Mommy Monday: toddler's closet organization

Now that the weather has settled into colder temperatures, I've gone through my girls' closet again and stocked up on long sleeves, pants, and sweaters. While the closet is nothing fancy, I have found a system that works well for our busy mornings.

As with everything else, my starting point in planning the closet was to find a way to allow the girls to maintain it themselves (put clothes away and pick out their clothes without my help). So the first thing I needed to do was have everything in clear view and low to the ground. I ended up using a small hallway closet and using the floor and the bottom shelf to keep their current wardrobe (clothes they wear infrequently, or things that are mostly out of season, are on the shelves above). I found these storage bins at IKEA to keep on the floor, and these smaller bins for the shelf. Each child has all of their clothes in one bin.

All of their tops are in one bin in front, and all of the bottoms are in the bins behind that. Every time we get dressed I ask them to go get one top and one bottom, and they know to pick one from each of their bins. Because the bins are roomy, they can throw their clean clothes in there and still be able to see everything when they are picking out their clothes in the morning.

The smaller bins have their socks and underwear. The green and red ones match the bigger bin's colors, so they each have that small bin for their underwear, and the blue one in the middle is a communal sock bin. I have found that, even though they are different sizes, I can fudge on sock size and get away with having them share. These have worked out well because they are small and light enough for the girls to pull them out, get what they need, and put it back on the shelf very easily.

One of the biggest drawbacks of this hallway closet is that it is very dark. It is usually still dark when we are getting ready in the morning (especially in the winter), but none of us wants to turn on the overhead light nearby when we're still waking up. I recently added a small push light inside the closet so the girls can turn it on themselves and see what they need without having to turn on anything super-bright. The girls love being able to push it on and off themselves!

So there you have it- my nothing fancy, but very practical, closet for two toddlers! How do you organize your kids' clothing? Do they pick out their own clothes? Leave a comment!