Well I thought since this month we were talking about playrooms it would only be fair if I showed you mine. There is absolutely nothing fancy about our playroom unless of course you count the bright yellow Big Bird paint color. My husband still hasn’t forgiven me for that one. Trust me the color is much brighter in person 🙂
I feel very fortunate to have this space. When the kids get rambunctious on me I have somewhere to kick send them. A lot of hockey and soccer gets played down there. Each week my middle son gets the chore of cleaning the room up but because everything has a home, it really doesn’t take him that long at all.
Before:
After:
We use our old microwave stand for the TV and DVD player. This works amazingly well as the cupboard below provides ample space for all the DVD’s and videos.
Next we have the toy cubby unit that I absolutely love. I love that even my youngest son can handle the baskets and I also love that the baskets keep the clutter hidden and contained. Labels help identify what goes where. You can read more about that here.
We keep all the balls and hockey sticks in a rubbermaid tote lined with a Bin Buddie. Very handy indeed. I reviewed the Bin Buddie awhile back over on my review site.
Here is the other side of the room. The car play mat is kept rolled up and under the futon when not in use.
The back of the playroom holds the air hockey table and craft/game table. I’m not usually a big fan of toy boxes for most things but they do work great for dress up clothes which is what we use ours for.
The fussball table and puppet theatre are also along the back wall:
Hidden behind the puppet theatre are the puppets in a basket on a small half table.
If there is one thing I can say about setting up any kind of play space is to create zones around the room to impose some limits and boundaries to the space. Having a home for everything is also key. If you want your kids to work the system you have to make it as easy as possible for them to maintain it.
Do not set them up for failure.
Things should be at their level allowing them to be able to put stuff away quickly when required. For instance the dress up clothes are popular in our house and they usually get strewn all over the room but with the toy box all they have to do is lift the lid and shove them in when it comes time to clean up. I’m happy with that. How awesome would it look though to have them hung up on some type of cute organized rack but that is just not practical and I would totally be setting them up for failure when they neglected to work “my” system.
Once you’ve got some manageable (uncluttered!) systems in place the rest is up to consistency and training and letting the kids know what is expected of them. Something I’ve done in the past to aid the kids in their tidying up is to take a picture of how the room and each zone should look when it is all cleaned up and toys put away. You can either post this on the wall or simply in a small photo album.
These are just some ideas of things I do to maintain some order in my playroom. There are so many different ways to organize a play space and I’ve only just touched on a few of them here. As always please feel free to share what is working for you or even what is not working. And let me know if you’ve got any toy related questions and I’ll try to answer them here in the comments for you.
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Cassandra Stafford says
Ok. i am loving your site. its new to me so I am currently spending lots of (too much I am sure) time here catching up. My question is…love the playroom. Do they have any toys in their room or is everything in the playroom?
Laura says
Yes the two oldest also have toys in their rooms. Things they wouldn’t want their littlest brother (2) to touch such as polly pockets for my daughter and pirates/lego for my middle son. They each also have a bookcase in their room to hold all their own books as well as a desk each.
Thanks for visiting!!
Beth says
What is it with posts about yellow rooms today? Did I miss the memo? 🙂
Dawn says
What a great playroom for your kids. Unfortunately we don’t have a separate playroom so the kids have to keep all their toys in their rooms. I just posted some pictures of the organization in my oldest son’s room if you want to check it out.
Trac y says
We had a playroom in our previous house. Each wall was a different color. One was blue, one red, one yellow and one green. Really basic primary colors (except the green, but I needed a fourth color!)
Tell your husband he’s lucky!
Heather says
This rocks!!
Organizing Mommy says
Laura,
I’m ready to get back into the swing of organizing my own space again! I have a playroom/ craftroom that needs help. I thought you would like seeing my vacation organizing.
http://organizedeveryday.blogspot.com (under Tackle it Tuesday).
God bless you as you serve Him.
Angela says
I am so thankful for our playroom/classroom/craft room/storage room/studio – yes, a little too much stuff going on in one room, but it’s a lot better than having it all going on in the living room which was our state of affairs prior to adding on to our house. The girls have lots of dress up clothes too, and after seeing this post, I might just commandeer the toy box for those articles, and move the toys into smaller, more categorized units.
Beth says
Great space! We don’t have a playroom and we DO have a very small house, so we kind of have toys throughout. I’m definately working on how to approach this organizational hurdle, but stay tuned – I may organize something brilliant at any moment, lol!
chupieandjsmama says
Excellent post! I’m taking notes 🙂
amanda says
all these spring cleaning pictures that are covering the blog-o-sphere make me want to get cleaning. tooo lazy at the moment 🙂
Heavenly Homemaker says
Hey, what’s not to love about Big Bird Yellow?! Looks like a super fun play room!
Sarah says
Beautiful! What a nice playroom! I like the idea of taking a photo to show the children what the clean room should look like…great idea!!
Julieann says
Love the toy cubby!! Our last house, we had a playroom, I sure do miss it!
Julieann
LouAnne says
Wow!! That’s so impressive!! I absolutely love your ideas and that amazing cubbie shelf. I need to check out that Bin Buddie!! Thanks for all the great tips.
Laura says
Wow! That is one neat playroom! I too do not have a playroom (bungalow style home with an unfinished basement) and so all of our toys are kept out in the living room. The only toys that are in the girls’ room are some stuffed animals that are kept in a collapsible style laundry hamper. I also really like how it is easy for the children to clean up! That is one thing I strive to do with my toy system as well! I run a home day care so having the kids help me pick up the toys is fabulous as they can make a gigantic mess! Thank you for the tips!
Jenn says
It looks great, I wish I had a playroom again, this house doesn’t but our next house will !
The Roost says
Playrooms/areas are so great for kids. You have done an awesome job making yours bright & organized and easy to clean up!
amy says
cool space! you need some ‘better’ before pictures LOL…that ain’t nothin;) very neat ideas.
Nancy says
Great information! Thanks for sharing! We will be moving in a few months, so great tips for organizing our new playroom (which we don’t currently have)!
Patricia says
Awesome playroom. I would like to organize my daughters toys, her playroom is a disaster! Please tell me where you purchased the shelf with the 9 compartments that 9 bins can easily be held with toy?
Thanks.