Organizing A Shared Boys Bedroom
Simple and practical ideas to organize a room shared by two boys!
This spring my husband and I have been knocking a lot off our home to-do list! We’ve repainted our office and master bedroom, and purged a lot of old clothes, toys and stuff we don’t need. And it feels so good!
One room in particular though was bothering me…our boys room. Last year we moved our boys into a shared bedroom, and it’s been a great success thus far. They’re good together, we haven’t had any sleep or sharing issues (knock on wood), and overall it’s been great! The only problem we have is that the room is small and that presents an organizing challenge.
The room is so small that there’s not really room for a dresser so we had to find other ways to organize all of their clothes. The beds we bought them have 3 drawers in the bottom for some of their clothes, but they aren’t big enough to hold much. So up until recently we had a dresser for our youngest out in the hallway, for two reasons: the room is small, and also because I always worried he’d open all the dressers at the same time and the dresser would tumble on him. And my oldest was using the closet for his stuff. But this was just a short term and super messy solution.
A little BEFORE view into the closet from the left side and the right side.
And as you can see it created quite a mess. It’s hard to expect kids to be organized when they don’t really have a good system to be organized. So enter ClosetMaid® Selectives® solution which you can find at Home Depot. Based on the shape and dimensions of our closet I was able to choose and design a system that would work best for us. I knew I wanted each of my boys to have their own shelves and hanging racks for their clothes…and they had to be identical to avoid conflict. Kids. :/
So this is the basic design I came up with…it’s simple and practical:
So the first step was removing everything from the closet and purging what we didn’t need. Then my husband removed the existing wire shelf, patched the holes and installed our new system. It was a little tedious to install, but well worth the effort! It’s the perfect storage solution for my boys.
A little AFTER view into the closet from the left side and the right side.
Nothing fancy. Just a space that’s easy to access and keep organized. And I love that this system can grow with them…we are using the top racks to store clothes in bigger sizes for later, and items they won’t use for while like winter coats and stuff like that.
For now, my little guy can easily find his clothes, and both boys can help with putting laundry away. Love that!
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So now that the closet is organized the whole room feels better organized! Here are a few tips that we use to keep this room in one piece!
- Split up the space equally between the kids. That way there is no arguing over who’s space is who’s, and each kid knows where their belongings go.
- Let your kids decorate their own sides of their room. Even in a shared room, kids can have a sense of style and embrace it – it makes them feel independent. Eclectic is fun!
- Use bins to keep down the clutter. Bins for toys, books, lego…
- If you don’t have room for a dresser, consider beds with built in shelves and drawers in the bottom, and a well designed closet organizer. These organized spaces make all the difference in keeping things tidy!
- For kids clothing, separate items: PJ’s in one drawer, undies and socks in another, cubbies for pants, shorts and t-shirts, racks for hanging shirts. A place for everything, and everything in its place as they say!
- Shelves in closets are great for holding baskets of things too. You can buy drawer inserts or use baskets to put into each cubby to store things like underwear, shoes and pretty much anything you need!
- Use higher shelves and racks to hold the next sizes of clothes, or items of clothing that won’t be used until next season.
Do your kids share a room? Do you have any tips on how to keep things organized? I love the feeling of getting organized! Next up…our front hallway…it’s a disaster! Tips welcome!
Have an inspired day!
Thank you ClosetMaid® for providing us with our closet organizer! We love it and you have made our life just a little bit more organized!
That organizer is great- I thought about doing something similar and forgoing dresser for my boys’ shared bedroom – I can’t believe how much it holds JoAnna!! Wow!
It’s been so great, and the perfect solution to not having a dresser in their room! Highly recommend it! 🙂
Looks great! I’ll be needing to do something like this for my girls. My middle daughter and youngest are now sharing a room and I want to make it as organized and neat looking as possible. At least this time I am working with one less kid in the room and a much bigger closet.
Where did you find these beds? How have they held up? My 2 yr old is about ready for a bigger bed! Though my boys won’t be sharing a room just yet, my littlest one is only 3 months but they are close and already the 2 yr old wants to be right with his brother.
Hi Jess! We bought these at Costco a couple of years ago, so I’m not sure if they still have them. But I’m pretty sure they will carry something similar! Good luck!
What are the dimensions of that room?
Have you considered bunkbeds? Kids love bunkbeds and they would give the boys so much more space. That room that looks so cramped with the two beds in there. They don’t really have any room to play. Otherwise, great idea with the closet storage.
Up until recently we haven’t only because we just felt our youngest was too little to have them in the room. But it’s definitely something we would consider now! And rest assured they have tonnes of room to play, including a 400 square foot playroom!
Did you make the skateboard quilt? It’s pretty cool.