The Playroom

Ok, let's talk playrooms.  I'd like to say that I'm super trendy and have gorgeous furniture and an imagination-stimulating playroom, but tis not so.  Well, not yet anyway!

This is the before picture of my playroom.  Don't be horrified, you know it's exactly how yours looks too!  (Those ones on pinterest with huge square footage, bright colors, natural light and only like 4 toys, yeah, who lives like that).  We've lived in this house for 4 months, and I have no budget for major redecorating, so we will just have to love the maroon carpet and weird window shade for now.  But, while you're looking check out that molding around the windows, so gorgeous!!

 So, I started brainstorming.  There were toys everywhere, and no method to cleaning up, and it's impossible to get the boys to help clean if they don't know where anything goes.  Normally they just throw it all in the corner, lol.  So, as with all great projects, it started with a trip to Target . . . 


I really love the playroom cubes that Ikea sells, they are taller, but they were 3 times the price.  Target had these cubes on sale for only $35 the first weekend in April.  I bought the baskets in that fun aqua color (though husband is still convinced that the color is too girly) and added the numbers 1-4 in felt.  Simple, found a font I liked on my computer, made them a good size, printed, cut out, traced and hot glued on the baskets.  (It probably would have been easier with a silhouette machine, but that still exists only in my dreams!)  

So here's the toy organization that I came up with:

You know there are those toys your kids always play with (toy cars and little action figures) and then there are toys they play with for a bit (like legos and the tool set) and then they just drag, scatter and throw them all over the house.

Basket #1 is for toy cars.  If someone wants a car, I just say, "Have you looked in basket #1?"  And if we need to put some cars away, I just say "Let's put all of these in basket #1."  And it happens, rejoice!  Easier cleanup and the favorite race cars aren't getting lost.

Basket #2 is just for action figures.  We have Hulk, Captain America, the random firefighter and so on.

All the remaining toys I have sorted, put in bags and stored in the cupboard under the stairs.  Once a week each boy can choose one toy set to get out and play with for the week.  That keeps the toys fresh, and when we're done we have all the pieces.

My little Superman gets basket #3, he chose the dinosaurs.












And Mr. Batman chose the megablocks racetrack.












So, when the floor starts looking like this . . .                                                                      

 I say, "All of those blocks need to be in basket #4."  And it happens:)

So there you have it.  Clutter free, easy clean-up for the kiddos and it's kind of adorable.  We can enjoy our toys more, and rotate through them.  So next time someone is yelling at me, "I can't find Spider-man!!!!" I can just point them to basket #2 . . . .