I need HELP with the kids' room and all their stuff!

[heathenmom]

I'm so frustrated and don't know where to start.  My girls share a very small room (11x7) with no closet.  They share a queen-sized futon on the floor, but I'm hoping to get them bunk beds in the next month or 2.  Storage-wise, there's a small armoire for their hanging clothes and a couple of plastic bookshelves for ... everything else.  Two of the shelves hold baskets for underwear, socks, etc.  The bottom shelves have books and junk, and the top has just junk.    There's no place at all for toys, crafts, etc. in their room.

In the landing area at the top of the stairs (in between the 2 bedrooms) there's an overflowing toy box.  Downstairs, there's a trunk for dress-up clothes and a small basket for random toys.

I stole an idea from here for organizing their art supplies:  I used a shoe organizer that hangs on the door of the under-stairs closet.  There's a basket on the floor in that closet for coloring books, construction paper, etc.

In our living room I try to keep the rest of their books contained on a shelf of our entertainment center, but within minutes of putting them there, they inevitably end up in a huge pile on the floor.

So those are the "designated" areas.  What I don't have any kind of accommodations for are the dozens and dozens of drawings, paintings and crafts that the 2 of them churn out on a weekly basis; the little bags of "stuff" that my brother & sil give to them (seashells, pretty rocks, etc.); and the bits of "nature" that they are constantly bringing in ... rocks, leaves, acorns, feathers ...

I know this is long and disjointed ... thanks, if you got this far!  So here are the things that I'd love some opinions on:

• Better ideas for clothes storage in their bedroom.  I switched to the baskets in hopes that they'd feel more independent and be able to help put clothes away.  What actually happened is that my 3 y/o delights in dumping out the contents and using the baskets for carrying her toys around.  I actually had to resort to locking the armoire because she would empty the entire thing trying on all the clothes, then leave them in a heap in the middle of the floor (soooo tempting for the stinky dog to nap on!!).
• What to do with all the art projects.  DD#1 gets very upset if she suspects that even the tiniest piece of paper that she's drawn on gets tossed and it's driving me batty.
• What to do with all the bits and pieces (shells, rocks, etc.).
• How many books is "enough?"  We are a family of readers and pre-kids I believed that you could never have too many books.  I'm rethinking that stance.

[homemademom]

I know this is long and disjointed ... thanks, if you got this far!  So here are the things that I'd love some opinions on:

• Better ideas for clothes storage in their bedroom.  I switched to the baskets in hopes that they'd feel more independent and be able to help put clothes away.  What actually happened is that my 3 y/o delights in dumping out the contents and using the baskets for carrying her toys around.  I actually had to resort to locking the armoire because she would empty the entire thing trying on all the clothes, then leave them in a heap in the middle of the floor (soooo tempting for the stinky dog to nap on!!).
• What to do with all the art projects.  DD#1 gets very upset if she suspects that even the tiniest piece of paper that she's drawn on gets tossed and it's driving me batty.
• What to do with all the bits and pieces (shells, rocks, etc.).
• How many books is "enough?"  We are a family of readers and pre-kids I believed that you could never have too many books.  I'm rethinking that stance.

I'm not sure how much money you have to work with, but my first thought was a queen size loft bed.  Something like this: http://www.nationalfurnishing.com/cgi-bin/ccp51/cp-app.cgi?rrc=N&affl=&pg=ste_prod&ref=1 That way you'll have space underneath for dressers or other clothes storage and also some play space.  

I've seen a bunch of different ways to display pictures. I just googled "creative ways to display kids art" and got a bunch of good hits! (And now I feel like organizing my kids' art, lol).  Personally, I would rotate and toss artwork when my kids weren't around.  One of my dd's loves to hang on to everything, but she's also a prolific crafter/colorer, so she is always churning out new stuff. She honestly doesn't remember the stuff she made last week unless it was really special, in which case, I take digital pictures of those ones.

I would love to here solutions about about the shells, rocks, marbles, etc, too!  Right now, my kids have random little boxes on top of their dressers full of that kind of stuff.

We have a lot of books, too. They're limited to one tall bookshelf. When we get new ones, I weed through the old and donate them. I've also gotten rid of tons of my books.  I figure that's what libraries are for, and we should utilize them more than we do.

[rere]

My daughter is the same way about the papers.So we're staring a scrapbook(just an old text book that I picked up from the good will)that she can put her precious papers in.I also have a basket to hold drawings in.Making it her responsibility to put the papers away in the basket actually helped.

The sea shells and such could go into old jars that could then go onto small shelves that could be mounted on the wall.

I think if you have access to a library lots of books really aren't necessary.

Is it possible to store their clothes in your room?I did that until recently when my daughter asked to have her clothes in her room.

You could also do bunk beds that have a queen sized futon on the bottom(to fold up during the day for more floor space)and then you could turn the top bunk into play space instead of sleeping space.We did this in my daughter's tiny bedroom.We just didn't put a mattress on the top bunk and instead put a sheet of MDF up there with a rug on it for comfort.Then I mounted a shelf on the wall up there to hold books/toys.