I saw a darling idea on pinterest the other day. They painted a chalkboard on the lower half of a kitchen/hall wall -is that the kind of oidea you are looking for?Do you have a mudroom or area that can be partially used as one? Although your kids are still young, once they start school and activities, the built in organization will help keep things running smoothly.

Are you doing the kitchen too? I converted my lower cabinets to drawers about two years ago, and it has been a huge improvement in daily life.
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I raised 3 boys in a small house. We carpeted one of the bedrooms in a denim blue low pile carpet. When we tore it out a couple years ago (it was 20 yrs old) it still looked great. I felt rather guilty. Our l.r carpet was a horrible marbley brown/rust/tan medium pile carpet. I hated it, but it didn't show anything. When I returned to work and we could afford some improvements, we put down wood floors. I then chose "busy" area rugs - again, if stuff got spilled or tracked in, it was camouflaged. I also chose darker colored furniture. My kids never ruined anything in our house, and I actually gave away our family room furniture to another family. Also had a hat tree in the b.r. for their ballcaps, hoodies, etc. When we added on, we did add on a mudroom, which was wonderful - a place to leave their shoes, hang coats and drop bookbags.

why are drawers better than shelves?

Drawers are easier to access and things don't get lost like they do on the back of shelves.
My kitchen has lower cabinets but all my shelves are pull-out shelf/drawers.

eelover,
I used to have the typical lower cabinets -with that half-shelf across the back of each one. Things were always a mess and difficult to manage. Now that I have drawers, I just pull it open and I can see everything, looking down upon them, rather than having to kneel down and peer into a dark cabinet. If you go to the Kitchen Forum on this site, you'll find lots of info about them -just search "drawers."

W/o reading the other PP's comments (I want to remain un-influenced) we've done the following:

Our children are 8, 5 & 3. Regular sized old house - small rooms. 2 Parent working household.

Painted one entire wall in our DR. w/ blackboard paint. My 3 yr. old has finally stopped using crayon on every other wall in the house. Our kitchen is too small for an eat in kitchen. The blackboard wall in the DR has become a wonderful conversation piece when friends and family come over. This morning I came downstairs to a message from my Dad (who is visiting from 4 hrs. away) on the wall. For Holiday Dinners the kids have taken to drawing elaborate scenes for that particular holiday for our guests to enjoy during dinner. In the future I am going to have guests sign the wall and take a picture of it for remeberance of that particular event.

Ditched the giant command center bulletin board in lieu of cutting corkboard to fit inside of the upper kitchen cabinet doors. Cuts back on frig clutter and I see what is upcoming everytime I cook or pack a lunch.

The upstairs hall is going to be their art space. Giant bulletin board at the end where they can hang what they want. I've purchased a clipboard for each child that I hope to hang in the kitchen where they can clip art that they bring home from school each day.

I allow 2 plastic see through bins (medium size) in our office where they can put toys. If the lid can't close then they have to take toys up to their bedrooms. The bins get stacked in a corner.

In the 9x8' or so game/library/ guest room upstairs I put their TV on an antique bureau. DH cut the front off of the top drawer and drilled holes in the back of it for cords. He reattched the drawer front w/ hinges on the bottom and a magnetic clasp on each side. The front of the drawer now drops down and we have a DVD player, Game Cube and controllers tucked into it. When I don;t want to see the mess or a guest is stayong over I simply close the top drawer. Additional toys are in the bottom drawers & 1 drawer is reserved for guests.

In the LR I have a large basket that I keep on th ebottom shelf of the coffee table to hold the kids books and placemats for when we eat in the LR. I do not allow other toys to be stored in the LR. They can play w/ them in th eLR but they get put away in the office on a night that we have our act together.

Before I go off and do something I ask them what might work best for them (doesn't matter how young they are as long as they can form and relay a thought). I figure (and it's been helpful) that if the kids have a say in organizing for them that they are a bit better at adhering to it. Some of my best ideas have come from my kids. Better to evaluate what they have to say and incorporate some things instead of fighting an uphill battle.

They all have a say in how their own personal rooms function or are decorated. I get the last say but always have them involved. They know what functions best for them.

Paint is my best friend and I always have extra on hand to paint over crayon or marker that won't come off. First put a coat of shellac over the crayon.

My children are a part of the house and family and I refuse to hide their stuff away when company comes over. It'll be neat but they won;t be hidden.

Many of these ideas came from GW members so keep posting and asking!!!!

ttodd--love your ideas!

I'm a grandma, but have 2 little grandkids over often. If you're able to float your sofa or loveseat in your FR or LR out from the wall, use a sofa table behind them that allows for baskets or has drawers for storing toys. That way, they're quick to pick up when not in use.

A storage ottoman also helps or wall unit that has doors or baskets.

My DD has the Ikea wall unit with baskets that completely fill the cubes (she fills some cubes with baskets and uses books, etc in the others) in their FR and it holds lots of toys and crafts.

My DD also has the kids keep lots of their toys in their walk-in closets (yes, they're really big) in nice built-in organizer units so the room has more space for actual playing with them, and it's easy to shut the door on the mess, if they haven't quite finished picking things up.

In the kitchen if you can save a couple drawers in or near your island/bar, it's a great place to store kids' craft supplies, crayons, playdoh, paints...since usually that's often where we use them.

I've seen several suggestions of blackboard paint. But doesn't the chalk dust get everywhere?! I'm imagining chalk dust on the floor. Chalk dust on hands, wiped in my couch, my walls! :)

Eelover, use rustlers chalk! As a special Ed teacher and a parent, I can assure you that it makes all the difference in the world. It is more expensive, though!

We have a small house with 2 kids and 2 working parents. One helpful thing we did was putting in California Closets (doesn't have to be that brand, just a closet organization system). We now have lots of shelves in the closets for their many games and toys. They hold a lot and keep things neat.

When we built our new house in 1984 I had commercial carpet installed in all 3 kids' BDRs. It is a low pile so I figured little toy pieces, etc. wouldn't get lost in it. I just removed it last year! It wore like iron; guess what I replaced it with? More commercial carpet. And inexpensive too.

We area family of 2 working parents and one 8 yo child.

We have plates/cups/bowls in lower cabinets/drawers so that the kid can help himself. Snacks are also kept in the pullout at a child's height for easy access.

Large mudroom with magnetic chalkboard and another magnetic board for bday party invitations, zoo membership card, school permission slip, coupons etc. Office in mudroom for mail sorting and filing. I prefer to keep these things in the office instead of the kitchen. When both parents get busy at work, the mudroom can get messy but at the least the remainder of the house(especially the kitchen) remains neat.

Plenty of storage in the mudroom for backpacks, coats, extra booster and sports gear.

I love berber carpet-it wears extremely well!

Having a kids cupboard somewhere in the kitchen/family room to hold boardgames and art supplies. Our toys are in a console table in the foyer.

Baskets for books and legos in the family room. We have a playroom but inevitably somethings end up in the family room.

If you have a small area under the stairs or in the attic that can be finished as a little hide out-kids love that.

In the kid's closet I have double hanging-I put out of season clothes up high and current season down low so that he can easily dress himself.

Good luck!

I have an 8,9 and 12 yo. A few items to add to already great advice...

KIds seem to create copious amounts of artwork. We used to string clothesline and clothespins in the garage and the hall to the laundry room. They could hang up and take down the art themselves. You can display a ton of stuff very easily and take it down with no fuss or damage.

The cubbies I see in most mudrooms are too small to hold shoes. Especially as my girls love Uggs and they take up a lot of space! Make sure you allow enough space for shoes AND boots in the mudroom.

I don't like a chest of drawers in a kid's rooms. They are never closed! If possible, put inexpensive ikea chests or even just shelves, inside the closet so keep the mess in there.

Every day before dinner they pick up any scattered toys/books/stuff and they go in a large basket --- Friday night they have to empty that basket and put the items back in their respective rooms. Anything left Saturday morning goes to Goodwill (never happened). No after school snack until your shoes coat and backpack are put away.

I don't know if you are remodelling but very soon you will want to have established places for the following

1 Where do they use the computer? We strictly limit screentime of any kind, so we have one MAC desktop for them and it is visible from the kitchen and family room.
2 Where do they watch TV? We don't want to make it easy to watch TV (it is too easy already), so we only have one.
3 Where can they do crafts? We were able to devote a room to this, and my kids have always just wondered in there when they have free time and busied themselves.
4 Where can they do homework? You need both quite spaces where they are out of the mainstream, and places where they can work while you oversee.

We have toys (and toy storage) in every room. In our old house (Victorian with no built in storage) in the more formal spaces it was either hidden under a table or behind a sofa in baskets. We have a storage ottoman from Target that holds a lot of Playmobil (think toys with thousands of tiny parts).

In our new house we have a couple of built in cupboards in the library that are shared space for family games, craft supplies, seldom-used glasswares, etc.

We have one TV only.

We're believers in comfy spaces, and that includes a recent discovery of comfy shaggy rugs - now that I've got some I dont't think I'll go back to all/nearly all bare hardwood again.

Yay club! When we were mid build-reno, our electrical contractor must have doublechecked with us 5 times to make sure we didn't want to plan for more than one TV!

I love this thread.

I have "seed" bins that seem to hold a lot of toys. They look like the ones from Land of Nod, but I got them somewhere else.
I also use wicker hampers to hold toys in our living room area. Our whole first floor is open, very unusual for a 115 year old home, so there is no confining the kids stuff to one room. I also have a walk-in closet that has shelving for games. The bottom shelf holds the boots for my daughter, we have a lot of Ugg type boots here too.
The artwork graces the walls of the stair way down to the basement. Lots of artwork with 3 kids, although the 2 that are elementary aged are not bringing home as much as they did in pre-school.

Staying organized is key. Every object has a home. This way when it gets left out, my kids automatically know where it goes when it gets put away. A lot of baskets on shelves, baskets under beds, book shelves. Ikea is a great place for all these things.

My kids are older now, but I had my handyman retro-fit my front entrance closet to host 3 large shelves - one for each of my kids. Their backpack, coat, books, etc. went on "their" shelf. Worked for us.

I also second having the computer in full view. Firstly, it limits how much time they spend on the computer because there is so much going on around them, and secondly, you can see what they're viewing.

Also, in my house, each closet has it's own built-in organizers with shelves (we bought it like that). Works great.

Lastly, in bathroom, hooks on back of door to hold their towels.

Not the kind of tip you were looking for maybe, but depending on the age of your home, I urge you to have your kids' lead levels tested every six months for a couple of years following the renovation.

We moved into a recently renovated home right before my first child was born. She ended up with lead poisoning that took years to get rid of. My friend's husband is a historic home renovator, and her husband (a high-end professional) made renovations to their home and her son also got severe lead poisoning.

Many people (including my doctor, before my daughter was dx) think of severe lead poisoning happening to kids who live in run-down homes, but everyone I know whose kids have had it badly have been the opposite, because they are so much less likely to have the lead level checked and catch it early.