Organizing kids' rooms with the neat method.

With the arrival of Baby Saigh #3 just around the corner, we needed to get our two oldest kids (ages 6 and 2) into one shared bedroom, and transform our youngest's bedroom into the baby's nursery. Since we have our hands full right now, we sought out some help from the Neat Method Twin Cities to lead us in the right direction with our organization, bedroom-merging, etc. I am still in shock with what Lauren and her team were able to do in the little time they were in our home. This week, I was back on The Jason Show to share some of the simple ideas that you can do in your home.

CLICK PHOTO TO WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO OF MY SEGMENT ON THE JASON SHOW

SIBLINGS SHARING A BEDROOM

The first thing we did when we decided to merge Linna (age 6) and Jameson (age 2) into one bedroom, was purchase bunkbeds from Wayfair. The treehouse design by Birch Lane Kids that we chose had our oldest super excited about sleeping in the top bunk. The top bunk is her own personal space, and we even added a shelf from IKEA, and baskets from The Container Store for Linna to keep her "special belongings" (AKA, her "nick-nacks") in.

Our oldest, Linna, in her top bunk.

The Neat Method advised us to purchase a second rack for the kids' closet, which made a huge difference. I also got some sleek and adorable children's clothing hangers from IKEA, to make the closet look neat and uniform. Linna loves that her clothes are now at her level, so she's able to pick out her outfits for school in the morning. I love the baskets from The Container Store used to organize our oldest's shoes and other belongings.

Linna's closet BEFORE the Neat Method helped us. Yikes!

The kids' new closet AFTER help from the Neat Method.
Both of our kids' clothes and belongings are in here now!

We also removed all the toys from the kids' new bedroom, and focused on making this room a changing, reading, and sleeping room. Toys were moved to our main living areas (rec room and living room), and organized in labeled baskets. Lauren labeled the baskets with chalkboard tags from The Container Store, using a wet chalk-marker from Amazon. Now all of the toys in our main living areas have a "home" so they're not laying out all the time, and the excess toys are in our unfinished basement (a place that no one sees).

Linna's room BEFORE, with toys and clutter galore!

The kids' room AFTER, with dressers and a simple teepee tent for their reading area.

Two IKEA dressers were added to the kids' bedroom to hold all of the clothes that aren't hung up. Lauren taught me a fantastic folding technique that maximizes the space in our kids' drawers. Plus it makes it easy the kids to see all of their options when picking outfits in the morning.

Finally, we added a DIY bookshelf to the kids' room that we made out of an old pallet. It's under a window, so it's easily accessible to both of our kids.

DIY bookshelf from an old pallet, step 1.

DIY bookshelf, step 2. Just needs paint!

DIY bookshelf from an old pallet, hung under the kids' bedroom window for easy-access.

ORGANIZING PLAY-AREAS

Isn't it funny how kids will play with their old toys as if they're brand new, ONLY if they're neatly organized?! We spent a lot of time "editing" the kids' toys, matching "like" with "like" (cars and trucks with trains and planes, figurines with "little people", etc.), and then placing those toys in labeled baskets from IKEA for easy access, and most importantly, easy clean-up. We plan to rotate toys from the basement, as the kids get bored with the toys in our main living areas.

Arts & crafts area.

The Neat Method also helped us create special areas for arts & crafts, and dress-up play. Our daughter is obsessed with the clear paint cans from The Container Store that she can put her supplies in, and I'm obsessed with the price of these adorable containers. These containers add an organized pop of color to this area of the house.

Papa Saigh also built a super-simple dress-up rack for the kids to hang all of their costumes and dress-up clothes on. For this DIY project, you'll need 4 equal-size pieces of wood, a wood dowel, thick string, and 4 screw circle-hooks. It's literally as easy to make as it looks!

If you want The Neat Method Twin Cities to help organize your home, book a consultation with Lauren and her team by February 14th, 2018 and mention The Jason Show, or Minnesota Baby, to get 15% OFF your services!