2) Accessories can become a real problem in a kid’s room, especially a girl’s room. Hair accessories need a place to go because chances are they are going to multiply! You can attach hair ties and pony tail holders to a hook or series of hooks. Barrettes can be hung on a ribbon in the closet. You can sew clips onto the ribbon to hold odd shaped items, like headbands. Boys can use clips for hats, scarves and other accessories.

3) Shoes really need a place to go. Otherwise, they become a mountain in the bottom of the closet. Kids can easily lose the shoe that they’re looking for, slowing you down when you’re trying to leave the house. Plus, the ones that they don’t wear anymore or have outgrown just get buried. Try to get a shoe organizer that hangs over the door, or makes it easy for kids to use. A shoe cubby inside of your front door might be a better place than your kid’s closet for shoes.

4) Activities need a place to go, too. Kids accumulate games, arts and crafts, model kits, and other things with small pieces that you may not necessarily want just laying around the room. This is especially true if you have little ones and are concerned about choking hazards. Having games and activities put away in the closet also helps you to keep the room under control when your child has a friend over. Build or install a small group of shelves in the front corner of your child’s closet for these things. You can put them up higher if you need to keep them more out of reach. If your child’s closet has a top shelf, you might just want to put another shelf a few inches above it. This will make a perfect slot for board games without using any extra space.

5) Outfits can be paired for easy access and easy school mornings. You can pair tops and bottoms on children’s hangers with clips or specialty hangers designed to hold tops and bottoms. You can also get a hanging canvas organizer that lets your child pick their outfits for the week. They can put each outfit in a different day’s slot. This can help you to figure out what to get rid of too. If it never goes into the organizer, then they aren’t going to wear it and you can give it away or put it on consignment. Remember to always use infant hangers, baby hangers, or children’s hangers to hang clothes that can be damaged by adult hangers. This will help you to protect clothes that you want to sell or hand down to other children.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Your family and friends will certainly have their input if you ask what they used a lot and what they never touched. You may get conflicting information, too. One friend may say that they couldn’t have lived without that changing table, while another one says that they ended up just changing the baby on the floor to avoid having to go to the other room ten times a day. You will have to think about how you’ll like to do things before you make a lot of purchases.

Babysitting can help you here! Having an actual baby in the house can help you to determine what you will and will not use. It may save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars, just giving your home a test run. Did you feel the need to leave the room when the baby needed a diaper change? Were you able to rock them to sleep in your recliner, or did you really wish you had a glider rocker? Were you able to seal up that stinky diaper in an old grocery bag and toss it in the trash, or did you regret it and wish you had a special diaper pail that did essentially the same thing? These are some good things to figure out before you spend a lot of money on things that clutter up your home and cost a lot of money.

Some parents really go overboard on things like places for the baby to sleep. Bassinet, crib, play yard, portable sleep mat, bouncy seat, and a swing. Do you need eight places to sleep? Most parents get away with one bed. Or, they co-sleep for so long, that by the time they get ready to put the baby in their own room, they’re big enough to climb out of the crib. You may want to buy something inexpensive for everyday napping, and then invest your money in a single bed that will last them for a lot of years, instead of the one month that they’re out of your bed and unable to climb out of the crib. Some babies are out of the crib and into a big bed by nine months of age. How much money is it really worth? If you’ve just got to have one, you can buy a used one that has probably barely ever been slept in.

Getting everything organized is more important than having a bunch of stuff. With clothes, blankets, diapers and you, the baby will have plenty. Using the nursery closet to organize all of those little things will make your life a lot easier. Install some shelves, get some baskets, and hang up all of those sweet little outfits on infant hangers, baby hangers, or children’s hangers. You’ll be ready for baby without spending a lot of money or cluttering up your house.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

1) The first step, of course, is to get their things together the night before. Check homework, pack backpacks, put whatever notes or lunch money that needs to go to school in their folders, lay out school clothes, and pack lunches. Whatever can be done the night before needs to be, because most people don’t think straight in the morning, and that combined with other distractions will make you late and stressed every time.

2) The second step is to reduce stress in the house. Keep talking and noise to a minimum. Don’t go into your child’s room blazing in the morning. Many parents make the mistake of turning on all the lights, ripping off the covers, and yelling, “It’s time for school!” No one wants to wake up to a parade, demands, and thinking about what all they have to do. Turn on a lamp or hall light, go in and spend a few minutes with your child. This can be a nice five minutes to spend with your child before they leave for the day. Waking up slowly and trying to keep quiet makes children less stressed about starting their morning routines.

3) If your child is still young, you may want to wake them by starting to dress them. They can slowly wake up as they push their arms through the sleeves, and stand up for you to help them get their pants on. Go ahead and put on shoes so that they are just about ready to go before they really leave the bed. Make your next stop breakfast. A cartoon or quiet time is great for keeping kids in a calm mood as they continue to get ready for school. All that’s left is bathroom, brushing teeth, and they’re ready to go in no time.

4) Getting organized ahead of time is key. Don’t leave it all up to your child to have everything ready for the next day. You can teach them to get their things ready, but make it as easy on them as possible to ensure smooth sailing in the morning. Get their closets organized with children’s hangers, infant hangers, or baby hangers to make finding school clothes, shoes, socks and jackets a breeze. Designate a special place for their backpack to hang and make sure that it’s there the night before. Put a sticky note on the backpack that says “LUNCH” or whatever you don’t want them to forget on their way out the door in the morning. With these tips, you can get your kids off to school in record time every day.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Teach your children that being trusted to complete something has great rewards. In adolescence and adult-life, it really does pay off to be a reliable person. Other people do not like to be let down and will avoid those whom they view as unreliable. A responsible person will value their reliability and make sure that they take steps to meet expectations without violating trust.

Irresponsible people act impulsively, like children. Being responsible doesn’t come automatically; it is something that people have to want to learn. Teaching your children to be responsible does not mean immediately trusting them to do everything on their own. It can take years and lots of baby steps before full responsibility is achieved. Don’t set your child up for failure by simply letting go and expecting them to do everything on their own. You will only teach them that it is hard, and they’ll only want to do it to avoid punishment.

One easy way to start is to help them get their room organized. You can give them one job to accomplish and reward them for it. The reward can be something as simple as positive attention. When things are organized, the child’s brain will be calmer. They will not have so much clutter and commotion sending messages to them constantly. Children who make their beds and keep their rooms clean have a lower stress level, which translates into being more productive, having good self esteem, and ultimately being responsible.

Use baskets and bins to cut down on what is actually visible when you walk in the room. You can even hang a sheet or curtain over bookshelves to keep the appearance uniform. Using low lighting, like a lamp, or installing a dimmer switch, can also help children keep a lower stress level.

Help them learn to stay organized by taking it one step at a time. You can make your best judgment based on their age or maturity level. Give them plenty of chances to complete a task and then ask permission to come check it. Remind them of the reward if you have offered one. Be careful to only make positive comments so that you don’t give them any negative attention for procrastination or avoidance.

One thing that children can easily help with is laundry. Have their closet set up in a way that they can easily see where certain things go. If your child is young, try using infant hangers, children’s hangers, or baby hangers so that they can easily manipulate the clothes onto it by themselves. Making little adjustments like this will help your child have a lot of successes and start to help them build character and a reliable reputation.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Children learn in different ways, so if you take a multi-angled approach, you are more likely to get through to them. Some kids learn by hearing and can incorporate what they’ve learned simply by listening. For a kid like this, you may only have to tell them how to do it. Unfortunately, this is not the case for most kids. Listening and application skills come as children get older.

Start by reading a book or making up a story about a child who is messy and how they overcame it. It is less threatening to imagine the broken toys and missing pieces happening to another kid. Then, get down on your child’s level and help them to organize their toys. Start with the things that they care about the most. This will get their initial attention and most likely make them happy that their favorite things are all together.

The next step is to clear the clutter so that you can (excitedly) organized the second favorite thing. Play a “biggest to littlest” game of picking up the mess. Or, assign stuffed animals to your child while you pick out laundry. If they feel like you are doing as much as them, or like they’re racing you, then it will happen a lot faster.

As you’re organizing with your child, talk about things that they enjoy. Avoid negative comments, threats and lectures at all costs. If your child is task oriented or loves rewards, make a “Clean Room Chart” for their wall or inside of the closet door. Buy some special stickers or stamps to reward them when they complete a job. Talk about how easy it was and how nice it is to take care of your toys so that they are fun to play with.

Part of helping your child stay organized is staying organized yourself. Things like laundry can get out of hand if you’re not on top of it. Create a simple system that your child can keep up with. For example, laundry baskets in the bathroom and in their bedroom will give them easy targets for throwing their dirty clothes. Hampers often make matters worse if they close because most kids won’t take the time to open it. You may even put a basketball hoop on their wall to encourage them to “make a laundry basket”.

An organized closet can be your greatest asset. With shelves, hooks, racks, baskets and bins, you can find a place for everything. Hang children’s clothes on infant hangers, children’s hangers, or baby hangers to get them out of the way. The smaller hangers will take up less room and they won’t stretch the fabric. This will allow you to make lots of room for things like board games that have little pieces and need to be kept in a safe place.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

If you are interested in the health benefits of routines, start with hand washing, bathing, and brushing teeth. These are things that need to be done regularly, so defining the time when they should be done will help you and your toddler remember to keep it up. Once the routine is established, it is very likely that your toddler will remind you when you forget!

It is easy and fun to remember if you make up a rhyme or song when it’s time to perform a routine chore. Toddlers are more receptive to performing tasks if they know what’s coming. Learning a rhyme gets them excited to practice what they know. For example, when you’re child is washing their hands, have them sing their ABC’s to ensure that they wash them long enough. Or, if you’re in a hurry, have them repeat, “Wash them quick so we don’t get sick.”

Setting up routines around eating, sleeping and playing will help your child know when it’s time to sleep. The human body can adapt to sleeping and eating schedules, and trigger hunger or tiredness. This can be really helpful for parents and toddlers. People that aren’t on an eating schedule tend to graze and snack more between meals. They get into the habit of always eating and jeopardize their health. Having your toddler go to sleep at the same time every night will ensure that they are getting the most recuperative sleep that is essential for their growth and development. Sleep schedules help prepare children for school as well.

Following weekly and monthly routines will help you keep up with things that are hard to get done when you’re a parent. It could be something like checking milestones at the beginning of each month so that you know what to work on with your toddler. You could go through old mail once a month. Anything that needs doing can be worked into a routine. These rituals help you to stay organized and help to lower your stress.

Laundry is a routine that toddlers love to assist with. It is fun and educational for toddlers to help sort laundry. You can sort one week by type of clothing. For example, one pile will be pants, one pile will be socks, etc. You can sort by color, or by whose clothes they are. Toddlers also love to throw clothes into the washer, turn it on, and add the detergent. You can make “driving the warm laundry” part of the routine, and let your toddler play in the basket while you fold. Toddlers can help to hang laundry. Get them their own infant hangers or children’s hangers so that they can easily manipulate their clothes onto the hanger. Baby hangers make it easy to teach your child that laundry can be fun and part of the routine.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

1) Furniture: Choose your furniture wisely. This will be your biggest investment and set the tone for the room. If you haven’t done so, choose your theme first. Sometimes you’ll be inspired by bedding, wall paper, a chair, piece of clothing, or even a toy. If your furniture is a contrasting style, the room may not come together like you were hoping. When you’ve chosen your furniture, do your research before you buy it. Look for customer reviews, safety ratings, and don’t forget special deals from the manufacturer! You may be able to buy that boutique baby furniture a lot cheaper online than in the store.

2) Bedding: The bedding often is the starting point for decorating the room. If you are buying commercial bedding, make sure that the bumper pad is not too thick and that the fabric doesn’t have parts that can be chewed off, like tassels or buttons. Make sure that the bumper pad is removed when your baby starts pulling up because it can be used for climbing out. Fluffy pillows and large quilts and comforters can be suffocation hazards and are usually intended to be decorative. Use small, thin receiving blankets or pajamas that cover for the first few months instead of blankets and pillows.

3) Accessories: You can use accessories to decorate the room, bringing the theme full circle. Pictures, lamps, wall hangings and curtains are all great accessories. Remember that lamps can be dangerous and even fire hazards, so make certain that they are out of baby’s reach. Cords can be secured to the back of a dresser if you intend on putting the lamp there, so that the baby can’t pull the lamp down. Use unbreakable, cool touch light bulbs, too. Decorating the room can be a lot of fun. Use shelves and hooks to display decorative items and keepsakes.

4) Child Proofing: Outlets and power strips should be covered so that the baby cannot be shocked. All furniture should be anchored to studs in the walls. Cords, including curtain and blinds cords, should be secured out of baby’s reach or not in the room at all. All diapering items and medication should also be kept away from the baby. Diaper wipes, baby oils, lotions, and diaper rash creams are dangerous, even fatal, if inhaled or ingested.

5) Necessities: You will need a lot of little things in the nursery. Medications, fingernail clippers, thermometer, extra sheets, pajamas, diapers, and a lot more. Make sure that you have a place for these things out of the baby’s reach. Use containers that lock and are kept in a high place, preferably in a closet or some other inaccessible place. They will not only make the room look junky if they are stored in sight, but they are more likely to pose a hazard.

6) Organization: To keep organized, turn the nursery closet into an organization heaven. Remember that everything is small, and although numerous, it doesn’t take much space to store. Install shelving that gives you a place for everything from socks to your cool mist humidifier. Hang those precious baby clothes on infant hangers or children’s hangers
so that they don’t get misshapen.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

First, do your research. Go shopping specifically for inspiration. You can search the internet for things that get your creative juices flowing. Visiting antique shops, high end boutiques, and even craft stores can help you to form an idea of what your nursery theme should be.

Keep an eye out for things that make you feel a certain way. Keep a list or photographic record of inspiring items. Make a note of what you liked about each piece. It could be a lamp, some wall paper, a piece of fabric, a picture frame, a chair, pretty much anything. Remember, you’re not necessarily looking for nursery items, just inspiration for styles, themes and colors.

Once you choose your favorite something, you can let it lead you into making other decisions. Let’s say that you found a picture frame with bold colors and pewter accents. Take it with you while you shop and decide which pieces of furniture, bedding and décor go with it. Having a visual in your hand will eliminate any guessing that can result in returns later.

Combining styles can be tricky, especially if the two styles are on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, if you do it right, it can have a really attractive effect. For example, mixing contemporary modern furniture with vintage accents and décor. You might initially think that your grandmother’s owl lamp looks odd with the sleek crib you’re in love with. The trick to combining two styles is to marry them together with a few key pieces and focus on balance.

Vintage designs can be made to look modern with paint and accessories. The opposite is true for modern pieces. Adding a vintage fabric or finding picture frames that are vintage, yet match the contemporary pieces will help you to connect the two. One last trick to connecting styles is to paint. Choose something in the room that both styles share. It could be throw pillows or curtains. Whatever you see in the room that makes you feel like it really brings the two styles together. Now, choose a color from that palate and paint. The subtle background will help to draw all of the pieces in the room together, completing your theme.

An interesting nursery should be set off with details. Don’t neglect lighting fixtures, light switches, door knobs, and window trimmings. Even the closet can be updated to reflect the style. Children’s hangers come in so many styles and colors that you’re bound to find one that you love. Infant hangers and baby hangers can dress up an otherwise boring closet and help you complete your nursery.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Start by separating the things that you have in the nursery to organize. You will most likely end up with three major categories; clothes, toys, and supplies.

Supplies are things that are for parents to use for the maintenance of the child. For instance, diapers, towels, sheets, monitors, thermometers, and other essential baby items. These things should be kept out of baby’s reach. You need to create a special place for these things so that they don’t end up putting the baby in danger or cluttering up your flat surfaces. Small shelves inside of the closet can keep these things out of sight and out of reach. You may also decide to install some prefabricated cabinets that can later be used for books and board games.

Toys will most likely be your biggest daily challenge. This is especially true if your child is very young. Sometimes dumping out the toys is as fun as playing with them! You need to come up with a system that allows you to quickly clean up so that you don’t take even more time out of your busy schedule.

There are lots of toy organizers that seem wonderful, but take a lot of patience to use. For example, a stuffed animal chain that hangs from the ceiling with clips seems like a great idea for keeping stuffed animals off of the floor, but it takes forever to hang them all. Try a net instead. It’s so easy to toss stuffed animals across the room and have them land quickly in the net. Kids love it and will be happier to help you clean. Little solutions like this will make it easier and faster to clean.

Clothing is usually the next big hassle. Babies and toddlers can have so many clothes that it’s mind boggling. If the closet is not ready to handle all of those tiny clothes, then they just end up in a giant laundry heap. Utilize shelves, baskets, bins, whatever you can find to keep tiny clothes easy to manage.

You will need separate containers for socks, body suits, training pants, bloomers, underwear, t-shirts, shorts, blankets, burp cloths, teething rings, and more. Cubby systems are extremely helpful, or one large shelf that houses multiple open buckets will make it easy to toss things straight from the laundry basket into the appropriate space.

Use infant hangers or children’s hangers to keep baby clothes from being stretched and damaged. You can get ones that have cartoon characters on them or other kid-friendly designs that will encourage your little one to help keep laundry where it goes. Baby hangers are small enough for kids to easily handle and also help when it comes to saving space.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.

Many parents use the baby’s closet for more than just clothes. They use it to store toys, feeding supplies, medical supplies, and more. The amount of stuff that you have to store when you have a baby in the house can get to be overwhelming. Making a space for everything will not only make the baby’s closet look nice and neat, but it will help you to keep your sanity when you need to find something.

Changing tables sometimes have storage, but it keeps everything within the baby’s reach. Many parents chose to forgo the changing table storage for changing supplies and use the closet instead. You can still use the changing table storage for toys, blankets, towels and sheets if you’d like. Parents are also sometimes wary of dresser drawers and cabinet doors for fear that the baby will smash their fingers or use them as a ladder to climb. If you do have a dresser or other piece of furniture in the baby’s room, make sure that it is securely anchored to the studs in the wall to avoid the tipping hazard.

It may be a good idea to spread out everything that you would like to store in the closet on a bed or on the floor. It’s just easier to categorize when you can see everything in front of you. Some popular categories include diapering, medication, first aid, socks, layettes, body suits, t-shirts, dress clothes, shoes, slippers, pajamas, blankets, burp cloths, teething toys, and pacifiers.

Once everything is divided, you can get a better idea of what you would like to install a drawer for, what you would like to keep in baskets or bins on shelves, and what you would like to hang. Metal wire shelving is very versatile and inexpensive. They are actually good for hanging tiny baby clothes on baby hangers or children’s hangers because they have that one wire across the front of every shelf. Baby’s clothes don’t need much space to hang down, so you can actually fill the closet with shelves and get rid of the big hanging bar until they’re older. Even then, you can just reposition the shelves to meet your child’s needs as they grow.

Invest a little in some cute baskets or bins that match your child’s room décor. Buy baby hangers or infant hangers so that their precious little clothes don’t get torn or stretched out. It also helps to use children’s hangers because when the child is a little older, they can easily handle the smaller hanger and help you put up laundry.

About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.