Playroom Completed

The 30 Organizational Challenge is over. So what do I have to show for it?

Our playroom is now organized. I wish it was “finished” though. We didn’t have time to paint it before we moved in and Philip assures me that it’s not going to happen. The walls are a lovely shade of baby formula blah(look, Sandy, I’m blogging about my walls!) and they need some sort of decoration. I’ve got nicely framed posters from White House Easter Egg Rolls…somewhere amid the moving boxes. We also plan on installing some high, deep shelves for some of the larger stuffed animals. I even have curtains for the room. I think I saw them the other day. But the room is organized, and that is all that matters for now. Focus, focus!

Do you remember the room in it’s original state? You can also read about the work in progress in Working on the Playroom and Purging the Toys. But here are the Before and After pictures:

Before: Standing right at the doorway. A heap of junk. You can see the attempts at organization with the bins, drawers and containers.

After: The same exact part of the room. You can see the toy bins are lined up and neatly labeled. To the right of them is a 3-drawer unit for playmobile toys. Alas, there are still 2 moving boxes in the corner. It can’t be helped right now.

After: This 3 drawer set holds our Playmobile sets. The tackle box on top holds the knights.

After: The toy bins all neat and tidy and purged. I made new labels for them, too. More on that, later.

Before: Just moving the camera to the left a bit. More chaos.

After: There are toys in the middle of the room because Bip (sitting on the couch) was playing in the room while I was trying to take pictures. We moved the small bookshelf seen in the 2nd “before” picture (behind the cradle), added a larger bookshelf and removed the cradle.

Before: Bookshelf #1. The top 2 shelves are my books, the bottom 3 are a mess of the kid’s books. A Little People farm and house are next to it.

After: Bookshelf #1. The Little People toys are in the closet now, and in their place is a
hamper with fun noodles, swords, light sabers and a hobby horse. The top 2 shelves are still mine, I just straightened them up and used the space better. The middle shelf is for the children’s taller books and there are 2 magazine holders for their magazines. The next shelf down is the rest of their books. The bottom shelf are games and puzzle books. On the middle shelf you can see a little kitty litter pan:

It holds their thin little books that tend to get lost or smashed with the regular size books.

Before: Bookshelf #3, cradle and dress up clothes. The dress up clothes are to the left of the little bookshelf, in a white box.

After: Bookshelf #2 (new) and Bookshelf #3. The very top of bookshelf #2 (the tall one) and the first shelf are for mementos. These things have sentimental value but are not played with. The next shelf is for paper storage. Boo and Pumpkin Girl each have their own “Becca Box” full of drawings they made of their sister. They also each have a white paper storage box, labeled with their name, for storing whatever paper treasures they may have. Cards, drawings, whatever, as long as it is paper, gets put here. When they are full, we will purge them together. These boxes are new and the children both really like them.

The cradle is gone and bookshelf #3 was moved into its place.

After: Bookshelf #3, holding some larger toys that don’t fit anywhere else.

After: The dress up box. I got a bigger box and with the children’s help, purged the dress up clothes that no longer fit them. I got baggies for some of the smaller pieces that were likely to fall to the bottom. The lid for this box is hiding behind the door because we don’t need it on a daily basis. The clothes will all fit inside, if they are folded nicely. I don’t expect that to happen, except when we move again.

Before: Well. Um, this was supposed to be the crafting area.

After: A real Crafting Zone! Table and chairs are readily available. The white bins hold crafting supplies. The blue bin is the new dress up box.

After: The craft storage cart. Top drawer is crayons and pencils, drawer 2 is stickers, drawer 3 is paper, drawer 4 is coloring and activity books.

One thing I had done a few years ago was to make labels for our toy bins. I used clip art and a big happy font. Last year, I decided we had outgrown those and made word-only labels. Well, they didn’t work so well. Even though my children can read, clean up is faster and easier when they can see in second, from across the room, what a bin holds. So I took the time to replace the picture labels and even added some to other containers. Go back and look at the “after” pictures again and see if you can spot all the nicely labeled containers. When I told my children that I had made them new labels, they were pretty happy. The labels not only help with clean-up, but also to remind them of the toys they have, that when properly put away are out of sight-out of mind.

Here are close-ups of 2 of the labels:

(Pumpkin Girl calls this set “pretty land”)

And now, to make a long post even longer, let me answer the questions posed as part of the 30 Day Organizational Challenge.

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

The hardest part was getting overwhelmed. Just looking at the mess, being angry with the kids for not maintaining the room, being angry with myself for not setting it up for them correctly in the first place, being angry at having so much stuff. Lots of anger. It got in the way of seeing rationally and being able to realize that it wasn’t so much one huge project, but lots of little ones.

What was helpful was having this 30-day deadline, being accountable to the challenge. We just worked one area at a time, step by step.

Another challenge was finding toy storage that is accessible to small children. Even though the room has a ton of vertical storage, the children can’t reach it! Some things just had to be stacked. We kept that to a minimum, and just accepted that some toys would need to be stored on the floor.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

As I mentioned, I put new picture labels on the toy bins and storage containers. The new labels will quickly show what goes where. We also added boxes for important papers, which will keep them from getting stuck any ol’ where.

Another change was that we tried to group like items with like items. All the Polly Pocket/Princesses are on one shelf. The doll clothes suitcases are on one shelf (one suitcase for each different size doll). The building toys are on different shelves, but on the same bookshelves. Books and magazines are on the same bookshelf. All the Playmobile toys are in one cart.

We will continue to clean up this room on a daily basis, as part of afternoon chore time. More diligent monitoring on my part will help, too.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

Some of it we gave away, some was thrown away. Toys in good shape, that were used and liked at the time but are now outgrown were boxed up and put in storage to wait for our toddler to grow in to.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?

First of all, it’s not enough for the room to be cleaned up daily. Even though they do a good job of it, the children still miss things that are out of place. Mom or Dad need to go in to the room at least once a week and point out the things that need putting away. We need to go through the toys at least once a year, perhaps right before all the birthdays and holidays get started, and take out the toys and books that are no longer played with.

And less is more!

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?

After taking the “after” pictures, I sat in the newly organized playroom and felt a sense of peace. I looked around and thought, “I like this room!” I have noticed that the children are playing with toys that have been neglected for a while. I think that is because now they can see most of their toys or at least the storage boxes. With a more organized space, I can nag less and they children can take a greater responsibility for their things. Did someone say “shalom in the home?”

In the long term, I hope that we can teach the children to have a place for everything and keep everything in it’s place. The old cliche is still valid. I hope this lesson stays with them for a lifetime. I also hope that they learn that organizing a space is not the end. You have to work to maintain it. A few minutes a day will keep an organized space from becoming a swirling vortex of junk. I hope the playroom never gets that bad again! Now this is the most organized room in our house. I hope to be inspired by it to organize the rest of the house.

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