get your kids involved in the decluttering process, not all kids are as eager as others to say goodbye to an old toy – especially if they haven’t seen it in a while.

🌟 PRO TIP: Check out these game recommendations to make organizing actually FUN with kids!

The novelty of finding an old toy, even if it’s a toy that they have outgrown, can easily overwhelm any sense of reason when it comes to getting rid of it. So if this sounds like your child(ren), go ahead and do the main decluttering without them, and bring them in on the organization, instead.

How to Declutter the Playroom

Try thinking about the playroom as a homeschool classroom. This will allow you to organize toys by stages of development, which will make it easier to figure out what your kids have truly grown out of, and therefore, what can be set aside for donation.

Create three piles: donate, trash and keep.

While you’re sorting through all of the playroom toys, here are some guidelines to help you decide what to keep and what to toss:

• Fixed use: Toys that have only one way to play don’t stimulate growth, creativity or imagination. For example, a toy that makes a sound when you touch a button has a fixed purpose. Toss it out or set it in the donation pile.
• Wrong age: The toys that your school-age child played with as a baby or toddler won’t challenge them. Keep anything sentimental or that might be valuable one day, and get rid of the rest.
• Broken: It’s so tempting to hold onto a broken toy that your child loves, but there’s really no point. If you can replace the broken toy with a new one, perfect. If not, throw it away.

Now that the clutter is gone, it’s time to start organizing. Since a lot of children’s games incorporate the Montessori concept of sorting and matching, involving your kids in playroom organization will be fun and helpful. They’ll get a sense of ownership while also getting them reacquainted with their toys in a different way.

First, pull everything out. Since you’ve already worked so hard to declutter your playroom, this should be way less overwhelming. Next, you’ll sort all the toys into seven piles:

1. Books
2. Games and puzzles
3. Dolls, action figures and accessories: this includes dollhouses, secret lairs, doll cars, baby buggies and strollers.
4. Cars, trucks, and trains
5. Arts and crafts supplies
6. Make-believe toys
7. Miscellaneous

Sorting the playroom toys into groups like this will help make it easier to put them away while also allowing you to take a visual inventory of everything you have.

While you’re pulling things off the shelves and organizing them into piles, take note of the furniture in your playroom. Is it functional? Is it broken? If you find a bookcase, cabinet, table and chairs, or any other piece of furniture that either doesn’t function well in the playroom, isn’t sturdy or has a broken shelf or hinge, there’s no reason to hold onto it.

Playsets: If your child has outgrown their play kitchen, indoor slide, mini-trampoline, ride-on toys or any other type of indoor playset, set it aside for donation. If you find a broken playset, add it to your discard pile. When you call LoadUp to remove all the clutter you’ve worked so hard to sort, we will haul away all clutter for either donation, recycling or eco-friendly disposal.

The ultimate goal here is to try and reduce the toys in your playroom by half, if possible. If there aren’t a lot of toys in the playroom, that’s ok! Just keep what works, and get rid of anything that is:

• broken
• not age-appropriate
• hasn’t been played with for at least six months

After sorting everything into piles, it’s time to take a break. Especially because your kids will probably be incredibly excited to play with toys and ruin all your work. No one wants that! Go ahead and get them refocused and head back to playroom organization when you’re ready.

It’s incredibly important to have the right kind of furniture and storage bins for optimal kids playroom organization. Some ideas for functional pieces of furniture that are great to use in a playroom include:

• Floating shelves: Great for knick-knacks, small books and decor
• Ladder bookcases: So versatile! These are great for books, plants, toys, and photos.
• Different sized bins for toys: Small toys and toys with a lot of parts will easily get lost if they aren’t stored in bins. Placing larger toys on bookcases or shelves will not only keep them organized and stored out of the way, but they will also become part of the visual appeal of the room.
• Cube storage shelves: These are pretty much a must for a playroom of any size. Cube storage shelves are super versatile and sturdy. Cubes without bins can hold books, trinkets, and small toys. Cube fabric bins come in many different colors and patterns, making them decorative and functional.

Children’s Toys Organization Ideas: Rotating Toy Bins

When there are a lot of toys in the playroom that the kids still play with, try creating rotating toy bins to keep them interested on a weekly basis. Rotating toy bins make it easy for us parents to keep toys clean and sanitized, and it also keeps kids more interested in all of their toys instead of just some of their toys.

Rotating toy bins also reduce the number of toys and clutter to clean up at the end of the day. Cleaning up toys that go in the same bin is so easy, even a toddler can do it.

Each bin should contain a random assortment of toys. Use as many bins as you would like to have in rotation. We recommend rotating toy bins out weekly. This gives children enough time to engage with their toys without giving them too much time to get bored of them.

Playroom Toy Organization: Create Play Stations

Larger playrooms with a lot of space are great for creating play stations. Basically, what this means is that you would keep certain types of toys in certain areas of the room. By keeping similar toys together, it will allow kids to engage more with their toys, since they are not struggling to find things in a disorganized playroom.

The concept of a “play station” is a lot like a creating a homeschool classroom workstation. But in this case, a play station is designed to maximize playtime, creativity, and imagination, whereas a workstation is designed to keep kids focused and on-task. The outcome and intent might be different, but the overall concept is pretty much the same.

Some play station ideas include:

The main idea here is to keep like-toys together. So dolls with dolls, legos with legos, etc. Does your child have a Barbie dream house? Make it the central part of the doll or Barbie neighborhood. Do you have a kid who is into building and construction? Create a corner where they can hang their tools, just like you would do when organizing your garage at home.

Children look to their parents for cues, interests, and ideas. That’s why so many little girls dress up in their Mom’s heels and pearls. To emulate them. Think about the ways your children copy you, and consider creating them their own space to indulge in that kind of play in their playroom, like a wall mirror for fashion shows or pegboard for tools.

Playroom organization on a budget might seem impossible, but it’s not. Repurpose some furniture. Build something. Paint something. Use what you have around the house and get creative with it!

If money is tight, it’s still possible to find fun, creative – and most of all – cheap toy room organizing ideas that don’t actually look cheap! When organizing toys on a budget, try the following ideas for inexpensive items you can purchase at your local Dollar Store, Walmart or other discount stores:

• Laundry Bags: Use mesh laundry bags for storing stuffed animals and other softs.
• Picture frames: Remove the glass from frames and paint the frame. You can then hang the frame on the wall and hang your child’s artwork within it, so that there’s no danger of it falling and the glass breaking.
• Clear storage bins with lids: Shoebox-sized clear storage bins with lids are great for organizing toys on shelves, or for using as part of a rotating toy bin system.
• Hanging shoe organizer: Use an over-the-door hanging shoe organizer to keep dolls, action figures and accessories all together in one place for easy storage and cleanup.
• Floating shelves: Shelves can easily be made out of scrap wood. Simply cut scrap wood pieces to the right length, sand them and paint them. All you’ll need to complete this are some shelf brackets, which are very inexpensive at your local hardware store.
• Wooden crates: Do you remember tape and CD crates? If you have some of these hanging out in your garage or basement, you can paint them and use them for toy storage. You can also attach wheels to the base to create rolling crates for super easy cleanup.
• Dish racks: If you have an old wooden dish rack, it can be painted and repurposed to hold books and toys. Since dish racks tend to be small, they will make a great table-top or bookcase addition for a play or workstation.

It’s a scary time we’re living in right now, but there’s no need to fear our Loaders. Your safety and the safety of our team is our top priority, which is why we are offering convenient and affordable no-contact junk removal with outdoor pickup and haul-away services.

After going through all the junk in your playroom and setting aside all the items that need to go, don’t let all your hard work go by the wayside by holding onto that junk. Storing your junk for removal at a later date isn’t necessary when you choose LoadUp. But how is that possible?

How is LoadUp is Truly Different?

First of all, we don’t require on-site estimates. Not only are they a waste of time for everyone involved, but they leave you – the customer – open to haggling salesmen who just make up a price when they arrive. This leaves people subject to paying junk removal costs that are way more expensive than they should be.

On-site estimates require an in-person, face-to-face visit. Since in-person contact is a no-no right now, many junk removal companies are faced with changing their entire strategy to something more like ours. And we’ve been doing it this way since we first opened!

Since we’ve been honest and transparent from the start, with guaranteed upfront pricing and rates between 20-30% less than most other junk removal companies, we’ve always been ready to haul away your unwanted junk during a time of self-isolation or quarantine. For us, the only thing that has changed is that we are currently encouraging our customers to utilize our no-contact outdoor pickup services while also offering a discount.

Lower rates. No in-person contact. No haggling salesmen. Upfront prices. Junk removal should have always been this safe…but with LoadUp it always has been.

Interested in what LoadUp has to offer? You can get a free, no-obligation quote online. And if you like what you see, you can easily book an outdoor pickup using our convenient online booking system. But if you prefer to give us a call, one of our friendly customer service representatives will be happy to assist you.

Don’t let that clutter creep back into the playroom. It’s “go time”; Go LoadUp time, that is!

Related Articles from the Trash Talk blog:

• How to Make Organizing Fun for Kids!
• How to Set Up a Homeschool Classroom
• 29 Ways to Get Rid of Household Clutter
• 41 Ways to Reduce Waste at Home