Master Closet Turned Toddler Playroom

You should see the closets in this house...Ahhhhhh!

I mean they are so dreamy! They're huge with built in shelves and ventilation and bright fluorescent lights. Amazing!! When I saw the closets in this house, I thought two things; why in the world did they not post these pics of closet space on Realtor? and I am SO GLAD they didn't put these amazing closet space pics on-line! I think this house would have sold like lightning if it would've been obvious. I know we snatched it right up! We're bargain hunters and we didn't even try that hard. (We at least got 'em down a little, but not like Dave Ramsey-would-be-proud kind of bargain.)

So, when I walked into the master bedroom after deciding this was for us, an idea started developing.

Look at the size of this closet: It's about 9x7

 



Okay...I know, I know...I've seen bigger, too. But when you're used to a closet this size:

 

 

(The left side was Josh's and the right side with the little hanging shelves was mine. I mean, every piece of clothing I had that didn't fit in a dresser was right there: all seasons, maternity, scarves...everything.) 

Why in the world would I need a closet as big as what I got?

So, Josh and I decided to share the men's closet and use the big one for Bubzy's own little play space/room. 

At first we tried putting Bubzy's new little toddler bed in there and making it a tiny bedroom. I started putting the bed together...and Abby turned into Ms. Fix-it and took right over. She LOVED building her own little project and I think she did the whole thing almost by herself.

 



We put a little rug and bean bag chair in the corner and it turned out so cute! Problem was...Bubzy didn't want to give up sleeping in Mom and Dad's bed, and even 7 steps away was too far. He loved it during the day, though and started calling it "Mine". He would go and sit on the bed, swing on the bar he could reach, and pull out toys to play with. We moved the bed right beside ours and we're still in the transition faze of getting him out of our bed, but it's at least possible now. We hope to move it back to this when he's a year older and sleeping on his own regularly.  





So, it pretty much stayed this way, minus the bed, until a week into school. We couldn't keep up with folding the laundry...so we washed, dried, and threw most of it in a basket. We kept stashing them behind the couch and folding little bits as we could. Well...I hosted a Ladies Night Out, and decided to throw all the clean clothes in Bubzy's space. Then we got a huge bag of hand-me-downs for Bubzy that also got dropped in there. That was last Thursday. Then, on Sunday we decided to tear through it to find clean socks and an outfit that would fit Bubzy.  

It looked like this in no time flat! Ahhhhhhh!

 We weren't going to leave it that way long...Bubzy kept going in there looking for his Legos and saying "Mine". I hated to shoo him out of his own little space, but I mean...look at it! (At least they were all CLEAN clothes, right?)

This weekend, we decided to make a project out of it, organizing his new hand-me-downs, looking through the clothes he had out to see what needed to be put away, folding all those neglected clean clothes...wrinkled and all, and make it into Bubzy's own little playroom. We had no idea it would turn into a half day project!

 

Josh was a huge help as he took load after load of clean clothes to the bed to fold...plus other stuff like, "Hey Babe, can you put this way up there for me?"!

 

That much! Oh, no, that was a whittled down pile. Thanks Hun! 

As the clean clothes disappeared from the floor and the fabulous new pile of Bubzy sized clothes were sorted, the floor started to look normal again. It just needed some toy sorting with help from Bubzy and a good vacuuming.

 

 

Now for the RESULTS:

 

 

 

 

 

So...what do y'all think, gals?? We LOVE it!!

 

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Our Playroom is Ready

Okay, so the desk is still full of junk to be gone through, but it's ready to show you!

I've always wanted the kids to have a separate play room just for all their toys, games, and fun stuff. I'm a sap when it comes to de-cluttering toys. I mean seriously...they will eventually grow out of them anyway, right? Of course, I wanted it organized, too. A playroom was my dream extra room second only to a library.

Are you ready? Come on up the stairs. There's a little half bath right there beside them. There's even a baby gate that keeps kids from running up to the stairs too fast. (I'm taking the picture from the media room that faces the bathroom. No need to show that--boring little square room with an old couch and huge cluncky t.v.)

We spent some of our house money that we made on bookshelves and organizing bins for the playroom. The kids are so excited...and we can't wait to show you.

Remember when we put the shelves together?

 New Shelves In The Kid's Playroom

So, here's the pictures you've been waiting for!



Just a little peek at the black bookshelves. I know, I know, show us already.










Okay, but first let me show you what happened when we set up the shelves, but didn't go up there to help them organize it...and then let them go crazy and wild up there.

So, daily we'd do our downstairs chores and ignore this...but they would bring all the toys found down there upstairs like I told them to.

Guess where they put it all? Yep. Right at the top of the stairs.

So, after two straight days of organizing and cleaning up....

Same basic view from the top of the stairs. There's tons of natural light up there, which we love!








I just love the archways in our new house. The stairs are right below the light, the bathroom to the left and media room to the right. The archway gives a simple, elegant entryway to the playroom without separating it.










Oh my goodness...I am SO excited about all the toy shelves!!! We already had the big ones on the right and bought the other three at Ikea. They barely fit on that far wall. Josh even had to cut off the end of the baseboard where they sit, which almost make them look built-in. I bought two of the medium size that have 8 box-shelf spaces and a tall one with 5 box-shelves to lay on it's side in between. We put all the pillows and big stuffed toys here and it can be used as a bench if they want.







We put Abby's Barbie house over in the corner and her Barbies in the nearby pink canvas bins on the shelves. All the Fisher Price big toys are on top and the little people and pieces in the blue canvas bins.







And if you keep scanning around the room past the Barbie house, Abram's dress up is in the tall white laundry basket, all the big toys that really take up space are in the big blue tub, and the clear tub next to it is our Lego collection. We put that little wood shelf back there as a display shelf. If they've made crafts or Lego buildings or stuff like that, they can display it there. If it gets too full, they have to choose what goes.

  Then there's the (still unorganized) desk that we're going to use for a craft area. Abby's going to probably be glued to that area once we have it finished.

The big black shelves have a lot of sets: small stuffed toys, games, cars and tracks, baby doll clothes, etc.

The corner of the room is Abby's "house", with a toy kitchen and pantry, a nice soft chair and rug and a baby doll crib. She stores her dress up in the tall white basket beside the chair.

The kids have so much fun in here!

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New Shelves in the Kid's Playroom

When we sold our old house and bought our new one, we ended up with a little more money than we had planned for. Hurray! So, even though we hadn't planned on buying any new furniture, we had the opportunity. Decisions, decisions.

Well, Abram had to have a new bed and so did Bubzy. We started with that. Then we decided that we'd love to have better toy storage. After all, that's a biggy when it comes to clutter and I really didn't want all their toys scattered about all over the playroom. (One of the reasons this had to change was a shift in storage needs. We used to have built in dressers in their closets where they put all their folded clothing. Their room dressers were used primarily for toy chests. Now, they needed these for clothing and didn't have storage for toys.)

So, off to Ikea we went. A few too many dollars later, and we had beds for both boys and toy storage for the playroom. I can't wait to show you!

It was such fun. Everyone helped put them together...even Bubzy. And, they fit perfectly!! Well, we had to cut off a bit of molding around the floor, but it's totally not noticeable.

 

Okay guys, just pile all the stuff on one side of the room so we have space to put shelves together.

 

This one?

 I got this, Mama.

Checkin' out Daddy's work.

 Daddy's there to do most of the heavy work.

 Can I try the drill, Dad?

 I need that one, Sissy.

 Bubzy really got the hang of putting the pegs in each shelf. That was his job and he was really proud of himself for helping so much.

 

Abby is so proud of the new shelf bins that she can use to store all their little toys in.

 

We even got daddy to hang some things on the wall, and Abby went right to organizing.

 YEAH!! Time to unpack!! Only one box at a time, please.

 

We can't wait to show you the whole room when it gets set up and organized. We feel so blessed to have an upstairs place just for playing and having fun.