Can we talk about playroom organization?

MrsBrandiGreene

I know alot of you arent to this phase yet, but trust me...it comes.   I'm desperate for ideas, pictures, inspiration, suggestions, etc.   We have a finished basement with a great playroom we dont use enough - mainly b/c its not really organized in anyway.  We have the requisite bins, etc, but I want something more - but I dont know what that is exactly.   I picture in my head the perfect organization system surrouding the room with an activity table in the middle.   But from where?  PBK, JCP?  Who else carries good stuff that will last and hopefully be configurable for future needs.   Anyone know of any great blogs, etc or have great ideas for me. 

I know we can all benefit from this at some point, right?

Kerrin

i'm so with you.  i guess i havent' done it b/c it would be in the basement, and for whatever reason i don't like the idea of them being down there "alone" yet.  which is stupid, b/c when they are in the front living room of our house, i can't see them, but that's ok with me.

although i love the look, i'm not completely sold on PBK furniture.  too much mdf if you ask me.  So i try to replicate the kids rooms with similar furniture.  Land of Nod is another good one.

i'll do the same with the playroom.  replicate the look of PBK, but with sturdier furniture (read little to no mdf).

ebearwife

Ikea has stuff that is on the inexpensive side and I really like it.  I wish we had room for a craft/play room (I need room to scrapbook!).  After the BOY gets here and gets to be 1 or so I might get inspired to motivate DH to close off another room in the basement for that purpose.  Of course that would mean a(nother) Hoarders-level cleanout, but I am definitely up for that.

K&P414

We're working on the same thing.  I have a lot of storage via built ins but they are kind of out of the way where most of the toys are normally kept so I wrote them off as an option.  Until recently.  We have 6 cabinets total under the bookshelves in our Den and I decided to obligate 3 cabinets for toy storage. I bought some of the smaller canvas bins, 4 fit in each cabinet.  So I got 8 total.  I was amazed at how much of their crap fit into those bins!!  For the larger stuff I just lined them up in the remaining cabinet. The cabinet in the middle used to house a large TV (before flat screens) and I can fit 2 small ride on toys, a bilibo, Rodee and the large pieces of Tess's toy cleaning set (vacuum, broom, etc.).  I'll post a pic if I get a chance.

We bought a large bench/chest thing from Target for less than $100 and it also hold toys.  For each girls room I also bought some canvas bins for storage.  Emma has 3 on a bookshelf and she also has the open front stackable bins that all Polly Pocket, Barbie, etc. stuff goes in.  I also store alot of Tess's stuff inside of her play kitchen.  (plastic food, tea set, etc)

I bought most of my stuff from Target.  I posted a link earlier but this blog has some great ideas on it.  https://www.copycatchic.com/search/label/Kids

 

minditronic

I'm beginning to get the feeling that my entire house will be deemed the playroom. I've got excersaucers, jumperoos and riding toys in just about every room of the house already. It frightens to me to see how many toys he's already acquired in 9 months. I'm not even sure I want people to give him birthday presents because I'm running out of room!

ETA: We are currently in a tiny house while DH is still in school. I think once we buy our forever home and have a room available to make into a playroom that I'll invest in storage and the like. Whether or not it gets used is a whole different story, though. 

amanda_holbird@hotmail.com

The bedroom on the main level of our home has been turned into a playroom.  I love it because, if I need to, I can just shut the door and hide the whole mess.  Actually, I was just in there right now cleaning up.  We have one toy box, but nothing else when it comes to organizing toys, etc.  I'm sure my dh would love to build something to put in there.  My big thing is I'd like to decorate the room and make it look like a playroom.  It use to be the office area and the rooms are a light gray.  I would like to put something fun on the walls.  Hopefully I can get some ideas here.

MrsBrandiGreene

That blog is awesome! So glad to know I'm not alone!! We should all post pics when we can.

tracigator

Thanks for posting this, Brandi.  We have a huge basement that right now has been deemed the catch-all for storage and everything else we don't know what to do with.  Our goal is to make it into our playroom for the kids so we can have the living room back to normal.  I love the look of PBK and Land of Nod but not the $ so I'm going to need to figure out something sooner rather than later.

UGAbride

I am planning a trip to IKEA soon to check out their shelving, several friends have it and it seems to work well - I also go back and forth about wanting to put a tv in the playroom or not, so that causes some of my hesitation about whether or not to leave room to hang one on the wall or something like that (our playroom is upstairs, so my ultimate DREAM is for the kids to play/watch cartoons in there while hubby and I sleep in a little on the weekends!!).  But we have plenty of tv's elsewhere, so I just can't decide....

We do have one of the shelving racks from Target, with the 12 multicolored plastic bins, and that works really well...I have a friend with a boy and a girl, and she has one in each color scheme for their playroom.  We just need more, so I can put all the books, puzzles, and games somewhere, along with parking some of the vehicles that are just strewn about!

JDB3358

I love the Expedit collection at Ikea.  It looks just like the PBK stuff, but you can customize it a little more to fit the room and it is way cheaper. And it's pretty sturdy.  As soon as we convert DD's room from a nursery to a big girl room, we are going to buy some.

 https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/categories/series/09064/

 

GTLawGirl

Have you ever looked at the blog OhDeeDoh?  It's dedicated to all things kids.  I've seen some awesome ideas for playrooms there and most of them are real playrooms (not just a staged PBK room with unlimited square footage).

MLvK

Our playroom is 99% IKEA stuff.  But most of her things are out for her to play with.  

I have some bins that her loose toys go in, like blocks and phones and cars.   I got one of those clear drawer bin thing-ys at Container store and that is working out great.

I have a book shelf from IKEA that is doing double duty as book shelf/puzzle holder/musical gear.

The biggest problem is the big toys.    Between her kitchen and her train table, they take up a lot of play space.    I have to figure out what to do.  I might move her kitchen to MY kitchen so we can cook together and push her train table against the wall.  

slwprincess

Well, I posted our current play area... just one little corner of our living room.  I've been fairly successful at keeping it under control using bins and a big wooden chest as a toy box.  Also I rotate his toys every month or so so that he doesn't get bored with them.  So I have them stored in huge rubbermaid containers in the basement when not using.  But I have already decided that whenever we go for #2, we will be re-doing our front sitting room into a play area.  It's a big open space with our dining room so I need it to look fairly nice w/ lots of drawers and doors to hide stuff in.  I like the big wall systems from PB and JCP and IKEA.  But I am also concerned about quality.  Basically, I want something like this but with more cabinets/drawers.