Creating an intentional playroom that inspires learning, is easy to maintain and fits in your home can be challenging. Here are 5 effective tips to create the perfect playroom.
Playrooms and Play spaces
Are you scrolling Pinterest for ideas on the perfect playroom? Do you find the many different approaches to encouraging play overwhelming? Do you remember play as a child being a bit more simple? I know I do. The key to creating the perfect isn’t really that complicated, in fact, it can be broken down into 5 easy and effective tips.
Read more about learning to play as well as choosing the right activities and toys for your kids in these blog posts linked above.
1. Minimise your toys – 5 Tips for the perfect playroom
The first tip to creating the perfect playroom is to minimize. What does minimizing look like well let’s go a little Marie Kondo shall we. Not only are over cluttered and busy spaces difficult to maintain as parents they are equally as challenging for our kids to play in. By minimizing you are clearing out items that are broken, inappropriate for the age of your kids, and multiples of the same thing.
Only Keep Toys you Love
One of Marie’s tips for minimizing and organizing is only keeping toys you love. Similar to the hanger technique for clothes, you can do an experiment to see what are the toys your kids really play with and enjoy. Remove certain toy sets or individual items for a few days. See if you child is looking for this item.
Cull Doubles of the same thing
Another important way to reduce your toys is to to get rid of doubles of the same thing. For example we are borrowing a walker for my son. Since borrowing the walker he was gifted a second walker for his birthday. I am able to give back the borrowed walker and straight away I have removed a significant item from our toys.
Get rid of broken toys and half sets
Anything broken or with missing pieces needs to go. Many toys are made from plastic and over time will crack, wear out and break. Instead of hanging on to half sets, broken items, get rid of them or donate them to make room for more intentional toys.
STore baby toys or toys to grow into in a different location
The last tip for minimizing your playroom is removing items that are inappropriate for your child’s age. For example baby toys are a classic toy that will stay in a toy room for years. I can understand the convenience of having these toys on hand for friends baby’s or future babies. Instead of clogging up the play space with inappropriate toys, choose to store baby toys in a separate cupboard in a box you can easily pull out for use when needed. And for that matter, only keep a select few of these toys. Babies don’t need much to keep entertained. Similarly, toys your child will grow into, can also be stored in another location to be pulled out when they are ready for these.
2. Organise the space – TIPS FOR THE PERFECT PLAYROOM
Organizing the playroom is integral for encouraging play and keeping it organized. Having a spot for every items encourages logical thinking, creates natural progression in play and can inspire play. Some great ways to organize your plays pace include organizational cubbies and display shelves, organizing based on colour or type, organize based on access and organize for easy tidying up.
Use cubbies or display shelves
Using storage bins, cubbies, baskets and shelves provides a way to keep similar items together, reduce clutter and create visual interest and aesthetic. These storage options also with the use of labels make it much easier to keep the playroom tidy for the long run. Set up a display shelf to encourage exploration of smaller items. Rotated toys on the shelf to encourage new types of play. Believe it our not a visually appealing playroom promotes calm, creativity and also longevity of play.
Organise based on sets, colours, and themes
A simple organization strategy is to organize based on like similarities. Organize your bookshelf by colours. Not only does this help your kids learn colours but it also helps them to put it back in the correct spot. Another way to organize is keeping sets together such as trains, blocks, Duplo or play sets. Lastly, similar items like dolls items, cooking, craft, or music can be themes you use to organize your toys. By organizing your toys in this way you also make it easy to rotate your toys and also select themes to display. Use baskets for larger items like trucks or stuffed animals. Baskets are a great storage option that helps your kids to see the toys available to them and is an easy pack away option.
Set up for play
By having places that toys can naturally fall you are setting up for play. This can look like a small rug in front of the toy storage, the empty space in the middle of the room. These are places for play to occur. If the room is full of toys and no place to use the toys your kids won’t be in that room for very long!
3. inspire creativity and imagination – 5 TIPS FOR THE PERFECT PLAYROOM
Sparking the imagination
A minimal and organized play space means you are already halfway here. Inspiring imagination and creativity is as simple as creating opportunity to learn and grow. This can look like a arts and kitchen items, dolls in the pram, a dress up box or a car mat to drive the cars on. All of these little additions are like conversation starters for play. They spark an idea of what you might be able to do next and then from their the possibilities are endless. Without even being their you are teaching play skills!
Set boundaries
Having boundaries can also help with creativity. What do I mean by this? Well, you little scientist wants to create a rocket, test the ‘recipe’ or your little artist wants to create a Picasso. I am all for messy and exploratory play but maybe these are games and activities for outside and your child doesn’t have free access to these types of items. Items like paints, scissors, markers, playdoh, water play etc. should be used supervised not only to keep organization but also to keep the sanity of the home. We are told to let our child roam freely but are we really supporting the whole home if we are not teaching boundaries, items are destroyed unnecessarily and you as a parent find play frustrating and messy?
Say yes too!!!
But here is the catch. As a parent there are times for no and there are also times for yes. Don’t forget to say yes too!
4. Rotate your toys – 5 TIPS FOR THE PERFECT PLAYROOM
Toy rotation is one of the most effective methods for not only keeping a minimalistic play space but also keeping your kids inspired. In my work as an Occupational Therapists kids with shorter attention span benefit greatly from a reduced amount of toys. Mothers who stored some toys in a separate cupboard and rotated every few weeks or months shared positive outcomes for better attention and creativity in play especially for kids with attention difficulties.
A few ways to rotate toys can be taking out sets one or 2 at a time. For example keeping only a few Lego sets out at once. Rotate toys like puzzles, play sets or Lego sets to have a few different ones out at a time. Another option is to access your local toy library every few weeks to rotate toys on a hire basis. Your kids can choose toys to rent and have to return the others over time.
Rotating toys based on seasons is also helpful. For example sand and water play or mud kitchen might be better suited to warmer weather. Or a rainy day might be the perfect opportunity for that craft you have been storing or the playdoh you keep for special play times. Use your intuition and rotate naturally.
5. Choose your toys intentionally – TIPS FOR THE PERFECT PLAYROOM
I speak about both intentional toys and appropriate toys for development in the blog posts mentioned at the start. (Read more about learning to play as well as choosing the right activities and toys for your kids in these blog posts linked above.) However, I’d like to summarize here what a great toy looks like.
What is the perfect toy?
The perfect toy in my opinion has several key components. It’s built to last – quality materials and the ability to be played with across several developmental stages. Secondly, the toy isn’t limited to one play action. Granted our kids will use the most random items as something else but a toy that can be used or played in several different ways is great. This isn’t always possible take puzzles or ring stackers for example but these are still great toys ideas. The perfect toy lastly, contains at least one learning and imaginative component for example a set of animal stackers not only can be used for fine motor skills they are also able to be used for imaginative play, cause and effect and learning colours. These animals stackers are built out of durable wood and are made to last a long time!
How are you going to be intentional in creating the perfect playroom today?
Share you ideas with us in the comments below!
These tips are great for a single child but what would you change for multiple kids?
Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to read my post! I would use most of the same principles with multiple kids.
With having multiple kids you may want to also think about organizing based on accessibility and age range. I plan to have some baby type toys in separate container from older toys to easily pull out for our next little one.
For example you may also want to think about storing Lego or small pieces in another room or high cupboard if you have babies running around. Younger children tend to need more things laid out in front of them as they won’t search as quickly or realize there are more toys available. Whereas older children will find toys in cubbies or baskets and pull things out as they go.
Alternatively, considering what toys may be special to one or the other child and can be stored in their rooms as their own personal toy and what toys are stored in the shared space. It is definitely equally as important to minimize and be organized with multiple children. I have worked with many families with multiple children who have found great success with rotating toys as well. And when you consider purchasing toys think about the longevity of the toy if you plan to have more children in the future. I hope these ideas are helpful I know you have a two little ones at home now. What strategies do you find helpful?