Kids' rooms and toys
The only part of a house where the volume genuinely grows on its own, and the only part where the other person gets a say.
What usually goes wrong here
Decluttering while they watch
It reads as taking things away. Do the obvious rubbish alone and the real decisions with them.
Everything out at once
More toys visible means less playing, not more. Rotation works because it makes old toys new again.
Storage without categories
One big box is where toys go to be forgotten. Children tidy far better into three labelled ones.
- Decluttering
Decluttering Kids' Toys Without a Meltdown (Theirs or Yours)
A staged approach to reducing toy volume, including toy rotation and why you should never do the first pass with your child present.
- Decluttering
Back to School Home Organization: The Five Systems That Hold
The five systems that stop school mornings falling apart, set up in an afternoon and maintained in ten minutes a week.
Printables for this room
Toy Audit and Rotation Tracker
Reduce the volume without a scene, then rotate what is left.
Download PDF →The Five Back to School Systems
Decide these five things once in August so nobody decides them at ten past eight on a Tuesday.
Download PDF →
Other rooms
Kitchen
The room that decides how the whole house feels. A kitchen left overnight sets the tone for the next morning, which is why almost every workable routine starts here rather than anywhere more satisfying.
Bathroom
Small, damp, and full of bottles with nothing left in them. Bathrooms need less cleaning than people think and far more culling.
Bedroom and wardrobe
The room guests never see, so it is the room that absorbs everything else. It is also the one where a ten-minute difference is most obvious.
Entryway and hallway
Whether or not you have one. The first two metres of a home take the whole day's worth of shoes, post and bags, and most homes have never decided where any of it goes.