Keeping Toys and Play Areas Organized

To my way of thinking you can't hold children accountable 

for keeping their toys organized until you provide

 the system behind that organization.

Here's a little look into my granddaughters (who live with me) playroom area.

I went to IKEA and purchased this bin system.  I must also say that I assembled it myself without CURSING- which is a positive change.

Each bin is labeled with a picture of the contents and a word label. I did this because I have one reader and one non-reader.

At Christmas time, my gift to the girls was this art center. I bought the cart at Sam's and filled it with crafting supplies.  Each drawer is labeled with words and pictures too. I took pictures of the contents with my camera and printed them out on the printer.

Here is the kitchen area.  I still want to put up a hanger for the aprons, chef hat, and potholders.  This area also houses the cash register, bags, and money drawer for a grocery store scenario.  

All those stuffed animals drove me crazy. But this fabric storage cart fits the bill perfectly. 

A rocking chair, book in a cabinet and larger books in a bin encourage reading or playing school. There are also white boards, markers, reading tube, coloring books, sticker books, and erasers here.

I put up this pegboard over some exposed studs and now we have a place to post that school work on the magnetic board, hang our kite, a mirror for dress up, an old karoke machine and stage under it, and of course "Our Frozen Painting" that we made this summer.

Lastly, here is an area for dress up clothes, wigs, shoes, and the shelf housed the play-dough that is only brought down after asking if it is okay. (I have a love/hate relationship with Play-dough!)

This area is located in our basement with a foam square floor, no ceiling, and painted concrete walls...but my girls LOVE IT!

Smiles,

Deborah 

Mudroom Message and Organizational Center

Have you ever saved those scraps from household building projects because you knew that you would use them one day........

Well,  I finally used many of my saved wood treasures when creating my

 Message and Organizational Center

 that is just inside the door in my mudroom.

1. First, I made a plan so I could communicate my idea to the carpenter, Jeff.







 2. Next, I primed and painted some of the wood pieces that I hoped to use when creating the message center.

  This 42 inch kitchen cabinet was bought at a Seigle Cabinet Center that features a  "one of a kind" kitchen cabinet area. I was looking for a cabinet that could be purchased at a VERY reasonable price, and wasn't concerned about the color or finish. I knew that I would be repainting all the wood pieces that I used the same color. I did choose a cabinet style that is similar to my kitchen cabinets that are in the connecting room off the mudroom.

To prepare the cabinet, I took off all the hardware and used my small electric hand sander to rough up the surface. Then,  I used a small roller to prime and paint the cabinet so the texture is very smooth, with no brush  marks.

 

 

This beautiful antique piece has been in my garage for 5 years!  I knew that I wanted to use it as the backsplash for the countertop on the bottom cabinet in my plan.  Yet, it was way too thick.  So the carpenter, Jeff, and I came up with a plan to cut off a slice that saved all the details, but was only 1 inch in thickness.  That sounds easy doesn't it.... well it wasn't! The wood was very dense, and difficult to cut. 

 

 

 We used the table saw first, and then a

reciprocating saw.  I then had to use a chisel and an electric plane sander to smooth and level the "slice." It was a lot of work, but I love the special detail it contributes to the message center.

Jeff then hung the 42 inch cabinet, and added crown molding to the top of the cabinet. The molding was left over from a kitchen remodel in our old house, and was 4 years old. I had primed several pieces of bead board leftovers, from 9 years ago, and Jeff cut and added the bead board to the side of the cabinet. He used a brad gun and glue to attach the bead board.

Next, we built the bottom cabinet using some high density MDF in two different thicknesses. This wood was left over from 2 different projects.  Since the edges of MDF are not too wonderful, we added some half-round molding to the edge.  The back of the cabinet uses more of the bead board that I had pre-painted.

 



We cut away the old baseboard so the new cabinet would be flush to the wall.

We added a strip of wood to the back to support the weight of the granite countertop.
The countertop was found in the throw away pile at the granite company that I had used previously, and I only had to pay to have it cut to size and edged.
 

As you can see, I added a chalkboard to the side of the top cabinet, and a key holder.  I bought the key holder premade and only repainted it to match the new color.  Next, Jeff built the letter sorter. 

I'm so tired of the mail being dumped on my kitchen countertops!  Now, the mail is sorted to the current person, and one of the slot is designated for school papers that need to be read.

 Inside the right hand side cabinet I have posted the current and the next two upcoming months calendar pages. I write any upcoming events onto those pages.

My mail slots were constructed out of MDF. The side of the lower cabinet now has bead board on it too.

Here you can see the letter sorter after I pained the whole unit.

I added 4 wire baskets to fill the two shelves.

The shelves and wire baskets solve the problem of family members dumping their purses, school papers, sunglasses, and lunchboxes, onto the kitchen countertops. I also  placed a basket with a lid  on the countertop to hold my sunglasses.

Notice the shoes are now under the bottom shelf and not all over the mudroom. 
I have a shelf outside in the garage for wet/muddy boots.

This cabinet houses: light bulbs, different tapes and glues, telephone books, community maps,  and telephone books.

 The left hand side has a whiteboard on the inside door.
 I bought magnets with the days of the week written on the individual magnets. I use a dry erase marker to list the events of what is happening for the current week. I usually do it on Sunday after dinner, as all the family is together and I double check to see what everyone is doing for the upcoming week.

Well, that's it and I love it because it solved so many storage and communication problems!!!

Deborah

Linky Parties:

Someday Crafts: http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/2013/07/whatever-goes-wednesday-181.html