My Favorite Organization Products When You Have Kids
Before having kids, I thought I was a pretty organized person.
Then I had kids.
And suddenly my house was filled with approximately 47 stuffed animals, tiny socks with no partners, half-finished art projects, board games missing one very important piece, and school papers I apparently need to keep until the end of time.
The thing about organizing a house with kids is that you can't just organize it once and call it a day. Kids are constantly growing, bringing things home, starting new hobbies, and somehow multiplying their belongings while you sleep.
I've learned that the best organization products aren't necessarily the prettiest ones. They're the ones that make it ridiculously easy to put things away.
Here are some of my favorite organization products for keeping our house somewhat under control with kids.
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Kids' clothes are tiny, yet somehow their closets can become absolute disaster zones.
An adjustable hanging closet rod is one of those simple products that makes you wonder why you didn't buy one sooner. It basically gives you another entire row of hanging space underneath your existing closet rod.
I love using the upper rod for shirts and jackets and the lower one for pants, dresses, or outfits the kids can reach themselves.
More hanging space without installing an entirely new closet system?
Yes, please.
And anything that helps my kids put away their own clothes earns bonus points.
If your kids enjoy arts and crafts, you know that craft supplies reproduce faster than rabbits.
Markers. Crayons. Glue sticks. Stickers. Paint. Construction paper. Pipe cleaners. Googly eyes.
A rolling arts and crafts cart has been one of my favorite ways to keep everything contained without taking over an entire cabinet.
I love organizing each section by category so the kids can easily find what they need. Even better, I can roll the entire thing to the table when they want to make something and roll it right back when they're finished.
Board games are wonderful family entertainment.
Board game boxes are not.
They're bulky, awkward, and somehow always end up ripped on one corner so the lid never closes correctly again.
Using board game organizers has been such a space saver. Instead of stacking giant boxes on top of each other and watching them collapse every time someone wants the game at the bottom, each game can have its own compartment.
Put the board, cards, instructions, and pieces inside, label it, and you're done.
It takes up way less room and makes our game cabinet look significantly less like a game of Jenga.
School papers are my organizational weakness.
Because how am I supposed to throw away the paper where my child wrote their name backward and drew a picture of our family where I apparently have six arms?
I can't.
But I also can't keep every single worksheet that enters our house.
My solution is a file storage box for school memories. My kids actually get excited about being able to put something in the "memory box" - they even really enjoy pulling them out every so often and looking at the silly things they made way back in kindergarten.
I create a folder for each school year and keep the things I actually want to remember—special artwork, report cards, class pictures, funny writing assignments, certificates, and a few favorite projects.
It keeps sentimental school papers organized without requiring me to dedicate an entire closet to kindergarten artwork.
Future me is going to be very grateful.
5. Sturdy Wall Hooks
If you have kids, you need hooks.
Lots and lots of hooks.
I use sturdy wall hooks anywhere things tend to get dropped: backpacks, jackets, hats, diaper bags, sports bags—you name it.
The trick is putting them somewhere the kids can actually reach.
Because "Hang up your backpack" works much better when the hook isn't six feet off the ground.
Hooks are also one of my favorite organization tricks because they require basically zero effort.
No folding.
No opening drawers.
No perfectly arranging anything.
Just hang it up and walk away.
That's my kind of organization.
If your house doesn't have a linen closet, you quickly realize that towels take up an absurd amount of space. Not to mention, even WITH a linen closet, someone inevitably gets out of the shower and forgets they don't have a clean towel in the bathroom.
A freestanding or wall-mounted towel rack is such an easy solution. Instead of trying to cram towels into bathroom cabinets or stealing valuable closet space somewhere else, you can roll or fold clean towels and keep them right in the bathroom.
I love that it turns something I have to store into part of the room instead of another pile I'm desperately trying to hide.
Toy organization needs to be SIMPLE.
I have tried cute, complicated systems before.
They lasted approximately four days.
Now I'm a huge fan of toy storage units with open bins.
The best part is that kids can actually help clean up because they can see exactly where everything belongs.
I especially love this one because it has shelves for books, bins for toys, and a "zoo" for all the stuffed animals. Everything all in one place.
Under the bed is prime real estate.
I'm not letting all that beautiful storage space go to waste.
Rolling under-bed storage bins are perfect for things you want accessible but don't necessarily need every day.
I love them for extra blankets, seasonal clothes, shoes, dress-up costumes, toys, etc.
The wheels are what make them especially useful because you don't have to crawl halfway under the bed like you're searching for a missing LEGO.
Just roll the bin out, grab what you need, and slide it back in.
Easy. I love "easy"!
Organization Products With Kids Is About Containing the Chaos
I've officially stopped trying to make my house look like children don't live here.
They do.
And they come with stuff.
So. Much. Stuff.
My goal isn't to have a perfectly organized house 24/7. It's to create simple systems that make it easier for everyone to put things away—and easier for me to reset the house when everything inevitably ends up everywhere.
The biggest lesson I've learned?
Make organization easier than leaving something on the floor.
Use bins.
Add hooks.
Take advantage of vertical space.
Use the space under beds.
Give everything an obvious home.
Because when you have kids, organization isn't really about achieving perfection.
It's about being able to find the scissors when someone suddenly announces at 7:42 p.m. that they need to make a poster for school tomorrow.
Insert eye roll here.
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