Playroom Overhaul

BEFORE:

AFTER:

6 kids spells T-O-Y-S!!!

The joy at our house is that our girls are all 4 years apart and the boys are 5 years and 3 years apart. Consequently, we need toys for every single age group and gender! The up side is that the 4 year old boy has been born into his love of Lego's since that is ALL 9 year old brother plays with. Likewise, 6 year old sister plays with all the same Barbie stuff that 10 year old sister enjoys. However, many toys are kept in case 2 year old and 10 month old might play with them eventually. Obviously, I can't keep EVERYTHING, and we won't even discuss the 10 yards of stuffed animals in the attic, but we do keep quite a bit and it HAD to get organized! The only toys NOT in this room are the American Girl dolls and clothes, the little kitchen and dolly crib in Leah's room and a basket of baby toys in the living room. Other than that, this is it. What you can't see in the picture, however, is a 3 drawer unit of Lego bits and a train table that built Lego's are on, a closet FULL of board games and another closet full of educational toys: dress-ups, weapons, puzzles, blocks, foam and pegs, etc. Yes, weapons are educational, right?!? I am not counting the shelves of crafts as toys, but we could go into that another time!

So, this organization is my newest key to sanity, and project 52 on a list of 103, just to round. This has been a big overhauling-the-house kind of summer but I am sure it will streamline life quite a bit and make the other 9 months of the (school)year run more smoothly. Last summer I had to endure a very messy garage and house because I was sweltering and quite pregnant. I have no such ailments this summer! On to the next 51 projects!!!