If you don’t know what the heck the 29 DOC is, you can catch up by reading here and here.

Now, 2 weeks in to the challenge, it’s time for another update.

We actually got a TON done over the weekend. In fact, I’m nearly done!

As a reminder, here is a BEFORE shot:

And here are my goals for this project:

1. Simplify so that the room looks less cluttered

2. Use vertical space better

3. Unify color scheme with dining room so that the 2 rooms complement each other

4. Visually separate the 2 rooms while still allowing for easy movement between them

5. Keep costs down – try to use what we have first before buying

Last week we de-cluttered, bought some new canvas storage bins and some new ottomans to use for seating and storage.

This week we re-arranged, organized, re-labeled and decorated.

It was a job that took the whole family. I wanted to put in a new bookshelf (well, new to this room. It’s a shelving unit we already had from the old house that was just sitting in the basement here), hang up some valances I had ordered weeks ago that finally arrived, re-arrange the remaining furniture and toys and re-label the canvas bins. To do all this, we first had to move out a bunch of stuff.

Most of it ended up on the dining room table.

CJ got to work drilling holes in the shelving unit. We wanted to attach it to the wall to make sure Isabella couldn’t pull it over.

Isabella helped too by trying on Daddy’s safety glasses.

Once the shelf was installed, the books were moved over and we started hanging the curtains.

Then it was a matter of moving stuff around until it looked right to me. There was no real process for this part, just trial and error.

Here are the bins with their new labels.

These canvas bins don’t have a slot to put a label so previously I had taped one on. I didn’t really like how that looked though and it didn’t stick real well so I needed something else. I got the idea to make labels out of scrapbook paper and tie them to the handle from another blogger participating in the challenge. I love how they turned out! Oh, and not only did I write what goes in each one, I also put stickers of the items so that Isabella knows (since she can’t read yet)

The white stacking bins are a new addition to the room. They were previously used in Isabella’s old bedroom for clothes because her closet was so small. She didn’t need them in her new room so I repurposed them down here! I added the yellow and blue paper to the front to make them more decorative and fun and then attached tags similar to those on the canvas bins, for consistency.

Now for the big reveal!

I am really loving how it turned out!

The new corner shelf adds the height I wanted while also utilizing valuable space. The new bins fit in with the color scheme of the dining room to make the 2 rooms more cohesive. And the valances add that extra pop of color that also helps tie the playroom to the dining room! I also love that I was able to use items we already had so I didn’t have to go spend a lot of money! Having the labels on the bins is really working well too and makes clean up a breeze!

We are ever so close to being done!

After living with it for a week, there are a few tweaks I want to make. The books on the corner shelf need some help as right now they’re kind of stuffed on there. There are still many bigger toys sitting out that make it look messy. Not sure yet what to do with those. I also want to add some decorative items to the top shelves of the corner unit, to make it “prettier”, along with a  rug for the floor.

I’m really happy that we’ve come so far so fast though. Definitely feels like we’re over the hump and what remains is simply touch ups.

I’ll be back next Friday with another update!

This has been harder than I thought. For those of you just tuning in, I decided at the beginning of the month to take part in a 29 day challenge (over the month of February) to get ONE “problem” room in the house organized once and for all.

I picked Isabella’s playroom. It’s the first room you see when you walk in the front door and I want it to look nice. Play rooms by their very nature tend to be dens of insanity. But given the location of ours, it needed to have some order to it.

Here is a before pic.

Ok granted, I took that pic on a particularly bad day after she’d been playing hard. Still, it needs help, wouldn’t you agree?

Before I got started, I made a list of goals for this project. You can’t start unless you know what you really want to do, right? It’s too overwhelming otherwise.

Here are my goals:

1. Simplify so that the room looks less cluttered

Seems counterintuitive with a kid’s room. Isabella has a million toys and they’re all small and easily lost. But we’re really trying to keep the junk to a minimum and regularly cull through it to get rid of or put away things she’s not playing with anymore.

2. Use vertical space better

Kids are short. Therefore, their stuff is low to the ground. I get that. But it also breaks up the room into 2 distinct halves – the top and bottom. Most rooms have a nice medley of short and tall things so that it’s one unified space. The playroom doesn’t. So I need to figure out how to go “up” while still keeping everything accessible.

3. Unify color scheme with dining room so that the 2 rooms complement each other

My thought when buying all the pink and green stuff originally was that Isabella is a little girl and should therefore have things in pretty, girly colors. That works ok for her bedroom, which is all hers. But in a room like this, which everyone will see and also has to “share space” with the dining room, we need more visual cohesion. Besides, the toys themselves will keep it plenty colorful.

4. Visually separate the 2 rooms while still allowing for easy movement between them

This seems counter to #3 but it’s not. On the one hand, we want the rooms to work well together because visually, your eye will see them both at the same time. However, we also want to show that they are 2 rooms with different purposes. Another bonus to this is that it keeps Isabella’s stuff corralled so that it doesn’t take over the whole house.

5. Keep costs down – try to use what we have first before buying

This is a biggie. I could go crazy and buy all new furniture to “do it up right”, but who can afford that? So instead I’m going to try and use what we have. If I have to buy something, I’ll look for sale/clearance items. Gotta watch the pennies!

Here’s what I’ve done so far.

I went through everything and made 3 piles: keep, toss, and donate. The keep items were then split in to 2 groups: keep in the playroom or store in the basement for future rotation or the next kid.

Next, the bins had to be changed up, per goal # 3. The green and pink wouldn’t work with a blue/white/gold dining room. I originally thought of painting or dying the bins a different color but decided against it. First of all, the bins are flexible so paint would have ended up cracking and peeling off (even fabric paint). Dye might have worked but I didn’t think the colors would end up looking very “true” since the base color of the bins was green and pink (as opposed to white). So, I bought some new ones on sale at Target for $6 each. I think they look better than doctored up ones would have. Besides, now I can use the green and pink ones in Isabella’s bedroom (which will be an upcoming project).

And for fun, here’s the pic Samson photo-bombed.

The pink shelf will be moved upstairs into Isabella’s room eventually, when we’re ready to switch things around. The pink hippo bin will go with it.

From there, I looked at what we could do to consolidate the items in the bins. Up until now, they didn’t have a particular purpose other than as “boxes for stuff”. I devoted 2 of them to the Mega Bloks (which allowed us to get rid of the extra bags we had sitting atop the bookshelf) and the other two were split between balls and toys. I added labels so that we’d remember which was which.

To help with goals #1 and 4, we bought an ottoman set.

But Sarah, I thought you weren’t going to spend a lot of money? You’ve just mentioned 2 sets of things that you bought! I know, I know, but hear me out. The ottomans were a set of 3, on sale, and I had a coupon, so we were able to get all 3 for $85. If we had bought them at full price, it would have cost us almost $200. PLUS, since the ottomans all double as storage units, we were able to move Isabella’s stuffed animals in to them and get rid of the tupperware toy box (that has now been moved to the basement and repurposed for storage). By adding the 3 ottomans, we have additional seating, storage, a visual separation between the 2 rooms and were able to get rid of another box that just wasn’t working.  

Newly freed up space where the old toy box was.

No more big and bulky bags of blocks.

I have several more ideas and projects to do before the room is done. I’m super excited to see how they work and to share them as I go! So far I’m happy with the accomplishments. I’m the kind of person who wants it all done RIGHT NOW! I have to keep telling myself to take baby steps…it’ll all get done eventually.

Stay tuned!