I’ve been there… You worked feverishly. Cleaned over a whole weekend. Only to see your results quickly reversed back to the same mess, just days later. You ask yourself… How will I ever get ahead on this? How will I ever keep up? Below I will detail 4 steps to a clean playroom and get on your way to taking control of your home.
The reality is that while you are putting in plenty of effort, what you choose to use that time and effort on is very inefficient. Instead of killing yourself cleaning up you need to put that effort into clearing out. Less stuff means less work! We tend to work hard to rearrange stuff only to then make another part of the house messy. (The clutter shuffle). Instead, you keep it and gave it a home, store it away somewhere, donated it, or trashed it.
That is the key to finding lasting results. When you put in focused hard work upfront exerting that energy in a productive manner, clearing out not just cleaning up, you gain lasting control over your household and in turn your life.
You will finally feel in control and empowered!
If you are looking to reclaim peace in your home, there is no better way than to move through your home and tackle the tough spaces one by one. No need to bite off more than you can chew this easy and slow, methodical strategy will leave you feeling super productive every time you can check a room off your list!
Everyone reaches that moment of chaos where enough is enough and likely at that moment they come to the huge realization that it doesn’t have to be like this! It doesn’t have to be this messy… It doesn’t have to take so much effort to keep things cleaned up. Again, less stuff equals less work!
Here is a walkthrough on clearing out and cleaning up a kid’s playroom. I know my kids live primarily in their playroom. Their bedrooms are spaces used more for quiet time, small toys that are more specific to their personal interest and obviously sleeping.
The playroom is where it all happens
When my house fills with the sounds of kids it is coming from that room. There are board games, video game consoles, a futon, chairs, big fluffy pillows, Legos, dress up, and more blankets than anyone could ever possibly need. So, suffice it to say, this room takes a beating most days.
If I were to pinpoint the one problem that causes these spaces to be so out of control, it would be the lack of every item having a “home.” That is probably one of the biggest buzz words around our house, “put everything in its home,” “does that have a home,” “if it doesn’t have a home it needs one or else we aren’t keeping it.” So, the single goal when tackling a room especially one designated to hold so much stuff (like a kid’s playroom) is that everything MUST have a “home.”
When an item has a “home,” it can quickly be put away without much thought. Therefore, it is never left out. What a huge help to our little ones when we set them up for success with a well-organized space!
Here are the 4 steps to a clean playroom:
- Clean out anything that:
- Hasn’t been played within the last 3-6 months,
- Is no longer age appropriate
- Is broken or has missing pieces
Send these items to a storage building or unit, donate them, or trash them, whichever is appropriate.
- Identify what storage locations are available in the room (this will give you an idea of how much stuff you can keep) You can only keep as much stuff as you have space to assign a “home”.
- Place things into these new “homes” according to their priority to be kept. (For example, we knew we were keeping Xbox stuff over other items so we made sure we could store ALL our Xbox accessories before assigning other items a home).
When you do this, you end up with the most important things properly organized and put away… and possibly a few items that need a home elsewhere or donated to benefit someone else. One thing is for sure everything MUST have a home. (Have I said it enough?!? ♥ )
- Lastly and most importantly: Go through the room with your kids showing them the new “home” for everything. (Doing this will ensure that they know where to put things when it’s time to clean up)
They can be a part of the decision-making process of what stays and what goes, but once that is complete, sometimes it is best if they leave you to organize everything into good storage locations (depends on their age).
Here are pictures from when I did this very project in my home:
Making-over one room in your home and hopefully countless others is about much more than the functionality of that one room. It is that life-changing realization that you can take back control of not just your daily routine but how you feel about yourself and how you operate your life. You can be in your home and feel not just peace but pride because you can see what you have accomplished around all you.
It is this new reality that you can make lasting changes in your home. It will have a domino effect on the other aspects of your life. Don’t wait, pick a space and get busy taking control right now!
Check out these other spaces that got a makeover as well!
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