By Rhonda Bramell, Miss January 2015

I spent the first Saturday of the new year organizing my son’s bedroom, which was no small feat. When I realized how much new stuff had come into his room during the holidays, I knew we needed to make some space or my little boy would be lost in the huge mountain of mess.  My son is four years old. You mamas of boys know what that means:  we are knee-deep in matchbox cars, Legos, action figures, superheroes and pirate ships.  

I had two main goals for the day: organize the bookshelf that had absolutely no order to it and find some inexpensive storage ideas for toys. 

Project #1

First, I tackled the bookshelf, which was suffering from an identity crisis. It was clearly being used for a place to stack things, and none of them were books. There is a second bookshelf in his room for books, so I knew I needed to turn this bookshelf into a viable system for storing toys.

I found some inexpensive plastic bins at Target and went to work finding new homes for all the little things.  I love how it turned out!

 Project #2

Next, I scrolled Pinterest for some ideas for storing toys that wouldn’t break the bank. Because his clothes are so small, we had a lot of unused room in the floor of the closet. Since his large wooden toy box was taking up so much play space in his room, I moved it into the closet and put only his dress up costumes in it. By doing so, that left me without a place to put the actual toys. I found a large box in the garage that had previously held bulk snacks. I enlisted the help of Big Sis and we got busy transforming that big box into a toy box—using nothing but colored duct tape (in super hero colors, of course)! We enjoyed this project so much that we even found a couple of shoe boxes to tape up and add to the bookshelf.

In addition to these projects, I also wanted to share a couple of other DIY shortcuts that I use in his room.  You know those clear plastic, zippered bags that sheets, blankets and curtains are sold in? I always save them—they are perfect for repurposing as storage! This one is holding all the little pieces that go with his toy pirate ship, and fits nicely into one of the new bins on the bookshelf.  I’ve also used the bags to store doll clothes and crayons in the past.

Another easy, inexpensive thing I do is use paper to create art for the wall. This time, I used some Spider-Man gift wrap that I already had and put it into a frame that was collecting dust in the garage. It made instant art to hang over his bed and didn’t cost a thing!

Just tackling these small projects made a big difference in my son’s bedroom. Suddenly, he has more floor space to play with toys and also has a designated place to put everything once he’s finished. Here’s to a new year with less clutter!