Organizing in the Boys' Room

I was so excited to see that one of my favorite bloggers, The Happy Housewife, is sponsoring the weekly "Itch to Pitch" challenge. I am working on multiple organizational projects around our house this summer so having somewhere to show my hard work is quite encouraging!

I have two boys (10 and 8) who share a room. They are both collectors AND creators. They love to create little characters out of Sculpey III so they have hundreds of clay creations that they have made over the past few years. They also collect lots of little toys like Legos, little balls, little action figures, and trading cards. Every time I went into their room, I felt overwhelmed and really could do little more than help them "straighten up." There was no underlying organizational structure for their collections and creations.

I took some pictures in their room before our organizational project. Every available surface in their room was just covered with stuff. Not only was this incredibly discouraging for me, the boys didn't really like it either. They had trouble finding their collections and creations amid all of the clutter. Because of all of the clutter, the boys had very little space just to play in their room.

This was a big project and it took the boys and me over a week working on it for a few hours each day. We also went through all of their clothes which added to the time of the overall project. My boys really were a great help. I think they were afraid I would just pitch all of their treasures if they didn't help!


We went through every single bin, basket, and individual toy in their room. EVERY SINGLE ONE! We tossed some junk, gave away boxes of toys and stuffed animals, and organized the rest. I purchased two large standing plastic sets of drawers and two small plastic sets of drawers. The drawers were exactly what was needed!


The boys went through all of the clay creations that they had made and put them into categories. Each category went into a separate drawer. I do need to purchase another one of these plastic units, though, as some of the drawers are already quite full.

The other large set of plastic drawers was perfect for collections of small toys like action figures and Crazy Bones.


The small sets of drawers were absolutely perfect for all of the small toys they like to collect like mini figures, dice, small rocks, and creations they make out of Perler Beads.



Remaining collections were put in plastic shoeboxes. So, they now have a shoebox just for "Little Balls" and "Pokemon Trading Cards," for example.

The bookcase in their room was super messy so we went through all of the books and listed a bunch on PaperbackSwap. The rest were organized by category. The boys wanted to keep all of their Lego magazines and a few other magazines so I put them in magazine holders. After organizing and culling the books, there was more room for toy storage on the bookcase. The stuffed animals that remained were placed in large containers that store easily under their beds. The Legos are also in two big bins but we do plan to organize them by color into smaller containers this summer.These shelves were really quite messy and FILLED with finished Lego creations. The boys decided to take many of their finished creations apart so they can make new things! Now there is plenty of room on the shelves for new Lego creations that are made in the future that the boys want to save.


Best of all, the boys now have a large area in which to play, they know where all of their little toys can be found, and they really like their new, organized room!

So, one big organizational project down - many more to go! If you would like to see other organizational projects by other bloggers, visit http://thehappyhousewife.com/itch-to-pitch-challenge-week-one/.