Playroom organization ideas (and maybe pictures?)

[Biscuits & Gravy]

We are considering a home to rent that will have a "bonus" room that we'd use as a big playroom. Right now all of our toys are in our living room, with some of the "big kid" stuff in my 4yo's room. They are as organized as I could get for now, but I'd love to get things in better shape if we are going to have a dedicated play room. I need inspiration and ideas!

Right now our storage consists of a cube shelving unit from target, and 3 small bookcases. I've seen those storage containers advertised at Target that is like a rack with various small buckets. Any experience with those? We have an Ikea a couple of hours away, so that is an option as well.

[FloridaBorn]

Expensive and trendy, but Pottery Barn Kids has the *best* playroom ideas. Just go to their website and scroll through the playroom section. I got so many ideas from their website.... made notes and then hit some local thrift shops and found similar items!

[justmeandmybrood]

PB does have some great ideas - I agree! I love IKEA; if we were in a larger house at the moment, I would snag some pieces from IKEA for a playroom.

In our last house, our bonus room was the office (armoire desk to keep the papers away from kids), game room (had a tv and Wii), guest room (twin bed) and playroom galore! The bucket-bins from Target we got were a lifesaver when our kiddos were younger. The bins were super for organizing (the kids were able to easily see what should be in each bin and helped them to clean up their own things), having instant access (for better or worse ), and containing it all.

Another idea I used in DS's room was a Rubbermaid-y set of drawers with casters on the bottom. I took photos of what belonged in each drawer (and the drawers were also clear).

[Fairy4tmama]

could someone pls post a link to the bucket things from target?

[SleeplessMommy]

here is a linky:
http://www.csnstores.com/Early-Child...NO-NY1081.html

I am not a fan of those - open display of clutter! when i have seen them in use, there is lots of random stuff in them.

We have chosen a different strategy - have all of the same toy, so there is less need to organize. When ds1 was little one area had wooden trains (stored in rolling wooden boxes with spice rack attached to park the trains on). Another area had lego duplo, stored in multiple lego bins. Each set gets mixed in with older sets, but it does not matter cause its all duplo. The living room had brio builders in 2 bins. The kitchen had a bin of toy pots and pans.

for a play room, i would go with:
medium bookshelves (for books)
bins to roll under sofas (for legos or other toys)
shelf/bins for art supplies - ikea trofast http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/ca...childrens_ikea

[Fairy4tmama]

Thanks sleepless, I have actually had those bins before lol just was not envisioning those from the description. Basically my experience has been the same, a lot of random crap mixed in each bucket . I am really organizationally challenged tho. I like your idea of having separate areas and did something similar in my playroom when I had one, using furniture to create spaces/alcoves for particular toys

[rere]

We have those rack/bins from Target and they work really well for us but my daughter and I are particularly into organizing toys.So each bin has a category(trains,train tracks,cars,creatures...) and everything gets put in it's bin.

Here's a flickr group that I like but here are a bunch of playroom groups to be inspired by.

[justmeandmybrood]

Yes, the same with us - we did not have a hard time keeping the bins organized, but I can see how some kiddos might!

[gwen's mom]

Expensive and trendy, but Pottery Barn Kids has the *best* playroom ideas.

Check things out but then go here and build it yourself!

[Biscuits & Gravy]

I did not even think about how cluttered those little plastic tubs might look. I have enough of that with all of the bigger toys right now.

Here is a challenge I have that others might have solutions to: what about the trucks?? We have a bunch of trucks. A big tonka dump truck, a trash truck, among others. Probably about 10 medium sized trucks total. I've gotten rid of as many as I can, and these are the ones that are well loved and played with daily. But I can't figure out a good way of storing them. Right now I have a big plastic bucket with rope handles that has become a catch all for the trucks and other random things, like balls. The trouble with it is that it gets dumped 10 times a day and it drives me nuts. Any other thoughts on truck storage?

Thanks for the ideas! I'll be looking over all of them.

[wish]

I think I posted these recently but can't remember . Our girls go to a waldorf school so this is more geared to waldorf toys. We do have plastic ones, but I've hidden them away in the bins in the bottom of the brown cubicle.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3421337...7624095550394/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3421337...7624095550394/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3421337...7624095550394/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3421337...7624095550394/

[Tjej]

You may want to consider how your kids play before you decide on using a room as a playroom. We have a play area in our living room, and if the kids had a separate playroom they'd always just be bringing their toys out of it into the livingroom anyway.

As far as what to do with the trucks - could you have a parking lot? Line them all up beside eachother against the wall in parking spots? Then have shelves above. I would think that parking the trucks would be a fun and appropriate way to clean up too, then. Easier to get your child involved...

Tjej

[justmeandmybrood]

Tjej brings up a WONDERFUL point! In our last house, while our bonus room was primarily the playroom (we kept most toys in there, and very few in their bdrms), because it was upstairs and DH and I were mainly downstairs (our bdrm, kitchen, LR, etc.), they ended up not using the room very much. We then moved all the toys to their bedrooms and used the bonus room for office/guest room/quiet activities - a basket of puzzles along with books.

[Biscuits & Gravy]

Well the thing is they will mostly have to use it as a playroom. It is the biggest room in the house. The living room is small, room enough for our sofas basically. There are 3 bedrooms: master, bedroom for the boys to share (enough room for twin bed, crib, dressers and hopefully my glider), and the 3rd is DH's office since he works from home. They will certainly bring toys downstairs, but there is no room for storage there.

In our current home the living room is definitely the playroom because it is one giant open space.

I'm thinking (hoping) that maybe I can finally find a permanent home for my sewing machine in the playroom so I can work on things while they play.

This is all, of course, dependent on whether or not we rent this particular house.

[ikesmom]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodimichelle/726489549/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanlaeken/554928789/

http://thestir.cafemom.com/home_gard...Show_Tell_Home

I like the idea that they can climb and move
http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/sli...-sites--053507

[wife&mommy]

This is our playroom. The shelves and bins are the IKEA Trofast system. We had a big window to work around, that is what is in the middle of those. But it works out because they like using that part under the window like a table, too.

http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...L27pics/21.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...L27pics/22.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...L27pics/20.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...L27pics/19.jpg

[hopefulfaith]

I've found utility/book shelves to work really well for toys. For example, trucks all get parked on the bottom shelf ("the parking garage") -- all of those medium-size Tonka trucks and all. When it was just my son playing, he was *really* good at organizing by types of toys: trains go here, castle goes here, worker guys go here, etc. --- but my daughter thinks completely differently and can't cope with strict organization. So we all don't go completely crazy, I have general "areas" now. Playmobil goes in the left corner. Kitchen/stuff in the right corner. Legos in the third corner. Dress-up and pretend in the other corner.

[seim.ge]

I just posted these on another thread...but I feel like showing off. These pictures are a little old, but the basic setup is still the same.

Musical instruments, push toys and walking toys:

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...=playroom1.jpg

Wooden cars and animals/peg people for the doll house in the white shelves. I've since added a row of little baskets for pine cones, rocks and shells. (...and a doll house! ) Tray puzzles are under the white shelves.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../playroom2.jpg

You can kind of see the doll area in the last pic. The dolls stay in their bed or highchair. Kitchen items are in a crate inside the kitchen. Blocks live in a basket under the shelves, elemental stackers go on the shelves.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../playroom3.jpg

[BarefootScientist]

Just subbing for now, I want to check this thread out later for ideas for our new place, even though we won't have a playroom per se. But I do really need to get out in the garage and work now.

*SIGH*

[BarefootScientist]

seim.ge, your links aren't working for me.