It's a fact of life that children and clutter can go hand-in-hand, so does having a young family mean giving up on the idea of a tidy home? Not necessarily, we would argue. All you need to do is adopt a few simple principles, and you can reach a happy compromise that works for everyone.
Here are our top tips, from toy storage ideas and school bag storage solutions, to fun ways to encourage tidying up.
Growing your family of course means adding to the belongings your home has to hold. However, in many cases, the issue is not one of extra stuff – it’s often a lack of storage space that can lead to the worst of the clutter.
Finding new places to store things in your home can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. By converting underused space into storage, you can make tidying up inventive and fun for the kids, as well as finding enough room for all their things.
Turning your stairs into drawers is a great use of space in homes that need more of it. One step in the staircase could be for school bag storage, another for shoes or lunchboxes, and yet another for raincoats. With this innovative solution, you can instantly clear your hallway cupboard and pegs of your children’s school gear, all without expanding the size of your house.
A key part of organising and storing your children’s things is teaching them responsibility for their own belongings, including how to take them out and tidy them away independently. To help with that, it’s a good idea to make sure that their items are within easy reach – on a low shelf, in an accessible drawer, or in a separate cupboard they can open without your help.
This means you can ask them to take care of tidying some of their own things. You might even find that they enjoy tidying up when they have their own special place to put things. Bolster their enthusiasm by personalising their storage areas with stickers or labels, and you might find that they relish being in charge of their own belongings.
A key facet of enjoying your home with children in it is accepting that it will rarely be perfectly tidy. One of the ways you can embrace this new kind of perfection – balancing a rewarding family life against the realities of a more cluttered home – is to accommodate for it and have a home that works with your family rather than against them.
This could involve a system for dealing with miscellaneous clutter. By adding new toy storage ideas for your children, such as a designated shelf or storage box in each room, you can create a spot to simply toss items that need to be tidied away to their proper place at some later point. This kind of system will help you get on with things while also removing clutter from view, setting it aside to be tidied up properly when you have the time.
Do you have any more tips for keeping clutter under control in a family home? Take a look at our website for further interior design ideas, including even more toy storage ideas for a children’s nursery.
