Playrooms can be so daunting to organize! As a former teacher and now mom, I have found the better organized a space the more kids will play with the things in it. It’s just easier for them to find things. Too much stuff can be overwhelming and they might not know where to start.
I created our playroom 10 years ago and designed it like a classroom. It had a reading nook, dramatic play, magentic/felt board center, writing, puzzles, blocks, and toys – LOTS of toys! Over time and more kids (and more TOYS) stuff just kept getting added. I would try my best to keep it organized but things would just get put away wherever eventually. It had started to drive me crazy and I decided it was time for a refresh and organization overhaul.
Tools
A few friends on Instagram had been using organization labels from @talentedkitchen and when they reached out to me I was so excited! I knew it was time to refresh my playroom that had been in the back of my mind ever since my youngest was born. He’s FIVE. LOL!
I knew I needed some type of tubs for organization and had no idea what route I was going to go until I walked into Target one day (alone – halleljah!) and they had tubs for days! The Target $1 spot killed it this year for teachers and Back to School! I tell you nothing gets me more excited than organization and teacher stuff! I picked up lots of tubs and what I call book boxes and knew my new labels would be so excited to have a place to go!
I also picked up some cheap chalkboards at Michael’s to hang on some existing fabric baskets I already had. I knew the labels wouldn’t hold up on fabric so I needed something hard to adhere them to. The chalkboards were the perfect thing!
Before
To give myself credit I did have organization going on. I had purchased Ikea’s Kallax shelving when I first set up my playroom. It wasn’t like it was a free for all! However, the playroom was messy a lot and the toys didn’t have a specific place to go which was a huge contributing factor to the cleanliness. I had a lot of clear tubs and toys were somewhat organized but mostly stuff was just crammed on the shelves.
I do like clear bins for kids to see toys when they are really little. Or just having a few toys sitting out on shelves so they can easily see what their options are. I use to rotate toys meaning I would put some away and rotate through them so they always have different toys to play with. With my youngest entering kinder and an early reader, I liked the idea of non-see-through tubs that were labeled so he would attempt to read what they said. The tubs I chose do have clear lids so he can peek in there if he wants.
After
Tubs & Kallax shelving
With tubs and labels in hand I got to work. It was so user friendly and I loved the ease of having the labels pre-printed with certain things already. The set comes with 120 labels and covers a lot – almost anything you could find in a playroom. There are even labels that cover everything like: MISC., KNICKKNACKS, & BUCKET OF JOY. I chose the white set of playroom labels and they can be purchased HERE on Amazon.
I used a lot of tubs but not all toys fit in a nice and neat tub. I scattered the tubs and placed bigger toys on the open shelves, And yes we have a TV and XBOX in our playroom so I didn’t try to hide that but show you how I incorporated that as well.
I mentioned earlier how we had fabric baskets for storage. I love having these so just bought little chalkboards so I could label them too. Perfect to hide all the toys and gaming stuff for the older kids. My baskets are old, but THESE are the newer version of what I bought at Target years ago. They fit nicely with the Ikea Kallax shelving. HERE is a larger basket that also fits this shelving, but fills up the entire cube with not much space on top like mine. Ikea also has their own baskets which I’ve never tried.
Book Boxes
I loved the book box organization too. As a former teacher, I have lots of leveled books for beginning readers and love that they are all organized and easy to find what we are looking for. Books are usually categorized by letters (A being the easiest) but we used the number labels to help us since there were no letters in the label set. I will probably mark the letters on the back of the tubs too.
Another way to use book boxes if you don’t have a reader yet is to organize books by categories: alphabet books, number books, dinosaur books, superhero books, nonfiction books, etc. For non readers I would print out picture labels for those boxes.
Art Display
I get so many questions on my fancy art display! You guys all it consists of is a skinny curtain rod like this one HERE and curtain rod clips like THESE! Just hang the rod like normal and use the clips to hang the art work. I love having this spot to showcase the kid’s work!
Dramatic Play
On the other side of the playroom we have a dramatic play center with dress-up and a kitchen with food. I already had these tubs of play food labeled from years ago but added a few tubs and made my own labels for those since they were pretty specific. Just a side note, if you want to make your own labels it’s a great idea to include pictures for little ones! I just found clipart for whatever I needed. Excuse my dated bookshelf but it serves it organization purpose so it stayed!
Our dress up is organized by using a hanging rack with a hanging organizer attached to the end for little things and masks. I just made the bar stick out further on one side to allow that to hang. I love this particular rack HERE because it has a top & bottom shelf to put hats and a basket on. The basket has accessories in it too. The HANGING ORGANIZER I used is a 6 shelf and I like the ones with velcro that fastens all around the way around the bar so I know it won’t fall off. THIS is also another great option with different hooks.
I also attached command hooks to the side of our bookcase that stores all the play food to hang capes and bags. Super functional!
It feels so good to have this knocked off the list and I have to tell you after I finished this project Saturday, my kids played in the playroom ALL DAY the next day! They are loving it as much as this mama is and that sure makes my heart happy. Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you may have here or on the old Instagram @tablefor5please!
Happy organizing,
