Like all playrooms with busy, growing kids, eventually they need a re-working. This toy room was home to a busy pre-teen who was making the switch from younger aged toys and stuffed animals, to more social and age-relevant toys.

Pre-teen, mom, and I started organizing this room by clearing all of the shelves and bins. We had her group her toys into piles of “still play with”, “archive as keepsake” or “donate”. Though hard at first to part with some of her past time favorite toys, she did an amazing job of going through her toys and finally letting go of some of the toys she no longer plays with. She was sweet to share with us who she had in mind to take the toys, who would love to play with them.

We took out the bookshelf to open up the room a little bit and categorized her smaller toys in bins and containers under the TV. Together,we created a labeled and specific place to put each kind of toy according to how she played with them.

There had been a “full of stuffed animals” corner of the room which we were able to sort through and better utilize the wall storage. That area then housed the coffee table as a stand for dollhouses and cleared up a bunch of space in the room for their active Wii games.

With a few hours of tough choices and lots of patience, this initially resistant pre-teen was excited about spending time in her newly organized space with her more frequently used items at her fingertips and some history archived in keepsakes.

Organizing a Playroom