In our last home we created a play area in the basement but since it was a ranch home
we also had an area for toys in our living room, which usually meant there were toys
strewn about various areas of our home. In our new home we are lucky enough to have
a dedicated play space on our main level and one of the first things I wanted to do after
moving in last year was get it set-up for the kids. In reality it took a few months longer than
expected to get everything out of boxes and the right storage solutions but I am absolutely loving how this room functions for our family and how creative my kids can be in the space.
There are still times where toys are strewn about the house, a matchbox car race track through the living room has become an annual NYE thing, but now its a much easier to maintain a sense of order when its time to clean up. It was so fun to create a space that functioned well for my kids and was really satisfying for me to have a place for everything, especially after the chaos of moving into a new home. This room meet the needs of my kids allows them a place to express themselves and makes me happy because its looks nice when everything is put away. Here are my top 3 tips to keep in mind when planning
out your playroom.
Tip #1: Let Your Kids Truly See Their Options
For this room I knew right away that I wanted to get closed storage units to flank the window and I went with the very budget friendly PAX system from IKEA. These are 24" deep and hold a TON of stuff, even the big awkward toys like race tracks with loops. I loved the mesh pull out bin option so the kids can easily see their toys and it makes for easy clean up. I typically use clear or opaque bins for storage so anyone can see what's in them or I label them and have things look neat.
It took me a few weeks to clear out the moving boxes and group all the toys together by
category (thank goodness for my parents who kept the kids out of the room while I
tackled this) but it was the most important thing to do first so I knew how much I had
and what type of storage I needed. It was also a great time to purge all the broken,
missing, or out grown toys from our collection. After that I began grouping items by
large categories that could be stored in the same area: art supplies, paper/coloring
books, paint, tracing, stamps, play-dough, kinetic sand, sensory bin items, games and
puzzles, and grouping toys by kid and age. It's always a puzzle to figure out exactly where the items should go, but once you figure out the right combination put a label on it. I am obsessed with my label maker and as someone who needs and appreciates visual cues, its helps me know where should go back too.
Tip #2: Allow Your Children to Clean Up in Their Own Way
Cleaning up after the fun is over can be a challenge (at least 90% of the time it is in this house), but I've found having at least one junk toy drawer is helpful to keep the process moving. Larger bins and baskets can make it easier to get the mess off the floor (or from one room in the house to another) quickly. Once the toys are in a basket its easy to tuck it on a shelf or back in its home to help reduce visual clutter. The junk drawer and baskets normally need to get sorted at some point but it helps make the initial clean up process faster.
Tip #3: Encourage Your Littles to Set Up Systems
I also decided to invest in peel and stick labels to help the clean up process and
have the kids recognize where things should go. My kids can't read yet but they can recognize images and the addition of the words on the labels will hopefully be some site word training. The label are also super helpful when friends come over because then everyone knows where the toys should go. It also gives kids ownership and knowledge of what to do when asked to help clean up.
After the initial playroom set-up a year ago it was pretty amazing to see how my kids reacted to an organized space just for them. It encouraged them to play with the toys because they could see them all... and they hadn't seen most of them in months so they were new to them anyway. Rotating toys is also a way to make sure the playroom doesn't get too crowded.
The phrase "mommy's organizing" has caught on and the kids have been doing a little bit of organizing themselves. My oldest, who is 6, went on on a little organization rampage
in his room and began putting things in specific spaces which was neat to see.
Recently my 4 year old has said she doesn't want her room messy so maybe
they are absorbing some little habits that I'll reap the benefits of in later years. My 2 year old is known as Baby Godzilla so she maybe a work in progress for a couple more years. The
playroom still gets torn apart and things get mixed together (I just sorted everything the other day) but now we all know where things should go and that's half the battle of getting organized!
If you're in need of help designing a space that works for your family we would love to help! Book your discovery call here and let's start making the space work for you.
Warmly,
Carrie
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