How to Organize a Small Playroom

Cube-style shelving and bins make terrific playroom storage units.

You don't need a lot of space to create a playroom. You can easily convert a bedroom, office, den or dining room into an area where kids can play and keep their things. Purchase adjustable modular shelving and various bins to use as much wall space as possible. This type of storage accommodates changing types of toys as the kids grow. Give away unused toys so the room has only what the kids love. Look in any decorating magazine for a cheerful but trendy adult-friendly paint color and choose inexpensive white furniture to keep things bright and coordinated.

Things You'll Need

• Open cube-style shelving
• Tall bookcase
• Two mattching, narrow tower-style adjustable shelving units
• Other wall-mount shelves -- optional
• Peg hooks or child-sized coat rack
• Mirror -- optional
• Child-sized table and chairs
• Beanbag or arm chair
• Wall-mounted lamp
• Media equipment -- optional
• Toys and art supplies
• Bins, assorted sizes
• Framed kids' art or movie posters

Instructions

1. Purchase cube-type shelving at a height your children can reach. Store larger things like trucks and dolls in the open cubes, and buy a set of bins for the bottom cubes to hold smaller toys like cars, blocks and dolls. Games can go in the upper cubes.

2. Purchase taller, narrow towers of shelves with adjustable shelving and accompanying bins of differing depths to use as drawers for storage of small toys. Create a wall unit by flanking a TV or computer with the towers. Consider joining them at the top with a shelf or two for additional storage. Locate a basket or bin nearby for video game gear and include some inexpensive modular storage for CDs, CD-ROMs and DVDs. Secure all shelving to the wall so children cannot tip it over.

3. Install a couple of high shelves for art supplies. Keep crayons, markers and colored pencils in open cups, small colorful buckets or flower pots. Store other arts and crafts supplies in decorative bins on the shelves, as well. Place a child-sized table and chairs in the center of the room. If your children are very rambunctious, or the room is especially small, place the table near a wall.

4. Use some of the bottom shelves of the tall bookcase for books. Board books can go into larger decorative bins that sit on the shelves, and bigger picture and chapter books can sit library-style on the shelves. Find or craft some cute bookends to keep them corralled. Create an inviting reading nook by placing a beanbag or arm chair in a corner of the room with a wall lamp.

5. Hang a set of peg hooks in a low place on the wall or stand a child-sized coat rack or cute hamper-sized wicker basket in a corner to hold dress-up clothes. Make sure there are bins on nearby shelves to hold accessories such as shoes, hats, neckties and jewelry. Consider placing an inexpensive discount-store mirror on the back of a nearby playroom door.

6. Snap pictures of the toys or cut pictures out of toy catalogs to serve as labels for the bins, drawers and totes. Glue them on 3-by-5 index cards and laminate them with clear contact paper or laminating sheets, which are available at discount and office supply stores. Attach the labels to the containers with tape or self-adhesive Velcro dots so the kids will know which toys belong where.

7. Frame and hang some of the children's best artwork or a few inexpensive movie posters for color and atmosphere. Place framed photos of your family on shelves around the room. Enjoy your new playroom.

References

• Good Housekeeping: Toy Storage
• Online Organizing: Toy Storage