The Playroom

The other day I got some canvas bins to go in the little cube shelf that Michael set up for me in the playroom closet.  And so late that night, after my mom and I got some translating done on some of our Czech genealogy research, I stayed up really late working on getting the playroom unpacked, cleaned up, and organized.  (Was it worth it to stay up until 3:00 in the morning sorting toys into bins?  Not sure about that, but after putting in a few more hours the next day I finally got it all done, so that felt good).  The room had been such a mess before, with moving boxes all over, and assorted toys and piles of legos covering the floor all around the boxes.  But I got it all done, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  It's clean, it's bright and sunny, and the kids have access to their books and toys.  And the boys have been very good about going back to our rule of only getting out one set of toys at a time and cleaning up the play room before getting out a different set.  The boys have been enjoying having a nice clean playroom too, since now they can actually find the toys they want to play with.  :)

Some friends were moving and they gave us this bookshelf, which happens to fit great in the play room (and since it's not a brand new piece of furniture in perfect condition, I won't feel bad if it happens to get a scratched or something).  It's just right for their books.  

I love the kids' hardback books sorted by color (yes, I realize they won't always stay sorted just like that, but at least they look nice right now).  :)

The boys have been really into marbles lately -- we showed them how to play, and found a store that sells all sorts of marbles so the boys have been saving their money and trading marbles with each other and having a lot of fun.  I found this huge jar on sale a while back, and it turned out to be just right for my marble collection from when I was a kid -- I just need to a few more marbles and it'll be all full.  And I think a big jar of marbles makes a cute decoration for a playroom.

The one side of the closet is all done.

And the bins on the other side of the closet are all organized.  Now we just need to find the time to put together the second cube shelf that we got for that closet and it'll be all set.

The boys got a kick out of their animals peaking out of the buckets in the top of the closet.

And of course we had to have a spot for the all-important pirates and knights collection.  (They have so much fun with these ships and castles -- probably the best garage sale and craigslist finds we've made, as far as kids' toys go).

And what is a playroom without a comfy "reading chair"?  (We may have to find a new location in the house for this chair at some time in the future, since the playroom will double as our guest room so we'll need to find a hide-a-bed couch, but that's ok -- when we do that, it can be the comfy "reading hide-a-bed couch.")

The one thing I have yet to figure out in the playroom is the best way to store the giant lego collection.  We are so grateful for the legos that were given to our boys, and now I need to find a better way to store them than a couple of boxes stacked in the corner.  I was looking online for something large, very sturdy, and decent looking . . . 

. . . and I found this.  I think this is way cute!  And it could be large enough, and would probably be plenty sturdy.  (The one online was used as a hamper, but it would also be perfect for legos.  We could even get a couple of large plastic scoops and put a sheet or little blanket inside the top of the can so the kids could scoop out a few scoops of legos at a time to play with, then just empty the contents of the blanket back into the can afterwards).  All I'd need to do is find a metal trash can, paint it, find cute fabric, and sew a liner.  (I'm not much of a sewer).  We'll just have to wait and see when that project reaches the top of my priority list.  With all the unpacking left to do, it may not be anytime soon.  :)