Last week I wrote about organizing the hall closet. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. It’s funny how that became an infectious runaway train of organizing. In a fit of rage against all the toys organizational inspiration I took on the play area. You may recall that the toys have been organized before but its been quite a while since I’ve had time to tame the madness. Honestly, O is pretty good about cleaning up but without proper toy storage we found ourselves with mountains of toys, many of them no longer age appropriate for our now toddler.

I packed up most of the baby toys but kept a few basics for when friends with smaller kids come over. I was able to fill a good sized plastic storage tub and stash it under the stairs. And in typing this I’ve just realized that we will eventually run out of stair storage space. Panic!

Enter the Closet Maid cubical shelf (Target and probably plenty of other similar places). With O’s birthday less than 2 weeks after Christmas we put in a request to grandparents for a “need” since all of O’s “wants” -and then some- were covered by gifts given at Christmas. We requested that O get some storage in the form of the cubical and the fabric baskets. I snagged everything on sale (yay for post holiday organization sales!) and was reimbursed rather than having them choose a shelf with bins and delivering it… so much easier. And yes, I realize I will never get to request a “need” for O’s birthday again. I’m sure next year she’ll just want a pony or something instead.

And I put it together while hubby watched football and leant an occasional hand to stabilize while I drilled (I don’t do those things with screwdrivers… it will take 5 years).

Ta-da! In less than 20 minutes we had an assembled cubby shelf.

I stashed all of the Mega Blocks, Little People and smaller things in the fabric bins and then displayed larger toys on top and in the empty cubbies. I chose fabric bin colors based on the bright rug and I figured they could easily be interchanged or replaced if we opted move the unit to another room. You may notice that this is the horizontal use of the same shelving unit that serves as a bookshelf in O’s room.

So there you have it. Less mess and a happier play room. And a way happier mom. Isn’t organization bliss?

P.S. I think it was a very happy accident that I can’t find a “before” image that I swear I took. Oh the horror!