It's that time again!!
{Translation: if you're nosy, this is your favorite post of the month.....because you get to PEEK INSIDE my house!}
Believe it or not, this is one of my favorite posts to do each month too. I know how much I enjoy looking at how other people have organized (& decorated) their homes, so it makes me happy to give you a glimpse of mine, a room at a time.
This month - and last month, too - we have been talking about organizing all things in the dreaded playroom....artwork, DVDs, games, toys, and electronics. It can be a bit overwhelming, I know. Hopefully you've found some good organizing solutions this month on the blog though!
And without further ado, I present.....My playroom.....
This room is the heart of our home. It serves not only as the playroom, but the family room. It houses the bigger of our 2 TV's (the other - smaller - one is upstairs in the master). We gather in here to watch "America's Funniest Home Videos" on Sunday nights (yes, that is still on!), we play board games in here, and it's where we congregate when family is in town. It's not a huge room, but it has oodles of storage space. Surprisingly, I haven't figured out a way to use it all yet! (Good problem to have, I know.)
I adore the plantation shutters and the built-in bookcases flanking the windows. Let's start on the left side bookcase....
I have a few pieces of my kids' artwork stored here, and since they are held on with clips, I can change them out easily. I am not a huge DIY gal, but these frames were a small project I tackled. I removed the glass from each frame, and then covered each backing with burlap. Then I just hot-glued a clip to the burlap!
Down below in the cabinet, we store our card games & puzzles. Like I said, still have some empty storage space to be utilized down the line....
My kids LOVE to play card games - Uno, Go Fish, and Old Maid are their current favorites - but they are pretty rough on the boxes. So I have put each card game into a baggie, and put a label on the front with the game name. And if there are any instructions, those go in the baggie too.
Moving the right side bookcase....
In the gray basket on the bottom shelf, we store the kids' electronics. This consists of a DS, Leap Pad, and 2 Kindles. I like to keep all the chargers in this basket as well, so the kids always know where they can find them. (THEY are in charge of charging their devices, not Mommy!)
I corral the chargers with a simple twist tie, and made a label with washi tape.
In the below cabinet, we keep cds - my husband refuses to part with them!! - as well as a case full of batteries and a stack of DS games.
Here is a close-up of our battery storage. This is just one of those craft/bead organizers from Michael's, and they're great because the dividers are easy to rearrange and I love all the compartments. Larger batteries, as well as a screwdriver, are stored in the wicker basket atop the battery case. (If you think it's random that we have batteries in the playroom, you must not have many toys. Somehow from day one, our kids' toys have always required a lot of batteries!)
Moving onto the entertainment system.
I have seen this DVD storage system over & over on Pinterest, and I think it's great. But, truth be told, I prefer to keep it simple. The top shelf holds my son's movies, the middle shelf holds my daughter's movies, and the bottom shelf holds my husband's movies & a few Christmas ones. There is a little bit of overlap between my son & daughter tastes, but for the most part, they keep it organized this way. And I think it's easier to identify the movie if it's still in its case.
Now onto perhaps the best part of the playroom. Two closets - with doors so you can close them if you don't want to see all the toys! - flank the entrance to the room.
The closet on the left holds:
1. 2 bins of adult games - Scrabble, Boggle, Balderdash, etc.
2. Kids' games
3. Bins with hanging chalkboard labels for: Cars, Horses, Wrestling Figures, Abby, Nate, Building Boards. (The "Abby" and "Nate" bins are my favorite because they hold all the miscellaneous junk my kids love - the stuff they get in Happy meals, at parties, etc. All the stuff they claim to not be able to live without!)
4. 2 large tubs that hold Weapons and Miscellaneous large toys.
I went with a simple gray & white theme, and all of the white bins are from the Dollar Store. The gray ones are from Target & TJ Maxx.
The right side toy closet holds the following:
1. Workout mat & Outdoor stuff
2. Balls, Tea Set, Pokémon, Instruments, TMNT
3. Gears, Magnetix, Barbies, My Little Ponies, Princesses, Guns
4. Stroller, Pom-Poms, blue gymnastic mats, jumbo piano (like in the movie "Big!"), and a Nerf machine gun.
Again, the bins came from Dollar Tree, Target, and TJ Maxx. I love the hanging chalkboard labels, because they are easy to change as your kids' toys change. I have found that sorting toys into categories really helps three things:
1. Kids can see their options.
2. Kids can find what they are looking for more easily.
3. Kids don't have the excuse of saying "I don't know where it goes!" when it's clean-up time
(#3 is my favorite reason!)
One more little gem for you....since we don't have a huge or flat coffee table in the playroom, I keep an old bulletin board under the couch. We slide it out when we need a flat surface to play a game, do a puzzle, or build a creation. And then when we're done, just slide it back under the couch & out of sight!
This concludes the tour of our playroom. I hope you picked up some good tips! Leave a comment below with your favorite way you organize your playroom. (Or what you need help with!)
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