Playroom Organization & Inspiration

I have a love-hate relationship with things. Do you know what kind of things I am talking about? Things that lay around appearing to be clutter. Certain things that don’t have a designated home or don’t even have utility in the home in which they reside. Do these things sound familiar? When I was pregnant I had a lot of anxiety about things. All things, really, as most pregnant women do. But the sheer amount of things a baby requires? Anxiety. In recent days, Danny has been acquiring even MORE things which has necessitated some crafty playroom organization and inspiration on my part.

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Having a baby who is beginning to participate in some fun, active play makes me feel like a kid again myself. Not only is Danny playing but he is learning. Thing is, we do not have a designated playroom. Our house is a modest size but it does not have too much extra space. I have carefully organized closets, cabinets, and furniture to accommodate all of our belongings with room to grow. We are comfortable and we are cozy so long as I keep these things in check.

Our living room has slowly transitioned to double as a playroom. My ultimate goal with all of Daniel’s things is to allow for accessible play without interfering with the overall aesthetic of our house. I have anxiety at the thought of my house being completely overrun with toys. I also don’t want to hide all of his toys, books, and mats because this is his home and his space too.

There is presently a nice balance in our home between adult furniture and baby items. It clearly looks like a baby lives and plays here but it also looks like grown-ups do too. All of Daniel’s toys, books, and stuffed animals have a place to go at the end of the day. Having all of these things organized also allows for more play and exploration.

I have only done light research on the Montessori methods and toys. There is a certain attraction to wooden toys and methods that support development and learning. I would say that our current situation is Montessori-inspired and not necessarily Montessori-ed. It is not only a space for Daniel to play in but also a space where I would enjoy playing with him. As he grows and gets older I hope to learn more about open-ended play and playing to learn (I, after all, am a teacher by trade).

Here’s some inspiration for organizing your own play space! I’ve broken it down into categories and included my favorite features for organization and Daniel’s favorite features for play!

1. Furniture For Our Play Area

• Cube Organizer shelves: It is no secret that I have an obsession with cube shelving. If you followed my nursery closet organization post you know I have an 8-cube in there to keep normal nursery things organized. In the living room I have one 6-cube organizer and two 2-cube organizers.
• Baby Accessible Bookshelf: My mom actually had bought this bookshelf for her house and decided to get herself some cubes instead. I took it off her hands because it is the perfect baby-friendly bookshelf! When Danny gets a little bit bigger he will be able to stand at it and pick books right at his level!

2. Storage For Our Play Area

• Half Size Canvas Bins: I love these half size canvas bins for organizing similar items together. They are shorter so Danny can see into them. When he is on the move and pulling things off the shelf he will be easily able to see inside. I keep our puppets in one and our extra balls and blocks in the other.
• Full Size Canvas Bins: For items that I don’t keep out for regular play I keep in the full size canvas bins. They fit into the whole cube. These house some of the bigger plastic toys and toys that Danny isn’t quite ready for.
• Round Weave Baskets: In an effort to increase small storage areas in our play area I got this awesome 2 pack of round weave baskets. We received a similar one in our Lovevery subscription box and I loved the “treasure basket” concept. Having these around gives me a place for some of our play mat toys and play silks.

3. Baby Safe Play Areas

• Skip Hop Reversible Playmat: Do yourself a favor and put one of these on your registry. Everyone with wood floors should get a skip hop playmat for their play area. The reason why I wanted this mat specifically is that it is all one piece and reversible. We have the one with the grey triangles on one side and the road with the town on the other. For the first 6 months, I had it on the neutral grey side. Now that we are playing more and getting moving I flipped it to the fun side. What I love is that the fun side is still no offensive and it doesn’t get crumbs wedged between multiple pieces.
• Lovevery Play Gym: It is no secret that I love our Lovevery toys from our subscription boxes. Their toys are some of Danny’s favorites for teething. We also have the Lovevery Play Gym which was one of my registry should-haves.
• Rug: I keep a small 3ft by 5ft rug in front of our 6-cube organizer so we can choose toys and read without sitting on the hardwood floors. I may get another skip hop mat eventually but I got the rug for now. You can find a perfect rug for any decor and reasonable prices on Wayfair or Amazon.

4. Toys For Our Shelves

This is just a list of some of Danny’s favorite toys featured on his shelf currently. Please keep in mind some are not independent play toys and you should always supervise your child with small toys. These are the exact toys we have, I am very happy with the quality of every piece!

• Bead Maze
• Balls, Blocks, and Friends
• Soft Ring Stacker
• Developmental Bumpy Ball
• Puppets & Soft Books
• Grimm’s Nesting Bowls
• Melissa & Doug Food Groups
• Wooden Letter Blocks
• Grimm’s Giant Marbles
• Lovevery Subscription Box Toys (tissue box, spinning rainbow, ball drop)

Ideas? Suggestions?

How do you organize your play space? I would love to see your ideas for awesome developmental toys and play spaces! Let me know what you think in the comments!