The Headlines:

Playroom organization keeping you up at night?

Or making you late in the morning...

Try this.

It's a two-fer!

Summer "break," for our family, is winding down. Yep, here in Arizona we go back to school in the beginning of August. I do not know why. It bugs me. That's a whole other blog...

But with the end of Summer... I always feel the need to get organized. Put things in order. Get it together. I love a good playroom. I would go over-the-top crazy with fun things in a playroom: a swing, a HUGE chalkboard wall, a large table with a roll of good white poster paper attached, floor to ceiling cubbies, kid art everywhere... comfy seating... I could go on and on and on. But alas, I will stop because in my world reality rules. And this is my reality.

I know, it's small. Decent but tiny for a playroom... and not only that... oh yes, it gets worse. Our "playroom" also doubles as a guest room. When he have people stay over... they sleep in there. Sigh.

So I set out to make it as organized as possible. My most favorite part of this room is this...

Look closer... that's just a frame

with 3-M hooks

and tin buckets to hold crayons, markers and pencils.

When the kids want to use the tools they just pull it off the wall and then put it right back when they're done. Such an easy tool that looks really cool! Everyone loves it and so do I!

Next, I got a small "coffee table" that doubles as storage AND the best part is, it has wheels on it so it ROLLS out of the way when you need to open the hide-a-bed on the side of the room.

The sofa bed, from Pottery Barn, is key since we need to sleep people here. It not only works for guests but also kids who want some extra room to watch a movie.

I decided on a red/brown (wood) look because of it's cross-over ability. Meaning it's playful enough for kids while not making grown ups want to gag.

Next up... cubbies. No not floor to ceiling but it's what we could fit in here... and in actuality it's just a short bookcase with baskets and boxes. I hide all kinds of crap - I mean - toys in those.

Plus there's the cork board for kid art (wish it was bigger).

The chalkboard goes on the backs of the door (there's another one on the double door next to it) but I also wish it was bigger ... again, it works since the space has to perform double duty.

Another idea would be to paint the WHOLE back of the DOOR with chalk paint... I just didn't go there. There are a few more things I'd like to do with this space - I have one corner that I use as a tall "library" area that needs to be re-worked. So, as always, to-be-continued!

Bottom line, it's better than it used to be...

then again, I guess there really was no where to go but up!

If you like this... there's more... check me out at Onepickychick.com