How do you keep your kids room tidy?  Whenever I tidy up Anya’s room, it’s a complete mess a few hours later.  It really makes me lose the will to tidy.  I’ll admit that before we moved house I had reached the stage where I just closed her room door so I couldn’t see the mess and i would leave it like that for days and sometimes even weeks.  Now that we’re renovating our new home and Anya will have an all new room, I want to make sure that it remains tidy and not like the mess in the picture below (I can’t believe I’m sharing this pic but this shows how bad things got!)

Apart from looking at the mess which troubles me, a messy room means that we often spend hours looking for stuff – especially things like little toys, game counters and lego pieces.  With our fresh start I want to ensure that her room is neat most of the time and I also want to make sure that she is the one who tidies it.  The best way to do this is to have a specific place for everything and so I’ve been seeking out fun but useful toy storage solutions.  Anya’s new room is quite small so I also want toy storage ideas that work for small spaces.  I’m not a fan of plastic boxes or anything modular and also I thinks toys should be tidy but visible because they add fun and colour to a room so I’ve had to dig a bit deeper to find some quirky and fun storage ideas.  Here are 5 that I’m loving:

This is such a fun way to store those soft toys.  Wire baskets cost pennies so you can have as many as you need and they also make really quirky wall decorations.  I love these circular ones but you could get bigger rectangular ones which will store even more soft toys.  So much more practical then lining up the toys on the bed which is what Anya used to do and then each night they were thrown all over the room!

You know all those teeny tiny toys that always get under your foot and seem to make their way in to every single room in the house?  Yes, those annoying little toys can be housed in a shelf like this.  A shelf with lots of little shelves and you can even wallpaper the backs to make it pretty like they’ve done here. 

Nothing beats toy storage sacks and storage baskets.  You can get such cute ones which look great in a kids room and the best part is that they allow you to tidy up in a hurry.  Also they are great for all those toys that you can’t find any other home for.  I will definitely be getting at least a couple of these for Anya’s room and I’ll be getting them from here.

Coat hooks aren’t just for coats – you can hang so much stuff on them.  In a small room, instead of having a dressing up box that takes up floor space, coat hooks are a great alternative.  They can hold a lot of stuff and the stuff is all very easy to get to.  And I love the idea of having the cute dressing up stuff on display.

Using an outgrown or unwanted piece of furniture like an old cot is another fun idea for storage in a kids room.  Even a moses basket that is no longer in use would make a great storage solution.  You can use it to keep so many things like soft toys, games or books.  And it looks so much cooler than boring chests of draws or plastic storage boxes.  Even if you don’t have one you could find a vintage crib in a junk shop which will look even better than a modern piece.

With all these fun and creative toy storage ideas, I am really hoping the days of mess will be behind us.  I’m especially loving the coat hook idea and the wire baskets for Anya’s room.  They save space leaving more floor space to play and they add colour and character to the room.  Do you have any ideas for keeping your kids room tidy?  Do let me know in the comments.