Our house is not very large and a two-year-old comes with a lot of toys (as I am sure most of you already know). We used to keep some toys in a cubical unit in our living room. However, when she turned two she got a lot of big toys for her birthday what wouldn't fit in the fabric bins that go in the cubical unit. We decided to keep these upstairs in her room. This worked for a while until she wanted to spend every waking moment in her room. I can't just leave a two year old alone upstairs while I cook dinner or get other work done around the house. I told my husband that before summer vacation started, we needed to figure out a way to store most of her toys downstairs.
One night I had a brilliant idea. We would move my husbands office, which is right next to the living room, upstairs to where my office was. We could then turn his office into a playroom! I never really used my office anymore because I was always playing with my daughter. I only need a place to plug my laptop in. I really had to convince my husband. I explained how if I had to be upstairs with our daughter all summer long, I wouldn't get any of the home improvement projects done that he wanted me to work on. I also explained how nice it would be to have a place that all the kids can go to play when we have friends over. We could maybe then have some adult conversation instead of having to always yell over the kids. Finally, he gave in and said we could do it.
My husbands office has not been touched since we moved in 8 years ago! Not a single piece of furniture has moved, not a single new picture has been hung. Nothing ever really left the office, but many items found their home there. I was hoping to use this as an opportunity for him to go through all of this stuff and do some purging.
I new that it was going to take a while so I suggested we start on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. I could not believe all the stuff that was coming out of his office! Once we had everything out, before it went into the new office, he decided if he really needed it in the new office, if we could pack it away, or if it could be donated.
Once everything was out of the old office, we took down one of the built in desks. I also had tons and tons of nail holes to fill before I could give it a fresh new coat of paint. I don't usually like white walls, but I didn't want the wall color to compete with all the great colors of the toys and books so I decided to keep it. Who knows, it may change yet this summer :)
After painting, in came all of my daughter's stuff. I also needed to create a little office space for me so I also brought in all of my necessities - bill paying stuff, Project Life stuff, etc. I found in our basement a plastic rolling cart and a file cabinet that fit underneath the built in desk. These worked perfect to hold all my stuff.
We used an old bookcase to hold all the books and coloring books. I used two wicker baskets that used to be our coffee table to create a reading nook in the corner (and the offer more storage space). My daughter's table that she loves to play Sesame Street on fit perfectly in the old closet. The cubical that used to be in the living room fit perfectly on the little wall under the window when you walk into the room.
Because I didn't like all my stuff showing through the clear plastic drawers on the plastic rolling cart, I covered some cardboard in wrapping paper and glued a label on each drawer.
So far, the playroom has been a huge hit both with my daughter and my husband and I. It is so nice to have our living room back and to have a place where we can quickly throw her toys if we are having people over. My daughter also loves to be able to play with her toys without having to ask to go upstairs.
