KonMari Inspired Kids Room Decluttering - $100 Room Challenge

Week 2 of our girl's room refresh for the $100 Room Challenge. This week we decluttered Kayla's room using the KonMari method

Weekly progress posts ---> Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Reveal

You know the saying "it gets worse before it gets better"? Well, this seems to be the truth for Kayla's room refresh!

As I jokingly said in my Instagram Stories on Sunday. It felt like we removed 100 pounds of stuff out of her small room.

Although I've decluttered her room before. I took a different approach this time after binging watching the Tidying Up With Marie Kondo show on Netflix.

In full disclosure, I have not read her super popular book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up {the inspiration for the show}.

This past weekend we spent over 5 hours completely decluttering Kayla's room.

Using steps inspired by Marie Kondo's KonMari method as seen on her show on Netflix.

And well I’m sold! I’ll be getting the book soon.

The KonMari method calls for tidying up {I say declutteting} your space and keeping only the things that bring you joy or you use regularly.

She recommends decluttering by category and not location. So instead of saying I want to organize my bedroom. You would instead set a goal to tidy up all your clothes.

Then you would gather all your clothing in one place. Go through it piece by piece and decided if it sparks joy or serves a purpose. If it doesn't do either, you get rid of it.

KonMari Inspired Kids Room Decluttering

Before

Much like me, Kayla definitely has some hoarding tendencies {hehe}. Mix that with her love of art and crafting in a tiny bedroom. You have a recipe for a disaster that is a very cluttered and messy room.

This makes her room the perfect space to give this KonMari inspired kids room organization a try.

Gather

As I mentioned one of the major parts of the KonMari method is tidying up by category and not location.

So instead of going through just the things in Kayla's room. We walked around the whole house gathering anything that belongs to her and bringing it up to her room.

This step can be overwhelming but don't skip it! Do it once, do it right, and you won't need to do it again.

Sort Into Categories

Also, instead of just one giant toy category or art category {can you imagine!}. I created the following smaller categories. And tackled them one at a time.

This was especially helpful since Kayla had a huge collection of art supplies and Barbie stuff. Having the smaller categories made it less overwhelming.

Here's the category breakdown we used.

• Barbie Dolls
• Barbie clothes and small accessories
• Barbie furniture and other big pieces {like cars}
• Small figurine toys {LOL Surprise dolls, Shopkins, etc... }
• Legos
• American Girl dolls and accessories
• Books
• Puzzles
• Pretend play toys {tea set, fake food, etc...}
• Dress up clothes
• Outdoor toys {jump ropes, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, etc...}
• Crayons, markers, pencils,
• Stickers
• Coloring and activity books
• Glue, tape, scissors, rulers
• paper {there was so much paper!}
• Paint and painting supplies {brushes}
• Misc crafting items {paper punches, stencils}

Go Through Each Category

Once we figured out our categories. I gathered one category at a time for me and Kayla to go through.

I also made 3 piles to put things into as we went through each category.

• Donate
• Sell
• Trash

Anything that was broken immediately went into a trash bag. Any duplicates also got the boot {you'll be surprised by how many of the same things kids have when you gather everything in one place}.

Get your kid{s} involved in this step if they are old enough. After all, this is their stuff and they should be able to decide or at least give input into what goes or stays.

BTW to my surprise Kayla was ruthless! I found myself saying "are you sure you want to get rid of that?!" LOL.

Of course, you have to steer them in the right direction here and there. Like no kid needs hundreds of Barbie accessories.

Get It Out Of The House

Get the stuff you have decided to part with out of the house ASAP!!!

When I say get it out of your house I mean in every way! Whether you're selling, donating, or just throwing things away.

If you're donating, load it up in your car and actually go drop it off.

I know from experience what it's like to have a box full of toys and games ready to be donated. But since it's been sitting around for so long. The kids start taking things back out to play with.

This is some of the stuff we're donating, they went into our car right away. Before Kayla changed her mind about anything LOL.

If you're selling any items. Take photos once you've gone through everything and post it on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, etc... ASAP

Selling things that are in good condition but you no longer want or need is a great way to make some extra cash.

We made $190 selling Kayla's American Doll stuff and Barbies {including the Barbie Dream House she never played with}.

So this just cleaning out this room paid for this little makeover and then some!

After

When it was all said and done, we got rid of about 50% of what was in Kayla's room!

And I know it might not look like much of a difference in these photos. But trust me it just feels SO much better in here! Like there's breathing room now.

It also warmed my heart to see how happy Kayla was when we were done. Her exact words "I love that I don't have so much stuff in my room now"

That same day we decluttered Kayla's room. I found her happily playing on the floor with her Barbie which she hasn't done in months!

We are only keeping one shelf in here since we got rid of so much stuff.

Out of all the bins you see, only two of them have stuff it. Winning!

We even gave her closet a once over while we were at it. Her closet is so much more organized! I just need to learn the famous Marie Kondo folding technique now.

Remember depending on how much stuff your kid has, this could take a while.

Don't feel discouraged if it doesn't feel like you're making progress as quickly as you would like.

We spent almost 6 hours total in Kayla's small room alone, but it was sooo worth it in the end.

UPDATE!

After using the KonMari method to declutter Kayla's room we organized her remaining toys and arts and crafts stuff using mostly Dollar Store containers.

It's been 2 weeks and the new organization system is working out beautifully. Read about it HERE.

$100 Room Challenge Week 3 Plans

Now that the room is completely decluttered. Next week we will talk about the organization for the stuff we did decide to keep. Specifically her arts and craft supplies.

After that, we can get into the pretty stuff like curtains, rugs, and artwork!

Now check out what the other $100 Room Challenge participants are working on for week 2!