New Year, New Play Room

I don't really make new year resolutions. I can't even say that I really make new year goals, if there is a distinction between the two. Sure there are things that I'm working toward achieving, but they are more of a constant, not a new year thing. Plus I'm not that big of a life planner. I'm more of a day to day kind of person. One thing I am always working on improving is organization, especially around the house. We have been amassing stuff for the past 8 or so years, and not to mention the fact that there are three more people living in the house from when we started, so it's easy to say we have to get rid of some stuff. It has been a work in progress, but I think it's coming along nicely. I always get a burst of energy to downsize and organize around the first of the year. Start the new year clean and the rest of the year will follow, right??

My most recent project was to tackle the kid's play room, formerly known as the living room. We converted the living room into a play room for Sofia quite a while ago, but when the twins came along we quickly realized when they started crawling that sharing a play space may not be a great idea. So we moved the boys into our family room and did some creative baby proofing using baby gates, play pens, ropes and an ironing board. Sounds slightly dangerous but really it worked rather well. At least for the first year. But then they got strong enough to push our sorry excuse for baby proofing aside and get into the cabinets, and they could reach over the play pen and touch the electronics, plus we'd eventually have to put a Christmas tree in there and I'm pretty sure that's not an approved toddler toy. So we combined the two play rooms. I tried using the existing shelving and organization we had in place already but it just wasn't enough. Trying to cram all those toddler toys in with her crayons and barbie shoes was not working great. The boys' favorite playtime activity was to take every single coloring book off the shelf and dump the entire bucket of crayons on the floor. As soon as the hustle bustle of the holidays was over, I ran to IKEA to remedy that. 

I neglected to take any before photos so just use your imagination I guess. But this is what it looks like now.

the White family play room

I wish I had a play room as awesome as this growing up! All the shelving and cabinets were already in the play room except for one. We added in one Expedit unit from IKEA. I guess you could say I'm an IKEA fan. I definitely don't hate it. Is it the most amazing furniture ever? No. But it works and it's cheap and super functional. I think the Expedit is probably one of my favorite pieces. We use one as our changing table, just stuck a changing pad on top, that way when all is done, the boys have a bookshelf already. It doesn't have a back like some units do, so it can be used as a room divider because both front and back are finished. You can either lay it down like we have here, or you can stand it up and use it like a traditional bookshelf. So versatile. 

The new Expedit unit. Those baskets hold SO much stuff. 

I strategically placed this new shelving to help block off Adam's desk and delay the boys getting to it. The jury is still out if that was an effective move or not. The bins are huge and hold a ton of stuff so if I have to clean this space up quickly, I can throw everything into the bins. It all fits. It's also high enough to be out of reach for the boys so this was a good place to put Sofia's new princess castle (a present from Santa).

I wanted to make sure there was space in the play room to display art work. I'm not a fan of having it hang off the fridge since the doorway into the kitchen is right between the refrigerator and the kitchen table. I found these sweet jumbo sized clothespins with arrows on them in the dollar section at Target awhile back. They are adorable for displaying artwork. I used some command strips to hang them on the wall so I didn't have to punch any holes and I could move them around easily. There's a row of them all along the wall. We just clip artwork in the clips for all to see.

Adorable, right? 

But I wanted to be able to showcase some of Sofia's better artwork too. I originally bought a shadowbox picture frame for scrapbook pages with the intent to do a page every season and hang it in the entryway. The glass broke shortly after purchase so Adam removed the glass entirely and we put the frame in the play room. It works really well - no glass so we just pin artwork into the frame on the attached cork board - but it's small. There's a lot of space for more frames but I don't know if I want to buy another frame just like this. Seems like overkill to have to take the glass out, so I might just get a nice glassless frame and put cork board in it myself. This works for now though.

Sofia drew the picture and made the button frame. 

During one of my regular IKEA shopping trips I found these wall rack bar things on clearance so I snatched a few up. I'm pretty sure they sell the same thing or something similar in the kitchen department. There are hooks you can place on the bar or there is an assortment of hanging buckets you can get. This works out great for hanging aprons and larger toys to get them off the floor. Also for keeping smaller toys in buckets to keep them away from little mouths.

I tried to separate Sofia's toys from the boys' toys as much as I could, so I moved an existing piece to the far side of the room. It's one of those units they sell at Target that you can buy bins for. I need to get more bins for this unit. I dislike that the bins are much smaller than the IKEA ones but they do have a ton of colors and styles. I tried to showcase all the cuter retro toys by placing them on the top shelf. This also makes it easier for the boys to play with.

All in all I think the room turned out great. I'm really glad there is a place for everything and it's all organized. All the barbies fit in one bin, all the crayons were moved to a plastic bin with a locking top, the trains are in their own bin, legos in another. It's glorious! I dislike that I had to move the play kitchen in front of the fireplace as that pretty much means we won't ever use it, but not like we could anyway with all these "spare the air" days we've been having. So really, is it a loss???

I also re-organized Sofia's closet taking out her drawers and adding in some shelving units.... while she was sleeping! Kudos to my Mom and I for pulling that off two feet from her head. But I wasn't sure you just wanted to see pictures of a closet, so I left those out.

I'll leave you with a close up of the best hand-me-down we've received to date, the Radio Flyer Blaze Riding Horse which Sofia has lovingly named Neighnees and has ridden almost daily. Glad I was able to make room for this beast of a toy.