Let’s face it, the only kid question more annoying than “Are we there yet?” is “Can you help me find it?” While there are understandably going to be times when young children do indeed need help finding something on a high shelf, most of the time you can save yourself time and frustration by giving them the kind of kid-friendly organized closet that lets them find what they need for themselves!
This starts by implementing one or perhaps all of the following tips for creating a closet that your kids are going to love. While also making it easy to find everything they truly need, without always needing your help finding it.
Lower The Hanging Rods
Young children are vertically challenged. Yet you also want them to be able to dress themselves. Bringing their hanging rods down a few feet from the typical 5 to 6-foot height of an adult closet down to 2.5 to 3 feet off the floor, lets your kids see and pick out the clothes they want. Along the way, it even helps them work on their motor skills for taking clothes on and off hangers.
When your kids get a little older, you can easily move the pole sockets up 6 to 12 inches higher. This lets the hanging space in their closet truly grow with them.
A Dresser For Success
A well-organized dresser is a thing of beauty. Giving your kids a dresser with the drawers paired to their height empowers them to find their own socks, underpants, and folded items. It also ingrains in them the notion that everything needs to be put back in its correct place every time.
For young children, you might want to consider labeling the outside of each drawer. This might be something as cute as a construction paper drawing of a sock stuck to the outside of their sock drawer as a visual cue. For older kids who have learned to read you might want to put a Velcro label with words spelled out.
Adjustable Shelves That Grow With Your Kids
When they’re little kids need lower shelves in their closet for boxes and lightweight totes. Yet as they get older, these same lower shelves can become a nuisance that gets in the way of them finding what they want.
installing an adjustable shelving system in their closet makes it easy for your kid’s closet to grow with them. This can be a series of heavy-duty dowel pegs, or a metal track and clip system.
This makes it easier for the shelves to get higher as they grow taller. In some situations, you can even add a shelf or two to help maximize the available vertical storage space.
Top Shelves For Seasonal Storage
One way to make the most out of the space in your child’s closet is to move all seasonal items into boxes or totes for interim storage. They’re generally too high for kids to reach on their own, which keeps things from getting scrambled in the closet. It also ensures that they will be selecting season-appropriate clothes when picking out what they want to wear for themselves.
Cubbies & Totes Oh My!
From the preschool years on, kids are issued their own cubbies and tote bins in school. So, it’s a natural fit for their bedroom. Cubbies can be filled with flexible soft fabric totes that have a reinforced bottom. They’re available in a wide range of sizes and colors to match the décor of your kid’s closet.
Many even have little tabs that let you label what should be kept in them. This will encourage your kids to put their own things away. It also makes it easy for you to change tabs if you need to make changes to their storage system, without making a sweeping change to your kid’s closet.
Let Their Light Shine
Let’s face it most kids’ closets are dark places. I mean why else are so many monsters trying to hide in there at night? Adding some simple lights to their closet that are easy to reach makes it easier for your kids to find what they want. Sometimes you can even double-task them as night lights.
Battery-powered LED lights are energy efficient, and easy to place. They don’t produce any heat like an incandescent bulb does, so you don’t have to worry about your kid leaving the light on.
Most of them are light enough that you can affix them under a shelf or on a wall with contact adhesive to a Velcro tab. Keeping these lights down low lets your kids turn them off and on as needed. It helps them find things in the darker recesses of their closet. All without having to pay big bucks to have an electrician professionally wire them.
Decorate The Back Side Of The Closet Door
For a kid, you always need to make sure that you are putting some “Fun” into functional storage solutions. One of the best ways to do this is to decorate the backside of their closet door. A simple coat of paint and some wall cling stickers of their favorite cartoon characters will help make their closet a fun and inviting space.
You can then use the available space on the backside of their closet door to hang a mirror. You might even want to try some contact adhesive hooks to let you hang necklaces, scarves, and other dress-up play items.
Dress Up Clothes Get Their Own Separate Space
Let’s face it, kids don’t always make the best fashion choices. Especially if their make-believe dress-up clothes are mixed in with their everyday clothes. Of course, it then comes as an inconvenient surprise when you’re getting ready to have the in-laws over for Sunday dinner and your kid comes out dressed as Spiderman or Sophia the First.
This doesn’t mean that your little one needs to be denied access to dress-up clothes. Though they shouldn’t be kept in the closet to make it clear what is appropriate attire and what isn’t. Instead, give them a separate tote where they can neatly fold their dress-up clothes and costumes. That way they know when and where to be a superhero or princess, and when to dress properly to visit grandma’s house.
