This is the state of Squidge’s playroom at the moment. Actually if I’m honest this is the state of her playroom all of the time! When we first viewed the property I was most excited about the 4th and completely redundant room. I mean there are 3 of us and we sleep in 2 of the 4 bedrooms. I thought I could turn the 3rd bedroom into an office and guest bedroom leaving the 4th bedroom as a playroom. In practice we have done that. The 4th room is a playroom or sorts. It gets played in maybe once a month, more if we have friends over who find the room a blast to play in. Squidge hates being in there by herself. She will go in grab what she wants and comes down to the living room to be with us. I don’t have a problem with that. All I ask is that she puts her toys back in the playroom when she is done. In reality she just throws it in there and shuts the door. So the room usually ends up looking a huge mess.
This is where I need your help. I need practical, and when I say practical I mean CHEAP. Cheaper than cheap ideas to help us sort out the playroom. The room needs to be painted as it’s currently painted a dark gunmetal gray. It also has a dark gray carpet. I don’t think we’re going to tackle painting/flooring at the moment as it really is low on our priority list but I do need to do something with it.
I’m thinking about running shelves along one wall and buying containers to place her toys in but that is all I’ve got. She’s got loads of stuffies, dressing up clothes, games, puzzles, kitchen and doll house paraphernalia and miscellaneous crap that we pick up at parties and/or fastfood places. Please do not underestimate the importance of the party/fastfood crap. I did and it wasn’t pretty!
This room is also going to be a dual use room as I want to set up my sewing machine and ironing board on one end. I used to have the ironing board in the upstairs hallway as it’s plenty wide but then it looked untidy so I would put it away under the bed. While my mom was here she pointed out that the room is hardly ever used so why not keep it in there up and ready to go. Moms, they’re pretty clever some times!
The room is longer than it is wide ( 5.44m x 2.33m or 17’10″ x 7’8″) So tell me folks what would you do with the room? Is my idea of shelves a good one? What should I do with the dressing up clothes?
lindy_
lindy_
lindy_
lindy_
Storage, storage, storage. We have wicker baskets for everything, but Ikea Trofast is great, I would also say those bookcases shelves with square compartments from Ikea are fab too. I think that if you make it easy for them to tidy then they will. You could add labels on each box with what is in it.
Storage is def the way to go but were to put them? Wardrobes? Shelves? Tip?
Hiya
A massive clearout. Get rid of the rubbish/baby stuff. Maybe dangle a carrot for E. A treat for a bag cleared/given to charity “think of the poor babies with no toys” might work. lol.
Another thought would be to clear loads of stuff when she isnt around. Keep it for a few weeks in case she notices. Then bin. She’ll get over it if she does remember though!
My mum warned me that the kids would not want to play away from us, when O was little so we never went for a major playroom. They like company, so maybe allow her a box or two in the front room that she can rotate. That way its tidy and she knows what she likes.
Also. IKEA for storage. The only affordable choice. And go for boxes that are opaque so they hide mess, or drawers, rather than open shelves, for the very same reason!! lol
Is that a start!!
I’m going to have to wait until she’s back at school. Tried a clear out with her and it took ages and involved lots of tears over toys she hasn’t looked at never mind touched in years!!
trofast has been great for us http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/departments/childrens_ikea/18706–2/
I love that range!
Yes, boxes and a shelf are good. And you don’t need anything fancier than that for the dress up clothes. A big bin is easiest for little kids to paw through to find what they want then they can throw it all back in. The dbiggest suggestion I have is to pick 5 favorite activities and get rid of the rest of the stuff. Too much stuff is overwhelming for them. Good luck’
Thanks– I do think that shelves w/ boxes is the way to go. I’m leaning towards coloured boxes where each color is a different activity. Getting rid of a few things is a great idea– one for when she’s back at school and doesn’t weep whenever I reach for her fav toy from when she was a baby and I can’t give it awaaaaaaay waaaaaaah!!!!
I always used the big plastic boxes with lids. Dressing up box, puzzle box, play food and tea sets box. COG know which stuff went in which box and always put the stuff into each one. They just all stacked up. I know it doesn’t sound like it looked fantastic but it was easy to get a box out and literally bring it downstairs for play then refill iot and up it went again. I had a least 6 large large boxes — homebase or b&q
I’ve scoping out Homebase/B&Q and I think I’m going to go w/ basic shelves (the type w/ metal tracks and you can adjust the height by moving the doohickey up/down the track. It’s not the prettiest shelving system but it’s practical. I think one of the things I’m understanding with this room is that it isn’t a place she wants to hang out in alone. So for right now it will simply be practical, easy storage. I think when she’s older it might be her teenage angsty haven and she’ll spend all her time in there wanting to be away from her annoying parents!!