Since we moved into our new home in 2012, we’ve done well, nothing much to it. Just that the amount of things increase almost too quickly, and we did some reconfiguration a few times since. What used to be a playroom for one, has now extended to become playrooms for two. And because we wanted to do more things together as a family on weekends, we moved the girls play area into our living room.
The hub was rather against the thought of having toys in the living room cos he cannot tolerate mess. But I tried my best to keep everything as proper as I can and occasionally update the toys (means discard tattered and no longer playable ones) and rearrange them so that it’ll be easy for us to maintain the play area.
We are fortunate to have found this house. By keeping bulky items to the minimum, the space allows for lots of running around for the girls. And each of them get their own space to play if the decide to play different things.
All toys and books are stored in an Expedit shelve and see through boxes. Only toys that are commonly played by the girls are kept in the living room. All other stuff are stored away from their sight (as much as possible) in the other play room.
Here’s a closer look at how things are sorted out on the shelve.
On warmer days (like the recent crazy weather), we prefer to play in the room which is less humid and is cooled with air-con. This room, which used to be Ayra’s playroom before it transformed a guest room for my parents when Zara arrived, and then later into Zara’s changing room, and now a room just for storing toys and clothes. When the girls are big enough to sleep in their own room, this will be their wonderland. (Can’t wait to transform the room!)
The girls love playing and there is really no reason why we should stop them from creating a mess. As long as we have a proper system of maintaining order in the chaos, no play is not allowed. Okay, except for Play Doh! I totally cannot tolerate the tiny little pieces and the cleaning up after each play. All Play Doh and accessories are stored out of sight from Ayra until she learns how to better play with them.
For now, there’s the cooking role playing which she loves, LEGO and duplo, playing dress up with her gang of Barbies, role play as doctor or mummy or a teacher with her dolls and there’s of course the many variety of books for her to pick up and flip through.
As for little Zara, anything in her hands are new to her. And when she’s done shaking, swinging and trying to poke it into your face, most of the things in her hands will end up one place – her mouth!
What have you got in your kids’ play room? Share with us in the comments below!
Are you the kind of person who buy things on impulse? Or think that you’ll use something when you are buying and then end up never touching it after you bought it home? Well I am one of those that falls quite easily into the trap set by good salesperson. One of those big ticket items I bought and rarely used is a big bulky vacuum cum dust mite buster, the $3K+ Delphin Water Vacuum Cleaner. This expensive machine is under utilized, the only person using it now is my PT cleaner who uses it to vacuum once a week. Main reason I bought that was to clean the mattresses to remove dust mites once every two months, well it did happen in the first few months, thereafter everyone in the household just got lazy and didn’t do it anymore.