An Organized Playroom

Check another thing off the list!  Another project down!!!  A few months back, the kids kept talking about how badly they wanted to share a room.  Dave and I weren't too sure how long that was going to last.  So...a couple of weeks ago, I asked them again.  "Yep, yay...we'll be roomies until we're teenager's!" Ha-not too sure about that, but it will work for now! 


 Task #1: move my son's toddler bed into his sister's room.  Task # 2: move his "Star War"s books, truck books and "Thomas" books next to his bed.  Since he's 3-that's about all he has :)   Their rooms are REALLY small so we've designated their bedrooms as just for sleeping and relaxing with a book.  All toys are to be stored in the playroom.  So...task #3 was organizing all their toys in the new playroom.  That was a BIG task considering their toys are always scattered all over EVERY room in our house.  


I gathered everything...1) donated toys they no longer played with  2) trashed all broken toys and dollar toys-we've got a lot of those 3) organized everything into like piles 4) labeled my bins 5) like items in labeled bins and DONE!

This is the view from the door.  I'm gradually transitioning out of the pink and purple baskets to a more gender neutral color scheme-navy, turquoise and a hint of red.  We decided to leave the car and roadway decals on the wall-mainly because my 3 year old freaked when I tried to take them down. But, they're definitely growing on me and I'm becoming quite attached.  I may even add a few more.

As you can see from the first picture, the handmade train table is the center of the playroom.  All the larger toys like remote control cars, trains and big trucks are stored underneath.  Easy for little hands to reach.  There's also a LARGE basket of trains, tracks and train accessories stored under there as well.  Keep all like things together, right?

This bucket is stored in the corner of the room.  It's a HUGE bucket and it holds all the toys that need to be put away or re-organized come Sat. morning.  We depend on the kids to help keep their own space clean so most toys will not get put back into their designated bins and I'm o.k. with that.  I think?  Yeah, well it really is little clean up because it's maintained every evening before bath time.

These white shelves hold most of the toys, minus the bulky duplo's and dress up clothes.  I had these shelves in my scrapbooking room and when I re-organized I didn't need them anymore.  Up to the kid's rooms they went!  I love these shelves.  They are from Michael's and I bought them with a 40% off coupon.  Being organized doesn't mean you need to spend a ton of money, right?  Anyhow, back to the shelves.

Each small, clear bin is labeled and contains things like My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcakes, Cars, Star Wars guys...I like the kids to be able to see what's in each bin so I always buy clear.  The taller shelf has all the fabric bins my daughter had in her room.  They're working well right now but soon I want to change them out.  They are storing things like Hot Wheels tracks, play food, and other imaginary play toys.  

Larger toys are stored on the top of the shorter shelf.  And, books of course!  This bucket of books is easy for the kids to grab.  Lots of times, I'll find my son sitting in his bean bag with this bucket of books.  He's my reader :)

This corner is still a work in progress for me, however my goal is to have "centers" in this room.  I think it's just the teacher in me but having "centers" is such an easy way to organize, especially a playroom.  So, on that note...here's the baby center.  High chair, crib, doll blankets, doll clothes are stored in a basket underneath the crib.  My daughter loves to set up extravagant tea parties with her dolls so everything's in one spot, easy for her to grab.  

 Told you...this isn't half of what she normally does.  Baby's enjoying a bit of hardwood cake.     Yummy!

Some other things in the works for the playroom are...1) hanging shelves for books and 2) hanging up the kids artwork.  These are their canvas' they painted a while back.  The theme was "family" Ava's is soooo cute. You'll see an extra child in there...that's our Haitian child that she's begging us to adopt.  Such a heart of gold, that girl has.  

White Shelves: Michael's Craft Store

Striped Bins: Target

Blue Bucket: Target

Turquoise Tin Bucket: Target Dollar Bin

White Ribba Shelf: IKEA

Labels: Made By Me

Hope you enjoyed this lil' peek into our playroom.  If you have any questions, shoot me an email!  How do you organize your kids toys? I'd love to see!




Linking up: