Organzing and Categorizing STUFF!

[Sprouts]

My mess

I've attached the image, I hope it works

[Sprouts]

One more

One of my cabinets

[Luvnmykidz]

Not sure if this is helpful or not, but this is what I have done with my bulletin board things. I have an underbed storage bin and i lay all items for the month in there small items are in manilla folders taped or inter-office envelopes. I have cut up some old moving boxes (used long sheets of wrapping paper prior too)to use as dividers and everything is organized by the month that it will be used in. My window clings, decorations, bulletin board themes, big books for that month and lesson plan ideas for that month are all in there. I am still preparing to open so I havent accumulated a lot of things for each month yet and I cant honestly say how functional this will be, but it seemed like a good plan so i went with it..Im not the most organized person, but have learned after having kids how much easier it makes things. For now i store the bin under my bed because I will be the one setting up themes ahead of time so i dont feel it needs to be accessible all the time. I also have a container in my "learning room" that I store things for the month in and a cabinet that is labeled with the days of the week that things are more broken down into. My shelves have bins and I am in the process of labeling and putting a picture on them for easy clean up.. My kids playroom is organized like this and it has been very helpful.

[Sprouts]

Pictures! We need pictures!

[MamaBearCanada]

You can use the art portfolios from Michaels to store larger bulletin board items and larger posters. I'd wait until I had a 50% off coupon.

Looking at your cupboard I'd try and sort more by category. For example, instead of some craft stuff on one shelf and paint on another with music I'd group all the craft things together.

Get rid of surplus. It looks like you have a lot of containers for your play kitchen. Do you need that many? Could you mount baskets to the wall by the play kitchen to store some of those items?

This is what I do:

1. Go with the minimum of what you need. Donate or trash anything that isn't of value. Items that the kids don't play with or love. Get rid of multiples. I find my children take better care of things when there is just one or two of each thing. I have a limit of 5 soft toys for the older children.

2. Group like with like. Decide on categories and layout that work for you. Plan it on paper first and then mentally try it to see if it works for you.

Here are some ideas for categories:

Infant: soft toys, teething toys, hard toys, board books

Preschool Toys: Little People (or playmobile whatever brand(s) you have), animals, cars, other transportation, trains & table, wooden blocks, Lego, waffle blocks, musical instruments, dressup & accessories, ICT - information and communication technology - toy phones, remotes, laptops, cameras; play kitchen and food, tools, dolls and accessories

Crafts: adhesives, paper, markers, pencils, crayons, stickers, embellishments, scissors, foam, pompoms, playdoh, stencils

Sensory boxes

Bulletin boards and posters

Puzzles. I keep the pieces in ziplock bags.

Learning items: flash cards, dry erase boards, workbooks/sheets, calendar items, manipulatives - math, manipulatives - letters
If you use a curriculum you could put together binders or boxes by letter, or theme, or by what you want to cover each week/month

Seasonal:
I do something like this - Easter box: bunny ears, Easter theme books, easter crafts, egg toys, Easter puzzles, bunny toys. This only comes out for Easter.

Books:
Infant board books, older board books, teacher only books, special holiday/theme/seasonal books stay in those containers

Other books - choose what works for you - alphabetical, by season, by theme then divide them into monthly boxes. Kids have free access to the monthly box. you could add some shelving up high around the room and place the books not in use up there with shelf dividers marking each division then you only need a box for the monthly books.

Choose a balance between containers big enough to hold items and containers small enough to fit in your cupboards. Decide on what you want the children to access themselves and what you want stored. Invest in vertical storage if you don't have a lot of floor space.

Label:
colour code like items, use pictures for the bins the children have access to. Try and use the same label look to make things look tidier. Use clear boxes for things like accessories or crafts so it is easy to find what you are looking for, things like Lego can go in colored containers. Things look tidier if you keep things as uniform as possible.

Hooks: good for dress up, art smocks, accessories, purses

Your room looks good though

[LoraJenkins]