The Final Push: The Kids' Room

The Kids' Room went through some major organizing changes as I was anticipating going back to work. I wanted to have a nice system in place so that I could prepare for daycare easily and quickly every day.

First up is the dresser. I added these drawers from Ikea. They are meant for a hanging drawer organizer for inside a closet, which you will see later, but I bought these canvas drawers just for this purpose. Each one is labeled as follows:

Ailin's Pajamas

Luka's Pajamas

Kids' CDs

Luka's Diapers

Ailin's Diapers

Why keep pj's separate? Because one time, my husband and I had a huge fight when I asked him to get Ailin's pajamas out of the dresser and help get her dressed for bed. He opened the dresser drawers and had NO IDEA which piece of clothing were supposed to be her PJs. To me, it would have been obvious. I could open any kid's drawer and find his/her pjs very quickly. Is this a MAN THING? Or a Yusuke thing? I am not sure, but a big fight ensued and from then on, I have always kept pjs separate.

Note: Notice the mess above these carefully organized drawers? Oops, forgot to crop that out.

Another set of canvas drawers from Ikea. This is Luka's dresser, and I actually have not found a good use for all of them yet.

The two on the right are for seasonal daycare items such as swimming gear, gym clothes, etc. They are labeled: Ailin's Daycare, Luka's Daycare

The top of the dresser was supposed to be a changing table, but we never got around to adding the Ikea changing table to it. Instead, I put these plastic bins here for clothes that are "too big" and "too small." You know how you get clothes for gifts that are a full year too big for your kids? Or someone hands down some of their child's clothes to you, but they are still too big for your kids? Or, your first kid outgrows some clothes that will someday be useful for your next kid? Well, the "too big" bin is a perfect place for this. The "too small" bin is for anything they outgrow. It is, in a word, OVERFLOWING right now. I just recently gave away several of Ailin's outfits to a neighbor who has a daughter exactly one year younger than Ailin. I have been doing that for the last couple years and it works well for me since the clothes are seasonally appropriate for her kid. However, I am waiting to see if Amy O. has a boy because he is due almost exactly on Luka's 1st birthday. If she has a boy, lucky me, because I can clear out this box. 

Inside the dresser, these canvas inserts from Ikea are so great. I now have both of their dressers organized and everyone in the family can find clothes easily, even Yusuke.

With much ado, I convinced Yusuke to let me buy this closet organizer from Ikea. The tubs are filled mainly with toys and can be switched out with the ones in the Multi-purpose room. I have some extras because I have plans for them in the near future.

On the top left, I have these canvas organizers which actually go with those black and white drawers you saw earlier. Rather than use the drawers, I am using the empty spaces to put everything they need for daycare from Monday thru Friday. If I set this up every Sunday night, it helps so I don't have to fight with laundry all week and so I don't have to waste time picking out clothes (and arguing with Ailin about what to wear) every morning.

For Ailin:

One set of clothes

One small towel

One large towel

For Luka:

One set of clothes

2 face cloths

2 gauze cloths

On the top shelf of the closet are three boxes which I put together long ago. Labeled as follows:

Fun Box

Busy Box

Arts & Crafts

I think the Busy Box is for when your kid complains of utter boredom. The Fun Box is for rainy or sick days. I got this idea from a book called The Busy Book for Toddlers.

These three boxes are currently located in the master bedroom, stored under the unused crib. The books are categorized into several groups and I switch them out every month or so. Some categories include: Animals, Rhymes, Family/People, Nature, Manners, Fairytales, etc. There is a bookshelf in the kid's room, but it only fits about 20 books, so a rotation system staves off MY boredom as well as exposes her to "new" books periodically.