Our playroom is in the space where our dining room should be. We are grateful for the house we live in, but it is not huge and we have to make space decisions based on our needs. Our kids are 3 and 5 and when we moved into the house 2.5 years ago, the epidemic was nearing its end. The idea of having guests over for dinner parties seemed way less important, or probable, than needing a play space for our energetic kids.
The main floor has an open plan layout and the dining room is in-between the kitchen and the living room. So, when toys and mess get out of control, it is impossible to ignore. After a hectic December, a manic Christmas morning and a family trip to Vancouver for two weeks after Christmas – we had some serious cleaning up to do.
Excess doesn’t bother me in December, but all of a sudden becomes stressful in January. The addition of the Christmas toys pushed me past a tipping point and the clutter felt overwhelming. The playroom was the first space in the house I started organizing after returning from our trip. I started by removing the Maileg ski chalet “island” and then rotating the toys in the IKEA Kallax cubes.
The toys on the left side of the shelf haven’t rotated in a while. The top left basket holds the Grapat masala loose parts and the kids use them in the kitchen and for all types of things. My 3 year old loves farms and farm animals, so his barn, farm items and Schleich figures stay out and get played with daily. If we go away for a few days, my son will talk about how much he misses his red barn. He is obsessed, so it hasn’t been out of rotation in a long time. The lego barn set was a Christmas present and is new to the shelf.
The rest of the cubes hold a mix of Christmas gifts, winter themed toys, puzzles and games that are either new or have been out of rotation for a while. The bottom baskets hold toys that stay out all the time – magnetic tiles, magnetic tile ball run pieces, wooden roads, wooden train tracks, wooden train track special pieces (e.g., bridges, stations, etc.), a variety of soft balls, and vehicles.
Next in my clean-up, I switched the kitchen and building areas so there would be more room for all the building materials and new Ostheimer castle and Drewart Pirate Island pieces along the staircase wall. Sometimes moving the location of toys can make them feel new and interesting to the kids.
We’re ready for a fresh start to our play in 2024. The house won’t be featured in any home decor magazines anytime soon, but it feels more simplified and organized and we’re very happy with it. Now onto the rest of the house. If you look closely below, you can see I still have a wreath up on the door outside. Lots of work left to do.
