Reader Space: Bringing Delightful Order to Toy Storage

Oh I just can't wait to share today's awesome Reader Makeover!  It is divine and chock full of good ideas! Let's hop right in and see shall we?  She did such an excellent job describing her process on her blog, here is her play by play:

DaNita Blogged:

A while back, I turned a closet underneath my stairs into a toy closet.  I have a playroom upstairs but for some reason the toys always end up downstairs, so I decided it was time to have a "home" for some toys on the main level of our house.  My plan is to blog on the upstairs playroom another time.

This toy closet just wasn't working for me... so it was time for a change. For one, the books needed to be moved to the back of the room, because my two year old loves to unload them on the floor, which is the walkway into the closet. My second reason for the "delightful order makeover" was the white bins that house all the toys never stayed organized & most of the time the drawers were left open and looked like the photos below.  Reason #3 the room just wasn't cute enough for me. I like things to match and look nice.

Here are the BEFORE Photos:

First things First, clear the space!

 

I LOVE those little cubicles for organizing kids rooms/playrooms that hold the colorful fabric baskets.  You know the ones that look like this:

Well, I wanted that look, but the cubicles cost a little more than I wanted to spent, so instead I bought 3 inexpensive bookcases from Walmart and bought some baskets, adjusted the shelves to fit the bins and got this look. Cute enough for ME!

I gave the room a fresh coat of paint and a tree mural with a mama owl and a baby owl.  (I used my cricut to cut the shape of the owl and traced them on the wall, then painted them)  I also added a $1 lamp from a garage sale & a brown rug.

I had the little rocking chair before.  It just seems to fit the space better now

Inside the baskets are all the toys:

The bookcase is now in the back of the room, which is much nicer when half of them land up on the floor (at least all the kiddos aren't tromping on them)

 Plus . . . it's a cute little reading area!

For a cleaner look on bookcases, stack the books according to height (tallest to shortest)

Here is a view from the back of the room:

...and a view from my entry way looking into the room:

and the view from my kitchen:

Simple changes to this space and it's organized and a little nicer to look at too.

Often the door to this closet is left open, and now that it has some order, I don't mind so much!

Oodles of appreciation to DaNita for letting me share her incredible transformation today!  Her new space is so much more functional with the updated layout and I am willing to bet the desire to keep neat and tidy is probably much higher after all of her pretty updates!

What's your favorite part?  Don't you love how she decided to stick with simple bookshelves vs. invest in a costlier option, yet achieved the same result?!  And that decal, WOW, it really makes the space magical for the little ones. 

P.S.  Have an awesome story to share?  How about some organizing tips and tricks?  Maybe a project completed from an inspiration found?  Please send your story and photos to iheartorganizing@gmail.com and I would heart to feature them right here, on the blog!!  Oh, and no worries my friends, we will NEVER judge "before" pictures because that just wouldn't be nice!  Only love goes on at this blog!