A happy home for the toys
The playroom can be the cutest room in your home or the bane of your existance! And it mainly depends on what storage system is in place. A good playroom system should be kid friendly so that it's maintainable, not only for you, but more importantly, for the kiddies. And it doesn't have to be a room, this applies to anywhere that toys are stored and played. Whether it's a full room or corner of your living room or in a kids bedroom…it can all work and look great as long as it's done right.
But how do you create a great system? Ok, let's break it down:
Keep it realistic
Don't be overly ambitious…although it may look adorable to have every toy catagorised into three different catagories and then colour co-ordinated in beautiful clear containers, let's be honest, it's not realistic. Feel free to have fun and colour co-ordinate, but don't set up a system that is dependant on it! It may look great for the first 5 hours (until the kids get home from school) and it may produce instagram worthy pictures, but it's not maintainable 95% of the time and will send your playroom into disarray.
Categorise cleverly
Remember, the aim of the game (pun intended-ish), is to have a system easy enough for your kids to maintain. They're not going to start sorting the doll clothes into seasons every day, but if you have a big bin labelled ‘doll clothing', it's much more likely, that the doll clothes will actually end up there at the end of the day. So when categorizing, you're looking for basic categories, that keep all the toys separate and organised, without making the ‘tidy upper' have to think through every item they're putting away. Categories like; magna tiles, train set, soft toys, costumes etc. are specific but also broad and should be easily maintainable, categories like; yellow lego, curved train tracks, figurines with hats etc…not so much.
Container time
When purchasing conatiners, it's definitely important to keep in mind practicality. You want to make sure what you choose is cleanable, carry-able, not too delicate, the right measurements for your toys and your storage unit etc. But now is the time when you can pay more attention to the aesthetics. Think about how you want the playroom to look when you enter, the type of vibe you want, what else is in room…there's literally millions of great options, just take your time and research properly. You could always try out a few different ones and see what you like better.
Labelling
Label. Every. Single. Container. Labels are key to maintenance (and key to you not needing to supervise all tiding up).
Configuration
Time to think about placement. Now that you've categorised, contained and labelled…it's time to put it away! When designating spots for specific the containers, you want to keep in mind, not only the tiding up, but also the playing. Do you have small kids? Then you want to make sure the toddler toys are low and accessible, and the toys with small choke-able pieces are well out of their reach. Do you have a huge magna tile set? You might want to make sure that's on a lower shelf, because that can be heavy and hard to take out of a higher one. Do your kids always take out the figurines when playing with the dollhouse? Maybe store it in a place that's close by. Do you have a play kitchen? You could store all kitchen related things in the kitchen etc…the basic rule is, just be mindful when setting it up.
Ensuring maintenance
And my last tip is….get the kids excited and involved! If they feel part of the process and pride in the result, they're much more likely to give it the TLC it needs to be maintained. So either involve them in the process, let them categorise with you, let them stick on the labels, discuss placement etc. Or if that isn't your speed, then do it yourself but take them around when you're done. Show them where everything is, explain why things are where they are, point out how nice it looks, discuss how much more fun it is to play with when you don't have to spill out three huge boxes to find a playmobil piece. Let them see your excitement. If they're excited and proud of their playroom, then they'll be much more invested in up keeping the systems.
Have fun!
