Our playroom is always a mess. I am aware that it won’t be the case forever because one day the kids will be able to tidy up after themselves… who am I kidding? My husband doesn’t even tidy up after himself! One can hope though, right? Anyway, because it is a bit of a mess all the time I am always thinking of ways to keep it neat and tidy. There are actually more toys in our living room than the playroom too, so I think I need to do a cull and send things off to the charity shop and Athena’s old nursery when I’ve worked out what they don’t play with anymore!
One day I’ll do a tour of the playroom on the blog,but some of it isn’t quite done yet but for now here’s the activity corner featuring my latest idea to add some order and organisation into the space! The storage boxes are from Habitats range of kids furniture and storage, and when not in use they can nest inside each other. Chunky rope handles mean they’re easily moved and I love the graphic patterns. The smaller two hold shoes, the middle ones stuffed toys and things that are played with often (like Beatbo and the Laugh n Learn Puppy) and the two larger ones hold things like Little People and associated bits and bobs and the wooden train set. We also have the Ikea Kallax storage unit on the other side of the room, along with a book shelf and play shop, plus a huge tower of wicker picnic baskets with all the craft and dressing up stuff in. I think I’m going to try and rotate toys every two weeks to stop the kids getting bored with things going forwards, but it just seems like so much effort as I know they’ll want the toys they had last week and so on!
I turned to some fellow parent bloggers to find out what their toy storage looks like, I’ve made a collage of some of their photos:
From top right going clockwise:
Emmys Mummy shares her gorgeous play room.
Blog by Baby: We have stuva set up, completely for lego storage. It’s great for having individual boxes in a variety of sizes, and I love how flexible it is as the kids grow and change.
Lee Lee Loves: We love storage bags!
Becster: This is our Ottoman which is full of toys and can bed used as extra seating if we have guests. Books are kept in a see through plastic box which is normally kept in another corner of the room but has ended up on here for today!
Mummys Zone: This is oscars play table and I love it. It’s from GLTC and we have had it a few years. The storage draws are huge and hide all the toys and Oscar loves having his toys set up all the time so he can play easily
Hello Beautiful Bear: It works because you can just chuck everything in really easily at the end of the day and I’ve made sections for everything so we know where everything goes AND you can take things out in the individual boxes rather than them being fixed
LesbeMums: We have a toy basket within a play area of the lounge, and although it looks nice and “country”, it now doesn’t fit all the older, bigger, bulkier toys T has – hence the overflow.
So hopefully this post has given you a few ideas if you were looking for any for your toy storage!
Thanks to Habitat for sending us the storage boxes that feature in this post.
I second the Stuva range from Ikea. We bought a combination storage solution and we like the fact it is also modular so you can add to it. Want a wardrobe with drawers underneath when they’re older? Just place the wardrobe on top of a drawer unit. Need a desk? The change table top can be lowered down to a child friendly height later. Benno (or Gnedby as they’re now called) CD towers are also great for soft and small toy storage if you have room. We also like the Stuva Malad storage bench – we even use one in our hallway for shoe storage!
You cannot beat storage baskets – throw it all in and hide it away! x
I love love love love those storage baskets!!!
I loved our playroom it was a great asset. We’ve now turned ours into a sitting room for the teenagers, TV, Playstation & music system & it now suits all of us.
Lauren…Those boxes are lovely! I’m a big lover of organisation (borderline obsessed!) so if I have to see containers, I want them to be pretty and these really fit the bill! Thanks for linking up #bloggershomes xx