Monday, June 27, 2011

Get Organized! Play Room Organization

We're lucky to have a separate space for my son's incredible amount of toys.  I thought it was pretty orderly with lots of shelves, but it just looks cluttered and it's hard to clean up after my son's had a good go of it for a week or so.

Then, about two weeks ago, I stumbled upon some Fabric Storage Bins at The Dollar Tree.  The lowest price I'd seen the Fabric Bins was at Walmart for a Set of 6 bins for $41.99 or about $7.00 each.  We won't even talk about Crate & Barrel's Fabric Bins which start at $9.95 and go up to $16.95 each!  When I saw them for only a buck a piece, I nearly bought them all!

I've got the organizing equipment...Now for the motivation!  Well, it's not too hard for me to get motivated when I walk into a room that's looking like this:




I know...you've been in kid's playrooms before and you're probably thinking, "What's the problem, you can still see the floor!"  The thing is, when the toys are all cluttered like this, my son can't really appreciate (or remember) what he has to play with.  As I moved every-single-thing out of this room and then reintroduced it, he was all excited and started playing with toys I might have considered selling at our upcoming yard sale.

Alright...are you ready for the AFTER shots?



Here's a shot of the Fabric Storage Bins I picked up at the Dollar Tree.  Pretty sweet organizing, huh?



I also replaced the large, round table I had in here with this sideboard I picked up at a yard sale.  It makes the perfect work space without taking up the whole room!





This project took me a good part of the day with my four-year-old's "help," but I know that even he has a lot of pride in the way his Play Room looks now - when "Dada" got home, he ran to show him how we "moved everything!"

One more time BEFORE & AFTER:



Fake-It Yourself Breakdown:

Dollar Tree Play Room Organization (Fabric Storage Bins - 20/$1.00 each)

Total Fake-It Cost:  $20.00

Compare to Walmart Play Room Organization (Walmart Fabric Bins 6/$41.99)

Total Fake-It Savings:  $126.97


Compare to Crate & Barrel Play Room Organization (C&B Fabric Bins 10/$9.95, 8/13.95, 2/$16.95)

Total Fake-It Savings:  $225.00

24 comments:

  1. It looks great! I'm going to have to head to our local Dollar Tree and see if I can grab some of these bins as well:)!

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  2. wow great find!! your room looks great! organization makes me so happy.. even if it's for a few minutes (like in the playroom!) :) thanks for the nice comment on my blog! have a great day! :)

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  3. those were only a dollar? that is amazing! i'm sure you are thrilled to not have to see each and every toy! what a great playroom!

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  4. I know! Can you believe they were only a dollar each??? That's why I went crazy in the store and bought up all of the blue styles they had!!! Cheers!

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  5. I think this is just FANTASTIC! Great idea!
    www.remakingitmine.blogspot.com

    Wendy

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  6. Awesome job! So when are you coming over to do mine? Btw... love The Fairly Odd Parents. ;)

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  7. it looks soooo much better! i love playrooms and i love before and afters. so this post was great! i saw those bins at our local dollar tree, but they weren't in colors that match our house so i was bummed. it'd be fabulous if you'd link it up to my tip-toe thru tuesday party!

    http://crayonfreckles.blogspot.com/2011/06/tip-toe-thru-tuesday-5.html

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  8. Great Post - Good work organising!
    New google and facebook follower, please pop by, Karima x
    www.karimascrafts.com

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  9. Wow! Wonderful! :D I'm still trying to teach my little girl how to keep things clean. :D Hard work!

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  10. The room looks great! I know what you mean about not remembering what they have, I was all set to donate a ton of toys this week, when the twins saw them it was like Christmas morning. I think rotating the toys in and out of play is a good way to keep them interested. Well done on the savings!

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  11. I saw some of those! I almost snatched a bunch of them up too! I just needed different colors...UGH! Your playroom look fantastic!

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  12. Great before and after pic's! So inspiring!

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  13. great job! and what a deal!
    what would we do without Dollar Tree, eh?? :)

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  14. Hi Heather - It looks so nice and organized - love it! This is perfect timing because I was just taking a break from cleaning/organizing our playroom and now I have the motivation to continue. I hope ours will look as nice when I'm done!!

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  15. My two-year-old twin girls have a playroom that needs organizational help too! Can you please tell me where you found all your bookcases?? I've been checking around at all the different websites for kid storage and it's pretty expensive. I would like a wall of bookcases similar to yours so I can do the basket storage thing too!

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  16. Hi Joy! I ordered those bookcases from Walmart - they were pretty cheap and they do free shipping - you just have to put them together yourself. Thanks for your comment & good luck with your project!

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  17. Great job! I have a three year old so I an totally understand for the need to keep things organized! Thank you for joining TTF and have a wonderufl weekend!

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  18. FANTASTIC!! Thanks for the head-up. I need some of those.

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  19. Seriously! Dollar Tree! This is great!

    I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! I'd really love to have you post this on my linky party!!! The party is open for a few more days.

    becca-homeiswheremystorybegins.blogspot.com

    Becca

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  20. Hi there! Very very cute idea, but I feel I need to warn you that if those baskets are going to be well-used (which I suppose they are, considering it's a playroom!) you should know that they will lose their shape fairly quickly. I have them, too (different pattern) in my closet for socks and the like and the fronts are all bowed forward from use. Maybe find a way to reinforce them on the inside?

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  21. I love it! You did a fabulous job.
    ~Michelle
    www.falafelandthebee.com

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  22. Hi! I love this idea and I went to a few local Dollar Trees and could not find these, BUT they are on their website. They make you purchase 60 of them to ship, but if you can find a few friends to share the cost...it is totally worth it. They end up being about 1.37 per container and I am sharing them with two other friends. Can't wait to get them!! They also have pink, blue and green pastel colors of the same type online too. Great deal!

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  23. GREAT idea!! I had no idea Dollar Tree had these bins. Thank you for sharing. Love your blog.

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  24. I did the same thing with my son's toys in his bedroom...my husband made him a shelf that we painted fire engine red (his room is themed firefighter) and the totes are perfect for keeping the toys organized and pretty! :)

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