Inspired by the Organizing the Playroom edition over at I’m an Organizing Junkie‘s blog, I decided to clear out our balcony, aka playroom aka toy-cum-tools-cum-I-don’t-know-where-to-put-this-stuff room.
Our pseudo-playroom
It is a very small space that was originally meant to be used as an open-air service balcony that was to be used to dry laundry. But the previous owner managed to cleverly convert it into an extra room by putting up windows, grills and a false ceiling. We liked his idea and have used it as our playroom-cum-store room ever since we moved in. 🙂
In the beginning (2.5yrs ago), there was, of course, very little stuff in there. But recently, it was getting so difficult to vacuum and mop in that room. I had to spend much time pushing stuff from one side of the room to the other. Besides, I felt bad for our Chinese tutor who had to teach in that claustrophobic space. She must be so distracted by the amount of stuff in there while teaching.
Decluttering the playroom project
Since I hate clutter and I hate mess, I had wanted to de-clutter the playroom.
But I had a big challenge: a crawling-I’m-curious-about-everything-baby. As we had LOTS of stuff in the room, I knew I needed at least 2 whole afternoons to clear it out.
Well, I could do it during her naptimes. But since she only naps an hour per nap, just like all her other siblings at the same age, it would take me forever to finish this project!
With baby in tow
So, I decided to bite the bullet and do it with her. I also enlisted the help of my oldest child. With one more pair of hands, things would progress much faster. He was to be my gopher, my errand boy. And he was a great help!
He got rewarded with a Murderous Maths book (he loves maths!). It was a win-win for us!
All toys de-cluttered in 4 hours
It was amazing. We were done de-cluttering by the end of the day (a total of almost 4 hours). We started when the baby went down for her nap. When she woke up, I nursed her and placed her next to me with the toys that had already been sorted and were “safe” for her to play with.
We then continued to de-clutter steadily until dinner time. Then after she went to bed that night, I continued by myself until all the toys and games that needed to be thrown away/donated/sold were sorted out.
Other stuff de-cluttered
The next day, (Saturday), we had no school so I proceeded to turn my attention to the tools and the I-don’t-know-where-to-put-this-stuff lot. Tools were Henson’s territory so I merely dusted the boxes and ignored them! 🙂
The other stuff were again organised into throw away/donated/sold categories. After throwing out 4 huge trash bags of stuff, 2 vacuum cleaners (don’t ask!), and 2 skate scooters, I now actually have space on the shelves that used to be packed tightly with stuff.
Organising them all
But, throwing out things was actually the easy part. Organising what’s left was tougher.
Toys
Sorting out the toys was the easier task. So I did that first.
They were sorted into baskets : a) dollhouse toys, b) cars, c) balls, d) toy animals, e) children computers, f) baby toys, and g) wooden blocks*. I tagged the boxes by tying a piece of string with the appropriate picture card (for the non-reader) on it.
Boardgames and Card Games
Sorting out their card and board games was much tougher. The board games had bulky boxes which took up a lot of space. I then remembered an idea tossed up on a large family forum a long time ago – trash the box, keep all the game boards together in one place and pack the tokens/cards separately.
Brilliant idea!
I did not want to use ziplock bags as they always tore due to the children’s manhandling. So I bought 10 same-sized rectangular boxes in white and placed the cards and tokens in them. All labelled. By that afternoon, I completed de-cluttering and organising the Playroom!
All the boxes and game boards were labelled. The game tokens/cards were placed into them. Now, all our games fit neatly into ONE big drawer (from Ikea’s Antonius range) instead of occupying 3 shelves!
The balcony now looks so spacious and organised. Maintenance should be a lot easier now … till the next time, that is!
* Legos and MegaBloks belong in a class of their own. Legos go upstairs in the boys’ room since that is the bigger room of the two, with enough space for them to pour everything out. MegaBloks are kept in a huge Toyogo plastic box under the side table in the dining area since that’s the only space that it can fit.
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2 Comments on De-Cluttering the Playroom
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The idea of a child being REWARDED with a maths book, and MURDEROUS Maths at that, tickles me enormously! I find it hilarious! 🙂
Oh yes, he LOVES maths. The more the better! And he constantly laughs at me struggling with it. Sigh.