Do you have a playroom that is full of stuff and your kids still barely want to play in there? Or maybe you don’t have a playroom, but you have a ton of clutter in your children’s bedrooms? Are you sick of trying to clean up a thousand toys at the end of the day? This was all me!!!!! My kids had a ton of toys in their playroom yet they still didn’t want to play in there as often as I would like. I was also so sick of having to clean up a bunch of toys and figuring out where to put them and just not having much organization in there. I was over it. Plain and simple!
I wanted to create a space for them that they actually enjoyed playing in EVERY DAY! After some thought, I realized that the amount of toys they had was really affecting them. It wasn’t doing them any good. In fact, it was deterring them from playing because they were so overwhelmed with it all that they were constantly trying to figure out what to play with. The result would be a complete disaster of the space and one frustrated Mama!
Now before I start, I just need to say that we are completely blessed with amazing family and friends who spoil our girls so much! We are so thankful to have as much as we do for the girls and are incredibly grateful for it all. We just knew we needed to make some changes so our girls can enjoy these toys and their stuff more.
Okay so here are the 2 steps BEFORE you start!
STEP 1
Have a plan!!!!!
Start to think about what your kids ACTUALLY play with. List the main 3 or 4 things they really enjoy doing and playing with. For my girls it was their dress up stuff, reading and drawing, baby dolls and play food. So when thinking about the space I wanted to create, I knew these would be the main few things I wanted in the room. So I based my ideas around all of this.
STEP 2
Get the kids on board!
Explain to them and tell them the plan. Maybe ask them what their favorite few things are if you aren’t quite sure. But let them know you are going to be going through their stuff and get them involved in it. I know it helped a lot for my girls when we sat down and talked about it all and what we were going to do.
So now let’s get started on decluttering and organizing!
Have 4 different piles…
- DONATE
- TRASH
- KEEP
- TOYS TO SWITCH OUT IN A FEW MONTHS
Then ask yourself these questions when going through their toys-
- Does it fit them still? (If not, then DONATE)
- Does it work? (If you can’t fix it, still play with it or repurpose it, then TRASH it)
- Are all the pieces there? (If no, then TRASH it)
- Can it be repurposed? (If yes, then KEEP it)
- Are there duplicates? (If so, make the kids choose which they want to keep. For instance we had 10 baby dolls and I had them choose 4 they wanted to donate)
- Have they played with it within the last week or two? (If you think they still love it, then set it aside for a later toy swap. If not, DONATE it)
This is hard. I am not going to lie. Especially if you are like me. I practically remember who gave us each and every single toy and when, how we got it and if my kids had a love for it at some point(even if only for a split second). Goodness I can be so sentimental and in this case it makes it extra hard for me. But I powered through and so can you! I always say that “Everything in your house should have a place. And if it doesn’t then you don’t need it or need to find a space for it”. But really it is true. I kept reminding myself of this.
Once you go through it all and sort your piles, I encourage you to go through your KEEP pile again. Make sure everything in there is something you truly think they will play with and enjoy. If not, then set it into a different pile.
Once that part is all finished, time to ORGANIZE it all!
Bins and baskets will be your best friend! I love the cube organizers and baskets from Walmart! They are so so helpful in the playroom. If you use these, it makes organizing and separating so easy. Really any type of bins or baskets can work but these are just a personal fave. Plus they hide the toys and make it look pretty, but functional because the girls know where their toys are. Our baskets are separated into barbies and their accessories, dollhouse toys, electronics and miscellaneous smaller toys. These were all things the girls played with often, but we majorly decluttered these and narrowed them down to their favorites.
Then you can set up “stations”. This gives the kids a completely separate space to play with that one thing. Now I can see how that may be a bit hard for a child’s bedroom that doubles as a playroom, but you will figure out what works best for your room situation. So for the girls playroom we did the kitchen and all of the accessories in it or next to it, the baby doll area, and then the dress up dresses are hung in their closet above their dress up trunk and vanity. We also made them a little table to either sit and read or draw, or it can be used as a little dining table for pretend play.
Here are some of the pictures of the newly decluttered and organized playroom. I wish I could find some before pictures of this room but I can promise you that it was disastrous almost every single day. Now they truly enjoy playing in it and this Mama is so happy about it! It was well worth it! I hope I can inspire you to get creative and help you with your child’s playroom!
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