play room.

Goodness, two posts in one day. How will you ever keep up.

Since I've been unable to do much housework around here lately, my girls room seemed to have gotten way out of control and needed some time and attention paid to it today. And I figured since it was all clean that I would share with you my organizing tips that I've used in their play room. It is the best thing that I ever did.

Okay we have to start at the beginning. When we first moved in, this is what the closet looked like.

right side.

 

left side.

 

You can see there is a whole row of holes along the wall there, where they had a shoe rack or something. Plus all the shelves and brackets etc. So I ended up taking out all the shelves and filling and sanding every hole. (that seriously took forever)

When we were trying to figure out what color to paint our living room, I had bought a couple of little quarts of paint and one of the colors was this brighter blue (almost turquoise, or as Nicola describes it mint toothpaste color) Since I already had it, and as luck would have it, it matched the girls bedding/room perfectly. So I painted the closet and decided to leave the door off it's hinges. I could just see little fingers getting jammed in the door. I thought about using fabric curtains to frame the doorway, but again, another expense that really wouldn't add or take away from the play room.

Okay, so are you dying to see what it looks like now?? I guess I should disclaimer that this really actually isn't a "play room" more of a toy storage room, but I like the way play room sounds better okay. AND it is big enough that they do play in there sometimes. Does that count?

Oh, alright I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

left side now.

 

right side now.

 

Okay, so this big yellow unit. I found it in the basement when we moved in, and I begged Darren for weeks to take it off the wall and bring it upstairs. It was even painted this sunny yellow color, which again matched perfectly. (I think it was part of the original kitchen at some point, some of the matching units are out in our garage) Anyways, where the doll house is, the previous owner had cut the shelves out. But that just made me happy. It fit the doll house perfectly.

The bins on the yellow unit, hold different play sets.

(food/kitchen stuff, polly pockets, tini puppini accessories, tea set.)

 

(felt play food, ABC set.)

 

I keep the toys that aren't played with often, on the higher shelves and the ones they love to death down lower. Like the Little Pet Shop. Not played with a ton, so it's the highest on the shelf.

(little pet shop and accessories)

 

The buckets on the top shelf have play sets that I like to know when they are playing with them. One holds a puzzle set and the other one has stickers and notebooks. I'm kind of crazy when it comes to pieces and I have major OCD about making sure puzzles are complete etc. So if they want to play with those, they have to ask and I can supervise.

Barbie doll house. (more on that later)

   

The colorful plastic buckets are from Target. Now, the reason I don't label these buckets, is because they usually end up being on more of revolving system. These are the first things that get dumped when they are playing and I would find it crazy to continually match bucket to toy. Plus, when they get new toys, I will put the new toy in a bucket and rotate an older toy out to be played with a couple months later. And I would constantly be making new labels.

The ones I do label, however are a firm fixture in our play room.

 

These toys are often the main "mess offenders" in our house, and usually have a lot of pieces that go with. So they need a permanent home with a large container to house it all.

The labels I made in photoshop, with pictures of what each drawer holds and the name too. They are 4x6 and I laminated them to make them last longer.

When we're cleaning up, I don't have to tell them where anything goes, they have the picture/word reminders. That way nothing is just getting tossed around. They know their toys have a "home" so to say, and that is where they belong.

(barbies- dolls and clothes, barbie accessories, books.)

 

 

(just a little side note, I rotate my books every three months, it seems like we read the same stories over and over again at night, so if I change them out, then I don't get bored and the kids feel like they get a whole new set of books)

(dolls-clothes, bottles blankets, doll house furniture, dress up clothes.)

 

 

On top of these drawer units, we have a tub for their Barbie carrying cases, and Ava's Tini Puppini case as well.

 

The yellow bucket is kind of a floating bucket. It usually has odds and ends pieces, or things that don't really have a home etc. Right now we've been using it for our McDonald's toys. (until I get around to throwing them out. I hate McDonald's toys)

Because we have two little princess' who clearly love dressing up and all things girlie I added a mirror and hung a 3 hook hanger for some of their play clothes. The mirror is at their height, and they absolutely adore it. (I got it at Walmart about a year ago, but they still have them)

 

(The little double swing for dolls use to sit at the bottom of Lily's bed, until she got her new doll bed, so now it just hangs out in the play room.)

 

Okay, so I said I would talk about the Barbie house a little more so here it is. So as I mentioned before, I have OCD when it comes to pieces. I hate when things are missing pieces, so I am overly (probably obnoxious) about it and I take extra care and attention to make sure everything is all there and has a place to go.

So within my labeled storage tubs, I have additional storage. This is the Barbie accessories bin. I have two snap containers to hold all the little tiny Barbie sized things.

 

Container one, holds all the Barbie house things, like food, dishes etc. It also hold the pieces to the beach set and photography Barbie, pooping dog stuff etc. (yes, I said pooping dog)

 

The second container holds all the barbie shoes, purses, jewelry etc. (Sorry Lily had snuck it away from me and was playing on her bed with it.)

 

(if you notice, every shoe has a mate. And it makes it so much easier for them to play too, when they don't have to get frustrated about missing things etc.) And if everything has a home, they know exactly where to look for it. Which equals less time for Mommy to sift and sort looking for Barbie's beach ball and surf board.

Phew, well I think that about covers it. We have a big green bucket with handles that sits just outside the play room and it holds all their stuffed animals. It's an easy clean to just toss them in there.

 

I also have another storage system set up for toys that are not allowed to be played with in their bedroom. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and share that with you too. Since we're sharing I may as well tell you all my secrets. (ha!)

Hopefully you found something that you can use in your organizing and toy care from this excessively long blog post. I love organizing, but I know it can get expensive. Containers and tubs cost $$$. But if you just get a little bit at a time, eventually you will have enough that you can do a really decent system.

Comments

[Brittany]

I am truly in love with this play room. I don't feel bad anymore about having so many "pink" colored toys for my daughter when we have a baby boy on the way. Where/how do you laminate the pictures for the storage bins?

[Maretta]

Love the fact that my girls aren't the only kids in the world who have and OCD Mommy that has seperate bins for toys in their room!! Only difference is that all of our bins have lids. I hate when all the bins end up on their bedroom floor all at once, but they are more than willing to go through and put the items away in their correct bins!!

[Val Bailey]

Amy, want to know who you take after? Yes me. I am known as the "neat freak" around here with a place for everything. Aunty Val xx

[Mom & Dad]

Who are you and what have you done with my daughter??
I remember you had the messiest room in the house (next to Nicola)...and you mean to tell me all I had to do was buy a few tubs and containers and your room could have looked like this?..sigh....

[Trisha]

Oh Sigh! How I love you Amy! You should really think about going into buisness again; scrapbooking, photography, home organization/decor AND cooking/baking!

[lynn Crapo]

You are the QUEEN of organization! I recognized many of those barbie accessories. However, I WISH I had had this tutorial a LONG time ago....why didn't I think of keeping the shoes matched together in a little container? That SURE would of saved me many hours of searching. My hats off to you! Loved this post!!!