A Guide To Organizing & Decorating When You Have Kids

I have invited my dear friend Sarah from She Holds Dearly to come and share her thoughts in regards to organizing and decorating when you have kids – a topic I know many of you would love to help with (me included)!

I remember when that first baby came along, we had to rethink our entire house. Oh. my. goodness. and then the baby things started creeping into our space. Friends of friends of friends would give us gifts!

But just because I was now a mom did not mean the interior designer in me was going to just check out for the next 20 years. I had to put my creativity into fifth gear to keep up, but I was determined.

Now, three children later, I have learned some tricks for keeping a house pretty and I am here to say it is possible and well worth the effort for the entire family.

So take heart, mothers, and grandmothers, here are 5 very doable tricks to enjoying your space AND your littles at the same time.

TEACH THEM TO RESPECT CERTAIN PIECES

I think it’s healthy to have certain things in the house that are not for children. My kids know that mama has “decorative wood” near the wood stove and no one is ever supposed to burn that wood. It’s a decoration.

CONTAINERS. CONTAINERS. CONTAINERS! 

Give them boundaries in the form of containers and a place for everything. We used to keep all the toys in one huge toy box. . . . big mistake.

 Just to find one thing required that the entire contents of the trunk would be dumped all over the front room. The day I moved all the toys into bins by category and labeled them, the angels sang.

Everything was moved into a closet and the kids had to ask permission to get a bin out. This “contains the chaos” idea goes for shoes, art supplies, homework . . . .everything.

BUY MOSTLY THRIFTED DECOR

When my children break something that cost 50 cents versus $50, I can handle it much better than if I had paid the original price.

 I can just sigh, instead of cry. Our home is 90% thrifted and DIYed, so it’s a good place to let life play out with kiddos. Dishes get broken a lot with kids and so I don’t have a matching set. I just look for white dishes anytime I am out thrifting.

Swipe up for more!