filed under: Organizing Tips & Tricks

Top Tips to De-clutter a Playroom

The reality of urban living, especially in expensive cities like Vancouver, is that we often don’t have vast and unfinished basements to banish unwanted toys from our sight lines. And after any holiday season, our homes are often drowning in unnecessary clutter. If you are sharing living and play spaces with your children, here are my tips and tricks to de-clutter your playroom!

Begin with a purge:

Starting with a purge of anything that is not currently being played with is the easiest way to begin. My advice is to take EVERYTHING out of all the nooks and cubbies and sort it into piles: keep, donate or trash. That way you have a good idea of how much you have to make storage space for before you begin the organization process. RELATED POST: How To Conquer Kid Clutter!

Take inventory on what can be repurposed, and what should be donated or sold:

Does your furniture really fit the space? Often I see beloved furniture that takes up valuable real estate in a small room. Replace only what you must and have a good look around the house and in your garage for pieces that may suit the new space.

Look at how the room is actually being used:

Urban playrooms are often used for a lot of different purposes. If your playroom is also a common area of the home you might have to share the space with crafts and lego.

Prioritize Function and Efficiency:

Crafts: Your kids may not care if the room is Pinterest worthy, but they will appreciate knowing exactly where to find what they are looking for just when they need it! Re-purposing a mobile cart as the new crafts supplies catch-all keeps everything handy and mobile as needed. Keep everyday materials kids use central and easy to reach like glue, markers, scissors and pencil crayons. Clip boards provide an instant artist studio of current imaginings and white magnetic boards can be used as a white board for lists or drawing or hanging inspirational ideas!

Study space: To the immediate left of the study space is a kitchen bar. By matching the height of the desk to the bar, so it was ergonomically comfortable for standing at, the stools could be pulled over to sit at the work station. The desk area is wide enough for two children to sit side by side, if required. School documents and workbooks are now kept in the magazine folders above the desk. And how awesome is it that those bulletin boards ft exactly between the hardware of the study station!?

Toy storage: Not every toy needs to be available at every moment. Consider putting toys on a rotation, and be sure to store like with like in smaller bins to avoid the dreaded toy dump. Label bins for easy clean up.

Lego play space: If you have an old desk that can be repurposed as a lego display table and storage unit, go for it! Compartmentalized trays that fit in the drawers will keep the bits and pieces organized and easier to play with. As a bonus, when the drawers are closed, the room is tidy and clutter free. Read my post ten ideas for lego storage for more ideas.