Monday, January 27, 2014

Mama Monday: Toy Wrangling


One of the things about having children so close in age is that when one outgrows a toy, the other is not far behind in age range to play with said item. Due to the fact that they also get new toys for Christmas/birthday/good behavior/general cuteness, you can imagine that toys in our home multiply quite quickly. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of our family and friends because my children have no shortage of things to keep them busy!

That being said, toys will march through the house and take over faster than I can say "preschool frat party." And if I'm not intentional with picking up and teaching our children to pick up too, that is exactly what this place begins to look like.

Originally we had intended that our study would be an office for me to work from home on occasion since I had always planned to be a working mother. However, now that I'm staying home with our children, it stands to reason that most of my "working from home" work would occur in a play room. Jack started calling it a toy room about a month before Christmas, so it was time to begin the transition.

It's taken me some time to get used to the idea of having a playroom, if I'm being really honest. Growing up, my toys were kept in my room, which seemed just fine to me. The idea of needing a separate room to keep toys in seems like a first world problem to the max, however, since we are home quite a bit, I see the need-slash-want for a place to corral everything.


Inspiration pic

I can't find a source for this picture. If you know where it originated, please let me know because I would love to give proper credit. I love this room.

While I realize this is a dining room, I think the colors work great for a play room, and we even have a play table in the center of ours. The overdyed turquoise rug is already in place, and I love it against our dark wood floors.

Up next we need to decide on a good storage solution, and then we'll be ready to hang some decor on the walls. Then comes the task of actually keeping the toys in the toy room. That'll probably be the hardest of all!

Where do you fall on the play room spectrum? A necessity? An indulgence?

10 comments:

  1. I am so glad I'm not the only one that feels this way! I want a playroom in our home DESPERATELY. We're in between homes now - one is for sell, we're renting another - but when we begin looking for a new one, this is top on my list. However, it seems frivolous and I can't stop thinking about the fact that if we NEED a ROOM for toys, we have too many. And we do. But I also am tired of having them in my bedroom, my kitchen, my den, etc. I'm thinking we'll room our boys together and do toys in a separate room. I'm excited about it, but also wish we could be totally satisfied with just a few things. :/

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    1. I'm glad someone gets me on this. I like the idea of having them sharing a room and having the second bedroom as a toy room. Right now with the age difference, gender difference, and having the mostly unused space, this makes sense for us. I'm just getting used to it. :)

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  2. I, too, am a big believer in keeping the toys in their room, but Jason has turned the library into the toy room. Since he's home with them all day, I tend to defer to his judgment on decisions like that, but I'm kind of grudgingly going along with it! Maybe if we had a rug as gorgeous as that turquoise one, I'd feel better! ;)
    I have gotten lots of playroom inspiration from thehandmadehome.net if you're interested.
    And "preschool frat party?" lolol

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    1. I visited The Handmade Home and loved it! Thanks for sharing that link!

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  3. We are sort of doing this too. We have a weird room in between our kitchen and dining room. Before kids we called it our "wine room" and had a little bar setup and a bistro table and chairs. Jason loved that room, but as much as we don't want to be "those" people who turn your house into a kid zone that is what we are doing. It gives Jack a great space to be in safely while I'm in the kitchen. I'm still easing Jason into this one and trying to make it still flow with our house well and not scream KID!

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    1. This is my attempt to not let all the plastic take over my house. I totally get it!

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  4. If only we had an extra room! But since we don't, we do make the kids keep everything in their rooms. We had toys in the living room for a while, but it got too overwhelming, and I needed some adult space! So now, they can bring them out and play, but everything has to go back to their room at the end of the day!

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    1. That is the problem. I had the toys in the corner of the living room in an unassuming basket. We picked them up at the end of each day. We added a second person who is in a totally different toy stage right now so between keeping the little parts out of her reach and the fact that I didn't buy a second basket...it's taking over! :)

      It's a good rule. I plan on making the toy room the last point of pick up before they go to bed each night, just like the living room is/was.

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  5. If you had asked me a few years ago if I thought I would ever have a "playroom" in the house I would have said absolutely not! Funny how times change! Unfortunately, I think the size of the kid's bedrooms and the layout of our house makes a toy room pretty much necessary. There is really no room in A's room for toys plus we have an "extra" living room at the front of the house that serves no purpose. However, as the new toy room is highly visible, I am doing my best to make sure that we use toy storage and decor that keeps the room looking nice! So far I love having a toy free living room!! It's all just a stage of life, right? At some point there won't be any toys in the house and I'll be missing these days. So for now I'll adjust and make the house as functional and stylish as I can!

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  6. Our girls have just combined rooms. We made Julie Ann's old room a play room. It has been THE BEST idea for us so far. We are hoping to put a murphy bed in there, so it will act as a second guest room for family and youth when needed. So we have a guest room (with my craft closet). Then, we have the playroom with TONS of opportunities for imaginative play (Doc McStuffins "doctor's office" space, "School" space, Kitchen place, dress up place, instruments place, and of course a table in the center (from Ikea). The girls have loved it AND their friends have enjoyed it too. Having it this winter has made a HUGE impact on the girl's playtime.

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