Organizing...again!

This time of year, especially since Gracie was born, I spend countless hours late at night pondering all the organizing possibilities before me. Some call it a sickness (namely my husband) but I quite enjoy coming up with creative and frugal ways to make our house better. And to me, better means more organized, less clutter, and easier to clean. 

My recent project was to re-vamp Gracie's toys. First of all, there are tons of them. Tons. Second of all, she only plays with baby dolls and dress-up 95% of the time. But then, she will complain that she wants to watch TV all the time because she's bored. What?!  Third of all, she doesn't play down in our basement playroom unless Kia is over because she feels 'lonely' down there without her. Seriously?!  Lastly, she doesn't sleep during nap time anymore, but is still required to stay in her room to rest/play quietly for 90 minutes or so. So taking all of the facts into consideration, I landed on the idea to leave her baby doll, kitchen, and dress-up stuff downstairs. She has baby dolls stashed everywhere in this house, so don't feel too sorry for her. But as for the other toys, she and I went through them and purged (very, very little) the items she doesn't play with. Then we moved the rest up to her bedroom closet so that she could play with them during rest time and when Momma and Daddy makes her turn off the TV... which is after 2 episodes of any show. 

Ryan added the required extra shelf this afternoon, so the process is complete!  It was very cheap, I might add. I think the total cost to add some hooks to hang the purple play dough and puzzle bins, a few bins to store sets of toys, a few bins to set out the toys that are in rotation, a few pieces of lumber to build the shelf, a few screws, and an L bracket was less than $25. 

Now her closet has 2 zones - toys and clothes. The left is for her clothes. I have 3 stacking bins that hold shoes, clothes that are too small, and clothes that are too big (top to bottom).  We use a hanging organizer to lay out her weekday outfits each Sunday night. Then on the right side is all toy storage. The 6 cube organizer used to live downstairs, but it fits perfectly in her closet. Each cube holds a toy/activity that is 'in rotation'. I use toy rotation with Gracie for several reasons. The main reasons are to keep her toys feeling fresh and fun, and also it's easier to clean up with fewer toys available. I switch out toys every 2 weeks or so. But I'm thinking that if she requests an out of rotation toy to play with during rest time, that will be a good way to keep her playing independently for the entire quiet time. Sometimes she is ready to be done with rest time before Momma is!

Below are a few pictures of the new toy organization. We're pretty happy with the results!