hey it's Abby and if you can't guess by my surroundings today we're going to be
talking about purging and organizing my boys playroom. A couple weeks ago we
showed it all nice and neat and picked up on our home tour but today you can
see that it definitely doesn't look that way all the time so today I want to walk
through the process that I try to go through every six months or so to clean
out and purge as much as we can from their playroom get rid of anything
they're not using anymore anything that's broken or stained or old just get
their playroom in tip-top shape so they can really make the most of the toys
that they have and play with things that they really love. Before we get started
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So believe it or not the process of purging this space actually started a
couple weeks ago I pay close attention to what my boys are playing with what
they're not using so much anymore and kind of how the systems are working in
their room while they're in here playing and so when I've kind of identified some
things that I don't think they're really using and could maybe be donated
somebody else who could appreciate them I start bringing that up with the boys
ever so subtly and saying, "you know Caleb I haven't seen you play with your
Imaginext toys in a while. Do you think that's something that another kid would
be able to get better use out of or do you think that's something that we could
pass along for now since you're more interested in Legos these days?" and that
gets them used to the idea that some of their toys might be on their way out. Of
course I don't try to do with anything that they're still loving and using all
the time definitely those things are I feel like they're outgrowing or not
using anymore I try to plant those seeds early so it
makes it easier for me in the long run. I usually try to do the first pass of
cleaning out the playroom myself while maybe the boys are at school or just
when they're downstairs because that allows me to just pull out anything, any
junk, anything that needs to be thrown away, anything that's broken. They're not
here saying no I need that little piece of yarn that's really trash and needs to
be thrown away so once I mean my first initial pass then I bring the boys in
and we dump out each bin we look through every one and we decide what to keep
what should be thrown away what we can donate or sell on Craigslist or a
Facebook yard sale group or something like that and we try to go through every
single thing they've gotten pretty good at recognizing you know what's important
to them what they're really gonna use and what we can pass along to somebody
else who will appreciate it more of course there I would probably still get
rid of a lot more things than they're willing to part with but that's okay you
know we make progress and we pare down their items and it works well for us to
go through it together okay so know you know how sometimes when you start a
project it's just going to be this little small thing we were just gonna
declutter in here but once I got all of the toys that we
didn't need anymore cleared out I realized that we could really have a
better configuration for the playroom that would give the boys more room to
play and make more sense from an organization perspective as well so
let's take a look and see what we came up with
so as you can see it looks quite a bit different in here than it did before we
rearranged just about everything but what I love is that with the exception
of one of the Lego towers and these two chairs that I'm standing next to we were
able to do everything with items that we already owned so we didn't have to spend
a lot of money to get our playroom organized and working in kind of the
best way possible so that our boys could enjoy it so right when you come in the
room you'll see the tower with our big toy storage
this was just an Ikea piece I whitewashed it we actually used to have
two of them in here but once we went through the toys with the boys they got
rid of a lot of their larger items so we were able to take it down to just one of
these units to hold their bigger toys now in the corner we have a small little
bin for the stuffed animals that the boys love and just couldn't let go of
and then we have a kolaks shelving unit from Ikea if you remember
in the before pictures we actually had two smaller units like that and this one
actually used to be in Donny's office which we are redoing at the same time he
wanted to get it out of his space so we brought it up here because it works a
little better with the setup that we were going for in the space. On the
bottom shelf we have our bins. They all have a little adhesive book plate on it
with a label that I stuck in it I try to put on the labels both the word and a
picture because little Caleb isn't reading quite yet so that the boys when
they're cleaning up know exactly what goes into each of the bins on the row
above that we have some board games we have some plastic bins that have
different types of toys that we kind of wanted to keep together all their
Imaginext stuff and one, all their connects in another etc and then we have this
little divider it's divided into three parts I found it at the Container Store
and it holds all the ammo for the boys nerf guns which are right here in this
taller Striped bin on the third shelf we have more games we have the books that
Caleb is more interested in down a little lower so he can reach them and we
also have a little cubby that has all their Pokemon which they're really into
right now and finally on the top shelf we have all of Connor's books which he can
reach easily because he's a little taller then above this unit we did
a little art project that the boys helped me with we took some of their comic
books that they already had and some 8 by 10 frames that were just sitting in my
office and we framed each of the comic books putting a little colored piece of
paper behind it to make up any space that they didn't quite fill in and then
just hung them on the wall so it was free it was easy art and it's fun for
the boys because they are things that they love to look at and are interesting
to them. In the room before we had a big card table in the middle of the room the
boys needed some sort of surface because they're always doing art or putting
together Legos or something where they like to be on a surface but I
didn't love that they didn't have a lot of floor space to play on so we got rid
of the card table we brought in this desk that I already had in my office it
was gonna extra just sitting in there and we created this little art station
behind me with the desk these chairs were from Ikea I found them in the as-is
section so I got a really great deal on them I used the rolling cart I already
had to hold all the boys art supplies they're nice and neat and organized
everything has a spot. It's a little rolling art station they can move it
around if they need to to reach something they can take the little bins
out and put them on the desk so everything's really easily accessible
the white magazine rack is also from Ikea I just put some colored duct tape
on it to make it look a little prettier we already had that from the boys
playroom in our last house and it holds all of their coloring books and paper
that they can use to color on and then finally we hung up some of these wires
these are certain holders again from Ikea. We used them in our last house as
well but they are the perfect thing to hold the boys art so we can display it
proudly and they can show off their artwork once they're finished with it
then finally this side of the room is our Lego area Legos are one of the main
things that the boys are playing with right now so I wanted to make sure they
had plenty of room to store the Legos they have and we wanted to make an area
where they could display all the LEGO sets that they put together so first we
have the towers that hold their Legos I could probably make a whole entire video
about my theory behind LEGO storage so let me know in the comments
if you would like to see that if that would be helpful right now we just have
two towers the Legos are just all thrown together from the different sets that
the boys have already put together and then disassembled the only bin that is
separated is I did go through quickly through each bin and bring out all the
Lego guys because especially Caleb our youngest really loves the Lego guys and
so it was easier to have those separate that's the only one that's labeled so
they know all the guys go in that bin and then they can put the other Legos back
in any of the other slots where there is space. In the closet we use the IKEA ALGOT
system to create a Lego display area for all of their completed sets we
didn't really have something like this before so they would complete a set
there was really nowhere to put it inevitably it would get broken and they
would get upset so we really wanted to make a dedicated space to display their
items where they could be proud of them and enjoy them for a little while after
they spent all the time building them along with the Lego display we also have
some boxes that hold some of the boys keepsake items I'll probably do a
separate video on how we handle the boys paperwork and those boxes are part of
that system so that's our new set up. Obviously it's not going to look this
neat and clean all the time we want the boys to enjoy it and to use it and to
really get the most out of it in fact the other day I was at Target
and Donnie texted me and said Caleb has rediscovered so many of his toys and
it's true because when they're toy room is uncluttered and they can actually see
everything that's in here they are more likely to come up here and play with it
because they know what they have and they can easily find what they want.
There are going to be times when the playroom gets messy. When it's time to
clean up they have a spot to put everything back in and it's easy to get
it back looking neat and clean now this setup that we have in this room is
perfect for our specific kids at this specific stage of their life we only
have two kids they're six and eight so they're pretty self-sufficient at this
point they're heading out of the little kid toy phase a little bit so
I'm sure that we have less toys than some people and way more toys than the
other. Every family, every situation, every kid will be different so it's all about
taking whatever space you have and making it work for the needs of you, your
family, and your kids. So I hope seeing our set up and our systems were helpful
for you if it was hit that like button and let me know in the comments what
systems you're using that have been really good for helping keep your kids
toys organized.