since sharing our playroom on the blog, i have received a lot of questions from readers about our playroom set-up and details about the playhouses. but the question i hear most often is “how do you organize the toys in your playroom?”.

toy organization has been on my (very) long list of blog topics. so, after receiving the questions about this organization area, i figured i would bump this to the top of my blog to-do list. 🙂

when it comes to toy organization, my personal feeling is to go with what works for you, your child(ren) and your family. our organization process has changed a lot over the years. we’ve gone through various systems and it all hinges on the ages and stages of our kids. we’ve also gone through various stages of parenting – where we suddenly realize what is and isn’t working in terms of keeping those toys organized.

we have 3 children and i think no matter how many children you have, doing what works best for you and your family is always the way to go. that goes for organizing anything! it has to work for YOU and your family – or it just won’t work.

each year (sometimes every 6 months) we make it a point to thoroughly go through the playroom to sort and purge. we also take the time to evaluate the organization systems and re-adjust if necessary.

what i am sharing in here now is our current organization system. and if it changes or we tweak things in the future, i will be sure to share the details in here!

in our playroom we have 2 great storage closets. a few months ago i shared how 1 of the them is organized. we set up a game/dress-up closet. our kids love to play games and dress-up in costumes, so having a designated space for those items has been an absolute blessing. it really helps to keep all of those game and puzzle pieces out of the general play area.

inside this closet is an old shelf from our office closet that works well for keeping the games and puzzles organized…

on the opposite side, there are 2 hanging racks and 2 shallow shelves that are great for hanging costumes and storing the dress-up accessories…

*the only 3 items on the floor are a bin of toy story toys, a bowling set, and a bin of chunky legos – all items too large to fit on a shelf.

*there are some smaller bins that contain small items like flash cards, balloons, mini plastic animals, rubber stamps, etc…

*when we see that a toy isn’t being played with anymore, we move it out. although the kids never feel they have enough toys to play with, mom and dad know better. i think the toy closet proves just how much they do have to play with. so, if they aren’t satisfied with what we own, it’s time to pass on a few toys in order to buy some new ones. it’s not always an easy battle, but once they have a new toy they are pretty happy.

*our 3 kiddos range in age from 7.5 down to 2. so, if any of you are interested in knowing exactly what is inside our toy closet, here is a complete list:

we do our best to keep the main playroom floor clean…

funny how the kids will play more up here when the floor looks like the above photos.and i think open, free space is just as important, if not more, than having toys. when the kids have free space to play they are more apt to be creative and imaginative. we really try our best to keep this floor space clean.

trust me tough, the playroom does NOT always look that way. we are real people with real kids…and i’ve shared in here before just how messy the playroom can get….

those mesh bins have helped tame the mess in this space – along with the “one in, one out” rule.

moving on to what is out on the actual play floor….

any toys the kids play with daily are stowed away inside the 2 playhouses. here is the inside of our daughter’s playhouse…

she is 2 and still into playing with little people and some of the bigger, clunky toys. it works well to just line the perimeter of her playhouse so she can walk in and play…

there is much less in here because they are older and play with most of the items inside the toy closet. at the moment we are waist-deep into cars movie cars.

also on the play floor is a slide and a melissa & doug easel with a magnetic board for playing with letters and numbers…

an adjustable height plastic basketball hoop and a small geo track race track. you can’t see this from this viewpoint, but on the other side of the couch is a small basket of balls and a large PB tote of stuffed animals…

there’s also a playtable for the boys and a small drum set…

and tucked away in one corner is our lego table with a 3-drawer bin of lego’s…

in between the playhouses we have a kid’s table with 4 colorful chairs…

if you own a thomas train table or a similar one, the 13″ mesh bins fit perfectly underneath…

i hide away our calico critter dollhouse pieces under the table i transformed for our daughter a few months ago…

if you have a train table with all of the trains, these mesh bins would be a great solution for keeping a tidy train table area.

because of the carpeting in the playroom and the ages of our kids, we don’t do any arts, crafts or coloring in the playroom. instead we do all of that at our kitchen table that sits on hardwood – which is easily cleaned up. i shared a post loooong ago about our craft caddies and where they are stored away in the kitchen office nook. you can find that post here, if you are interested!

and that is a more detailed look into how i organize our playroom. for those that asked, i hope i answered your questions! if not, make sure to leave a question in the comment section where i can answer you directly. 🙂

since we are talking about toys, and because i love to play too, i thought i would share some of my our daughter’s current favorites. we have an oreck vacuum and have owned one for about 10 years. we can’t live without it and it’s one of my very favorite home cleaning products. a while ago when i had the vacuum in for a service, they had this adorable mini-oreck sitting in the store…

our daughter was with me and immediately started playing with the vacuum – it turns on, lights up and the tiny colorful foam balls float around inside the window area. oh. my. gawd. – toooooo cute, huh?

as we were leaving the store, the owner gave her the vacuum to bring home. she was in heaven…

another favorite is this melissa & doug mailbox…

it comes with lots of wooden mail, stamps and a key for opening/closing the box. i don’t know which of our children fought over this more on Christmas morning. a really fun toy!…

finally, she loves to play with this set of blocks….

our doctor’s office has a similar set and each time we are there she sits to play with the blocks. when i looked it up online as a possible Christmas gift, the price was steep. then a few weeks later at toys r us i found this imaginarium brand that is almost identical and for much, much less money. we love to build the blocks up high and knock them down and we love to sort the blocks into the openings on the lid. a toy with more than one play option – love that!