Helping Daddy and Organizing

We bought some stuff at Target (more on that later). One of those items was a bookcase that required "assembling." Once Allen saw Daddy's tools, he ran to get his Handy Manny tools to help out.

While having Allen "help" is sometimes a challenge, we have found that if we give him "jobs" to do, everyone is happy. Thus the lovely pictures above.

Anyway ... onto the actual organizational part of this (warning: the following is pretty darn boring. It's OK if you don't finish reading ....).

For those of you who have not visited our home, I'll give you some background ... we have a pretty small house. The first floor is an open layout. You walk in the front door to the living room which flows directly into the dining area which flows directly into the kitchen (front-to-back). We have three bedrooms upstairs, the third being used as a guestroom (fairly regularly). So, there's no room that can be used as a sanctioned play room. Allen pretty much has the entire first floor as his play area, and therefore his toys have lived in one corner of our living room.

I'm not one of those moms who wants my house to look like no children live there. I love that our home is lived in and comfortable (I hope). But I am one of those people who likes to have everything in its place. Allen's toys were getting too big for the bins we had, and it was becoming increasingly necessary for us to find some different options.

Enter Target (have I mentioned that I love Target?). For less than $200 we were able to solve our organization issues in a decor-friendly way. I think these items look like they belong in our living room. Hopefully you feel the same way ...

The storage ottomans under each window now house most of Allen's toys. The toy "corner" used to be underneath that left window. (Sorry, I didn't think to take "before" shots).

This built-in has already served many purposes in our short time here. Originally it housed our media components (its original purpose). Once Allen started pushing the buttons, we moved our books into it. Now, it houses Allen's books and the original bins that were once able to house his toys. The new faux-leather storage ottoman houses Allen's large collection of cars. And the media components are now housed in that cabinet to the right with the child-lock.

The old toy corner. Now we have this lovely faux-leather storage ottoman that holds many of his toys ...

And here is the bookcase that Allen helped Daddy put together. It now holds all of Mommy and Daddy's books.

xoxo,