As you probably know if you've been reading here for awhile, our playroom is my nemesis. It is a CONSTANT struggle around here, and I am at battle with myself between letting kids be kids versus helping them to be responsible for their messes and keep things clean. It has not always been so, but I have become a big believer that organization, structure, and order equals less stress and more enjoyment for the whole family.
I read this recently and it has stuck with me: if I came into your home and asked you for a safety pin, would you be able to get me one? How about if I needed a receipt for shoes you purchased two months ago? Both of those might be tricky, right? But what if I needed a fork? Could you find one of those? Of course, right? And the reason is because forks have a home, everyone knows where they go, and everyone puts them where they go.
That has stuck with me. I am SO DONE with clutter, chaos and unorganization. 2012 is going to be the year I get organized. For reals.
So we started with the playroom.
Embarassing? Yes. Real life? Absolutely. I'd like to say this was on a particularly rough day after weeks and weeks of neglect. And while that may be partly true, this was honestly the way our playroom looked a lot of the time. The kids play here A LOT, and it is just messy and disastrous. And see all those little things all over the floor? I knew that couldn't happen because we now have a crawling baby.
So I analyzed the way my children play, brainstormed on some ideas, and then started in.
The biggest problems in the playroom: no organization, with no specific places to put anything, so oftentimes it ended up on the floor; and poor utilization of storage and keeping most often used toys in a neat and organized way.
First, we pulled everything out and had three bins: donate, trash, and keep. If the kids didn't play with it, it went to the donate pile. (With the exception of, for example, the kitchen in the above picture. The kids never play with it, but it's very possible that Avery will, so it went to the attic.) If it was junk to begin with or broken, into the trash pile. And then the things that really get a lot of use, we kept. By doing this, we were able to get rid of a TON of stuff. I mean, seriously. It was crazy how much is accumulated in eight years of parenting and three kids.
I would have taken a picture of this stage, but I was buried beneath toys. I couldn't even crawl out to grab my camera.
Then we determined that there were only two most often used toy groups in the playroom: the Calico Critters items, and Legos. So we wanted to make sure those were easily accessible and up off the floor, since they both contain small pieces.
We also decided that the closet in our playroom was totally useless. See?
The shelves were in the middle of the closet, which were totally inaccessible. There was only one shelf across that the kids could actually put stuff on on the left side. Wasted space.
And on the right side, there were no shelves! Totally crazy. We were kinda shocked that we have gone five years without doing something about it!
And the left side was my feeble attempt at organization - stuffed animals in baskets, and a totally jumbled shelf.
Do you want to see the other side of the playroom? Sure, let's all cringe together.
Yikes.
Something needed to be done.
Then, like I mentioned, we moved the play kitchen to the attic because it is never played with. We also moved the workbench out, because it was also never played with either. (So sad.)
Then we installed some wire shelves for the closet. (We purchased them from Lowe's for about $100.)
Ahhhhhhhhhh! Angels singing. This enabled us to get rid of all the eye clutter (like the opposite of eye candy, right?) from the tops of the storage units in the playroom. All the Little People items (which my kids still love!), American Girl items, trucks, games, Geo Trax, car tracks, and puzzles now go in here, on their own shelves where they can easily be put away after playing with them.
A close up? Why sure.
Here's a close up. So organized!
Here's a before and after, because I always love looking at before and after pictures, especially when it makes me this happy!
Years ago, John had built the white cabinets that hold bins for toys. Since we had three of them, we decided to divide up the room with the cabinets and use one storage unit for each child, since we have three children. It worked out perfectly! We also had poster size pictures I had hung up of Ansley and Christian that were in need of updating. But since we divided up the cabinets, we thought it would be cute to put two posters, one baby, one older, above the cabinet of each child to designate their area. So I ordered some more posters, and we purged toys and lots of junk, getting each child down to three bins, since that was what the area would hold.
Then, we needed a solution for the Calico Critters and the Legos. They needed to be up off the floor. John had made a table for Ansley several years ago for her Calico Critters, but she has expanded her collection since then, so it was too small. As a result, they would pull it off the table and onto the floor and then little pieces would be everywhere.
We looked at several stores, trying to find what we needed. I am always so impressed when I read blogs or hear from friends of how they found this perfect table at Goodwill for $5 and they just repainted it and it was perfect.
We are not those people.
Generally, when we need something, John builds it.
So, we headed to Home Depot (actually we spent a LOT of time there during this redo!) to get the supplies. John is very talented in this area, so he whipped these out in a few hours. They turned out great, and were EXACTLY what we needed!
Here are the tables, ready to be stained. I can't remember why we had a naked baby crawling around, but I'm sure it had something to do with ummm we were too busy cleaning and purging to get her dressed. Or something like that.
We didn't want to get rid of the table John had originally made for Ansley, so we moved it under the window. You can see it in the above picture, and we use it for larger baby toys.
Then we stained the tables. Right in the playroom. We put the baby down for bed, and the kids helped with this part. They love to help, but sometimes when stain is involved, it can get crazy. It was actually fun, though, and the kids ooohhhed and ahhhhhed over their new tables. We had to give them overnight to dry, then we slapped a coat of polyurethane on top.
Last, I have always wanted to hang the kids artwork in the playroom, I've just never done it. So we grabbed some matching frames from Target, and put Ansley's artwork on one side, and Christian's on the other side. (As Avery gets older and draws, we will change some out for her, too.)
And are you ready? Drum roll............
I'm seriously SO thrilled with the way this turned out.
Okay, here goes:
Wowza!
Can you believe it?
Aren't the two tables John made beautiful? I love them! The first table is for Legos, and they can spread them out and play away. The second table is for Calico Critters. Then you can see Ansley's storage area with her pictures and all her toys fit in her bins. You can see part of Christian's storage area, with his pictures as well. The artwork above the sofa is Ansley's, and it makes me smile when I see it.
Here's another view, just because it's so pur-ty.
Here's a close up of the tables. These have been GREAT! And the kids have played and played with their favorite toys for hours, with none of the mess. Fabulous!
Here's the other side of the playroom, with Christian's artwork above the loveseat, and his section of the playroom for toy storage.
The only part that I didn't take a picture of is where I'm standing to take the picture above, and that's Avery's area. She has her own cabinet, as well as two posters, but I only have one poster, so I will have to wait and show that. It doesn't take away from the overall effect of the playroom though.
So, that's it! The Great Playroom Makeover of 2011. (We did all this when John was off forever at the end of 2011.)
A quick look at the before and after.
And the best part is that in just over two weeks now, the playroom has stayed just like this. Part of that is due to consistency in asking the kids to make sure it's picked up at the end of each day. But the reason it's so much easier to clean up is because everything has a place, so it never gets to the point of looking like the photo on the left. It has also been great because we are able to play as a family in there, whereas before, we wouldn't even want to go in there because it was so messy!
One room down.......the rest of the house to go!
