Hi y'all, it's been a while. I'm sorry. Life has been nuts. Living far away from family has made our lives a little bit more hectic & has upped our traveling. Let me tell ya.. traveling alone with 2 kids - no cakewalk. Phew.
Alright, I'm terrible at writing my ideas down, so I'll have a post just swimming around in my head for weeks & I should just get it written down. Like this post... I've had some "home" ideas since we moved in... in March. I'm so on the ball it sickens me. ;)
I wanted to share how we did our "playroom" here in our McCall/Donnelly rental. When we built our house in Nampa, we decided to add a playroom in and I LOVED IT! It was right at the top of the stairs & across from our master. Kess could play while I showered & I could hear her if I was downstairs in the kitchen. When we moved to McCall we not only lost bedrooms but a good chunk of square footage as well. We have enough room for us, but all the little extra stuff gets tricky. The kids each have their own room which I love, but our office and all of the kids' toys are out in the open. Matt and I like clutter kept to a minimum, so we have worked hard to create a little wall space for all the toys in our living room.
The biggest key for us is having a "spot" for everything. We bought this KALLAX shelf in white from Ikea when we moved into our new house & never got it put together. We put it up right away when we moved to McCall. Soon after I bought little storage bins to fit into each space. I initially bought these cute little baskets. They were a little smaller than I had originally thought (that's what I get for not looking at the dimensions) but they look super cute and they keep her toys sorted. A little while later I bought these storage bins because we needed some more places to organize things. I have the bins organized by toy type, activity, similarities, etc. I have a bin for just Kess' DVDs, another bin just for her pretend bug or outdoor stuff, a dress up/baby doll bin, a barbie bin, a puzzle/blocks bin, and a misc. bin. We also have two canvas totes on either side that have stuffed animals (soft toys) and the other one holds hard toys, i.e. Buzz & Woody, bigger toys, action figures, etc. I try to keep the top of the shelf clean and uncluttered so it falls in line with our house decor, but that doesn't always happen either.
I'll be honest with you our little play area still gets messy. Sometimes, at the end of the day we are just chucking toys in bins so we can go to bed. We are also working with Kess on putting away toys before she pulls out more... it's only going ok. ;) I have recently started grabbing toys that she doesn't play with often & putting them in a "toy rotation" box. I, of course do this while she is asleep because if she sees me grab them then that toy is the best toy ever. ;) We have so many & I feel guilty throwing them out or donating them when family members have purchased them for her. This helps keep our play area from getting overloaded. And this winter when we have been stuck inside for 3 months with 4 months to go... I'll pull the "new" toys out. #momwin.
Hopefully this helps you if you're tight on space. I would love to have a house with a small playroom or nook, but for now this is what works for our little family.
