The taming of our playroom!

My aversion to toys is well-known to my family and friends and well-documented throughout this newsletter and website. There are few things that bother me more than toy clutter all over my house. It really affects my mood and my patience and tolerance toward my children. I’m not supposed to think or say that out loud and definitely not put it down in writing like I just have, I know, but I can’t be alone in this. Clutter makes me crazy!

I’d like to say we had a pretty decent handle on our playroom up until about November of last year. Then, in the span of a few months, both our boys had birthdays AND Christmas was thrown into the mix. The result was a playroom that the kids couldn’t even use anymore. There were toys everywhere, no logical place to put all of them, pieces mixed together, and no space to play with them on the floor or table. This meant a lot of toys made their way up from the playroom into our actual living spaces which, for me, was a huge source of stress in my life. I know, I know -- #firstworldproblem to the MAX -- but it’s true and I’m sorry.

Enter: THE TOY TAMER, Evelyn Cucchiara.

Evelyn came into my life at the perfect time. My playroom was in shambles and I was weeks away from delivering baby #3. She came by for a quick consultation and sent me my Custom Design Assessment (CDA) within just a few days. We had a quick call to discuss the CDA (which is basically a playroom blueprint) during which she offered to further customize based on our needs, but I was unable to see anything that needed tweaking. She even squeezed me into her busy schedule so she could have it done before I have baby #3!

When I told Enzo (my 5yo) that she was coming to organize our playroom while he was in school and that it would be done by the time he got back, his immediate unprompted response was “Now we’ll be able to play in the playroom again! It’s been too messy to have fun in there.” This made my heart break a little because, as someone who feels physically affected by clutter, I felt bad for putting him through that, too, in a space that should make him feel the complete opposite.

Evelyn and her husband Joe arrived right on time, around my schedule of dropping the kids off at school, and quickly got to work with no mediation or guidance needed on my part. They lugged in supplies, shelves, cabinets, tool boxes, toy bins; lugged out garbage and packaging. I heard LEGOs being dumped, Lincoln Logs tumbling, and walls and shelves being drilled and hammered. (As an aside, I don’t think I’ve ever had anything so securely attached to one of my walls than the shelves and bins Joe attached. My husband said the same.) They took pictures to make custom cubby labels, printed, laminated, and hung them, and by 2pm the entire playroom was finished and I hadn’t lifted a finger!

THE RESULTS

The boys were sooo excited to get home from school and go check out their new playroom and we’re all so happy with the results. All their favorite and most-used toys are completely accessible to them and I have plans to rotate some out from the closet as needed. Enzo can read all the labels and because of the custom pictures on the labels, they make total sense to Rocco (3yo) too!

They played in the playroom that afternoon for longer than they have in months, and I even stayed down there with them longer than usual because being in the space doesn’t give me anxiety anymore. I don’t feel like I’m constantly “picking up” while they’re playing and it gives me a chance to play with them and enjoy it.

Evelyn left us with a bell and a set of instructions to help the kids learn to clean up the playroom that involves them ringing the bell after clean-up, but, honestly, we haven’t even had to use the bell system yet. With the exception of a few “building projects” that are important to them that I let them keep up, the boys have just naturally been cleaning up after themselves, putting the bins back into their labeled cubbies, returning the bigger items to the top of the cubbies, and clearing the floor, with very little prodding from me. For a 3 and a 5 year old, this is a big deal.

A huge bonus for me is now that the kids know exactly where their toys belong, they mostly stay where they belong and I’m not tripping over them in the kitchen anymore. Some toys do still migrate upstairs, but getting them back down is a much easier and more pleasant process that the kids are in charge of.

The immediate “after” pictures are impressive, to be sure, but to other parents in similar playroom situations, I think the “weeks after” pictures will be even more impressive...

I realize there are toys on the floor and bins out of their cubbies in these photos but it's important to note that this is an ACTIVE, very-much-in-use, playroom. The only things out on the table or the floor are toys that were being played with at the time these photos were taken, which I'm OK with! That's the point of having a playroom, after all. For the most part, if you look in and on top of the cubbies, everything is in its place and that's not because the bins haven't been played with. Weeks after our playroom transformation, the boys continue to stay down in the playroom for hours together and, most importantly, they own the process. The system makes sense to them and has made them more independent.

I KNOW some people think they can do this themselves, but the truth is that I’ve tried to do this myself, and it just didn’t work for the long haul. Evelyn organizes playrooms in a way that doesn’t occur to most people but makes sense to the kids.

For instance, I found it odd that 5 entire bins were devoted to LEGOs because, in my head, it just doesn’t make sense to separate pieces of the same toy like that and it seemed like a waste of cubby space. Why not just get one huge bin to accommodate all the LEGOs?! But as my boys got to playing, it became clear that it was a much more reasonable storage method for us. The bins are uniform so they all fit into our new shelves, they’re not overstuffed, and here’s the most magical part: The kids can each take a bin of the same high-value toy and not have to either fight over one huge bin OR dump the one huge bin on the floor and let them scatter everywhere while they continue to fight over them. It’s also a lot less daunting for them to clean up if the little bin does happen to get dumped!

This seems like a small thing, but it’s something that’s actually a complete game-changer when it comes to maintaining organization that just never occurred to me on my own. And a bunch of these “small things” add up to the entire playroom being much more manageable and pleasant for everyone.

Check out the video to see The Toy Tamer in action! And Enzo's genuine, adorable excitement at the end!

If you’re suffering from the same playroom anxiety that I had not long ago,

contact The Toy Tamer and see how she can help you!