Back to School: Organising Kids Spaces
Part of our getting organised for starting school strategy has involved re-organising Immy’s closet. I have written before about my preference for comfortable, practical play clothes for young children so until now most of Immy’s clothes (tops, shorts, leggings, skirts, jumpers, even many of her dresses) were stored in her chest of drawers. I love that her kindy uniform is also very small-person-playing practical – a collared polo top with shorts in the summertime and a tracksuit in the wintertime – but I would like her to keep her school clothes somewhat separate from her everyday clothes, as well as organised and easy to access to further encourage independence, so I decided a simple closet overhaul was in order.
The closet before: A few hanging items, a whole lot of outgrown clothing and spare linen for Immy’s bed.
The closet after.
The added rail has been hung at the perfect height for Immy to reach, enabling her to hang up her own washing and get her uniform out independently each morning before kindy (I haven’t actually hung her uniform here for these photos). There is still plenty of full height hanging space when needed to the right hand side of the closet. The tub underneath is for her shorts or tracksuit, depending upon the season. There is a second tub (to the bottom right) for her spare bed sheets (blankets have been moved to the top shelf) as I like having her spare linen right there for those unfortunate middle of the night bed changes. The outgrown clothing has been moved out, sorted and stored elsewhere, though there is actually still room on the top shelf if I want to include some plastic storage containers up top too.
We have added a hook for her kindy bag (also not pictured, this is her library bag) and there is space at the bottom for her school shoes (which are actually brown sandals!). I still need to hang a mirror inside the wardrobe door.
The wardrobe has been like this for a week and so far Immy is loving it. She loves taking her clean washing and hanging her dresses and uniforms and going to the closet each day to get out what she is going to wear.
How do you organise your child/ren’s clothing? Does your system encourage appropriate levels of independence?
P.S. Today is the last day to enter the Bright Star Kids school label giveaway to help you get organised and ready to head back to school.
I love Immy’s wardrobe space! I did a similar thing at the beginning of last year when Lolly wanted that bit more independence WRT choosing clothes. She has two full sized sliding doors on a built-in robe which we retrofitted to suit her – one side now has two levels of hanging space with two shelves above (up to the ceiling for winter blankets/toys not in use) so off-season clothes can be moved to the higher rail. The other side has another shelf and rail with a skinny chest of 5 drawers which creates another small shelf at her height, short hanging space for summer special tops and full height hanging space next to that for long dresses/coats. Works really well 🙂
Oooh, I want to see a photo. Sounds fabulous.
I dream of being this organised! How fabulous!
happines…
dannelle@nestenterprises
I love what you’ve done to the wardrobe, Christie. We need to get the girls a wardrobe. Can’t fit the uniforms in their drawers.
It’s so handy, Amanda. Let’s just hope the enthusiasm for keeping it organised lasts 🙂
That looks gorgeous and really functional. I have had a wardrobe overhaul on the wishlist for quite a while. But I can see the school holidays finishing and it still won’t be done. I really like the tubs for trackies and shorts. Perhaps I should set a deadline of before term 1 finishes!
It’s always good to have a deadline in mind 🙂 It really didn’t take too much effort once we started. Good luck with your overhaul.
We did a similar wardrobe overhaul last week! I have added hooks with coathangers inside the wardrobe doors for school uniforms (dresses) to hang once they are ironed. Another thing I find useful is a separate container for school hair ties and ribbons!!
I had been wondering about the hair ties and ribbons. Was thinking about a separate container on Immy’s dresser which is just outside the wardrobe 🙂
I love what you’ve done to Immy’s wardrobe and how it encourages her to be so independent, especially with that lower hanging rail. Grace’s is similar – most things are in her chest of drawers where she can access them except for dresses and coats which are hanging. I like your idea of the low rail shelf though. Shoes are stored at the bottom with some storage crates for other bits and bobs and on the top shelf I keep crates with larger clothes, keepsakes etc.
It really does make sense to have something at their height. especially because so much of the hanging space is dead space when their clothes are so short.
The wardrobe makeover looks great. Nothing like a bit of reorganisation to freshen things up.
We have just moved our newly 2 year old into her ‘big room’ and ‘big bed’. We bought a basket drawer set from IKEA and I printed and laminated labels with text and pictures for each drawer. Shoes, undies and socks, jumpers, pants and shorts, tops. She’s like her father and likes to put things in their places so the little system is working quite well. I’ve also put two boxes in the other side of the wardrobe. One is for ‘too small’ clothes and the other is for ‘next size’ clothes. This way when things are too small, I toss them in the box and when it’s full, I just tape it up and store it. When she has a growth spurt I go through the next size box, restock the drawers and start looking for the NEXT size in clothing sales.
Who knows how long this will last when the baby arrives but if I’m organised in advance there’s more chance right? Well that’s what I’m telling myself anyway!
I like the idea of your two boxes for clothes that are too small or next size. May just have to add those to our system, I think 🙂
Another really timely helpful post. Thanks! My little girl is just about to start school at a school that does not have a uniform – something that seems to be quite the norm with inner city, creative, lefty state schools in Melbourne. We were glad to think of her going to school in clothes she chose and colours she looks good in. However it is a bit of a logistical nightmare and I am a bit afraid of what this might add to our mornings. Today we went out and bought easy to use clothes pegs (I think they are the Coles knock off of the Hills ones) and are going to try using them pegged on triangle coat hangers to make whole outfit hangers so as to hang complete, ironed outfits together. Hopefully that should make the choice easy. We will see how it goes.
I think for schools without uniforms it can be really handy to choose and layout their clothes the night before as part of your evening routine to save you time in the morning. Good luck with it 🙂
I love this idea, we still have a little time before school starts, I must try and do the same. Gee, your back to school posts are gold to me, Christie. They are seriously helping me out here, thank you!
soon we’re moving into a new house …
You brought me new ideas for optimising his wardrobe especially the winter clothes which could be dirty… we’ll put them into a box too. But the idea with a second rail is great ! Thanks a lot.