7 Kids Closet Organizing Ideas to Try

Create clothing hang tags.

To dress your children in the morning without too many meltdowns, organize everything so it's more accessible. Adams suggests working with your children to pick the entire week's outfits ahead of time, then labeling the days of the week on clothing hang tags, so they can dress themselves in the morning with no debate. Drawer inserts and partitions are also great tools to keep items like toys and socks organized.

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Include the storage essentials.

"Ideally, every kid's closet should have matching kid's hangers (if you use adult-sized ones, their clothes will just fall off), pull-out belt racks and hooks, shelf dividers, drawer inserts, a hamper, and storage baskets for sporting gear," Adams says. You can find all of these organizing tools at any store that features home decor products, like Bed Bath & Beyond, The Container Store, or Target.

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Keep items withing your child's reach.

"Find the reachable height for your child and draw a mental horizontal line throughout the closet—everything below it should be completely accessible," says Adams. "When I design children's closets, I like to do a combination of fixed and adjustable pull-out shoe shelves, so you can just remove the shelves to make room for taller, larger shoes later on, while still maximizing the depth in the closet."

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Incorporate dividers for siblings.

If siblings have to share a closet, keep the peace by dividing the space. "I treat it as if two partners were sharing a closet," Adams says. "There needs to be a separation of space even if there ARE some shared spots or items."

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Use pull down shelves for added storage.

There are a few tricks to really maximize space in a small closet, like using pull-out shoe shelves that are more compact than a shoe rack or hanging shoe organizers since you can have multiple rows of shoes, but you pull each row out like a drawer. "If you have a closet with a high ceiling, use it!" Adams says. Pull-down shelves or rods help optimize the closet's height, but that doesn't mean you have to be 7 feet tall to access them. These systems normally have pulleys or rods attached that you tug to make the shelves drop to your child's height. Just makes sure you don't keep anything on there that could fall off and hurt your child if they aren't careful with the pulley system.

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Leave plenty of room for toys.

Most of the time, toys get stashed in the closet, too, so make sure there are storage spots or cubbies for these items. "Designing with this idea in mind will keep the closet organized in the long run," Adams says. Remember that every toy should have a place. Use labels (with images if your child doesn't read yet) so that they can learn to put back each toy where it belongs when they are done playing.

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Decorate to your child's taste.

Have fun with the design by adding details and personality. "Just as adults want special 'finishing touches,' kids appreciate this too," Adams says. Consider painting the closet walls your kid's favorite color, or swapping out boring drawer knobs with ones that have cooler designs. Try to stick to options that can be easily modified as your child's taste changes, or pick design choices based on something they enjoy but can also grow into. For example, you might choose to paint the closet walls pink instead of wallpapering them in a ballerina print. Paint is much easier to change than wallpaper.

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