Jan 20

Written by: Geri Imler
1/20/2010 1:51 PM

After all of the chaos of Christmas and the mass amount of new toys and things for the girls, we decided we had to come up with a new strategy for organization around here.  So, after turning the dining room (which was rarely used) into a playroom, it was time to figure out just how to store all of those toys that were on the floor and in plastic boxes so that the girls could easily get them out to play with and put them away when they were done.  So we come up with the idea of these "cube shelves" with bins in them for the girls to keep their toys separated and organized.  We filled a whole wall with these shelves, divided up the toys so similar things would be in the same bin, and then used the opened shelves to store other toys.  We stuck their bookshelf in the middle of all of this, Tim decorated the top of the shelves with baskets of animals, and ta-da!  An organized, easy to use and clean up, fun-to-be-in playroom!  The girls LOVE being in there, and they do a great job of helping to clean up before nap time and bedtime each day.  We have made the rule that the girls must keep their toys in the playroom unless they are given permission to have them elsewhere in the house, and this has really helped to cut down on clutter in the other rooms.  Of course there are days when the playroom looks like it exploded everywhere, but at least it is easy to pick up and put back in order.  Also, getting a lot of boxes and toys off of the floor and into the bins and shelves has really opened up the floor space in the playroom, too.  The girls are free to be creative and independent in there, and it is a lot of fun to just sit in there with them as they play.  And Sophie enjoys watching her sisters move around and be active as she rolls around on the floor in there.  Overall, we are very pleased with the result so far!  Take a look at the new shelves and bins:

The new wall of shelves and bins in the playroom.  The floor space is completely open in front of this wall now, which gives the girls a lot of room to play!

Tags: