So, the last time I blogged I was trying to get my house somewhat organized. That was August. Now it's May. I fell into an organizational rut. I had good ideas, but just couldn't get things together and things got really busy and chaotic at work and I fell farther behind and the organization was going no where fast. And then, I found IKEA! Wow! Jason and I went to San Francisco in April and we stopped at an IKEA while we were there. I was in organization heaven! There were shelving units, storage boxes, picture frames (that's for another post!), and other amazing tools that I discovered. I ended up shipping two large boxes back home from California, but that was just a tease! I needed the shelves. The shelves arrived yesterday and I was pretty much giddy with organizational happiness! I got right to work and built the shelves (6, to be exact). This afternoon, I finally finished the playroom. I am pretty sure that I have re-done our playroom at least 6 times in the last 5 years. But, I have finally gotten it right. Note: It will probably never look like this again.
Well, these wall shelves. That's what. These things create some fabulous storage. The difficult thing with our playroom is that it's not big and the walls are short, because it is open to the living area downstairs. This causes a problem, because the kids can reach every single toy, any time they want. When I found these, I was thrilled. I was even more thrilled that they were only $24.99! They mount to the wall and are super-sturdy.
This one holds puzzles, games, and some other small toys.
This one holds all of the Legos that I spent hours sorting by color. Sidenote: Andrew loves the organization of his Legos and has done an awesome job keeping them in the right place.
For this one, I ordered the bins that fit in the shelf (yes, it has bins that slide in and out. And they are fantastic!). I have art supplies in this one. Madelyn has a bad habit of using scissors and glue and paint for purposes other than artwork, so they are now out of her reach. On top of this shelf are my jigsaw puzzles. I took them out of the paper boxes that just tear up and got these cd storage cases for $.97 at Wal-Mart. They stack and the puzzles fit perfect. I cut out the picture of the puzzle and put it in the box too.
Next up, the Art Center. I have moved this table everywhere and finally saw on Pinterest where someone had it in a corner and put the IKEA rod with cups that connect along either side of the wall. Love! Plus, the orange container that stores a bazillion crayons. It's a perfect little space and it's out of the way of the main play area.
The dress up clothes were another battle that I kept losing. I had them in the kid's closets or in bins in their bedroom, but they just kept gettin all messed up. Some of them were in the playroom on hooks and they never stayed on the hook. One of the teachers did this in her classroom and I copied the idea. I got a clothes rack and just didn't add the bars that make it tall, so it's the perfect height. All the dress up clothes are hung up and they don't have to dig through boxes to find the certain outfit. The accessories are in the boxes next to it.
These shelves are another IKEA find. They have the connectors to for the tubs, like the wall shelves, but I had these colored storage bins that I love and decided to just use those instead of buying new ones. They have all kinds of different toys in them.
Organizning their books was a task. I was going to sort them by topic, but that just wasn't going to work. I needed more boxes and, come on, it's not my classroom. They don't have to be perfectly arranged by topic, author, etc. (I say that more for myself than for you.) I hung some book shelves on the wall to display some current favorites and plan to rotate the books for holidays, seasons, etc. Just to keep it fun! They also have book shelves in their rooms too. We like reading around here!
Here is a vies of the playroom. Underneath the window will be another IKEA shelf, it just hasn't been ordered yet. I wanted to make sure I liked them first! I do! We've also got Andrew's train table for the kids to use to play on and Madelyn's kitchen set in there.
I was in a hurry to get this done (I go home and clean during my lunch break since the kids aren't there) and so I didn't finish this wall. These are cork circles that I found at IKEA. I plan to get some big push pins for them to display photos and artwork on those.
And a final view of the playroom. I forgot to mention earlier, we ripped out the carpet and had wood floors put in. My grandmother got us a super-cute alphabet rug too. I am so happy with the way that it has turned out! I think the kids are really going to enjoy destroying it!
Now that I've finally gotten out of my "organizational block" I am ready to tackle more projects. Jason says that I start too many projects at once and don't finish them. Boo! I just get excited. That's what the problem is. I plan to do more posting again soon.
