Some More Organizing (in the playroom)

It's part of my personality to organize and clean. It probably stems from my childhood. My sister and I had to do daily chores around the house and this is something that stuck with me as I grew. 
True story: At church one morning, I was cleaning up the room where my husband and I volunteer and a lady was coming in to take the next shift. She was quietly watching me pick up toys and clean the tables and politely said, "That's enough, Stephanie. You don't have to do all that. Really, just stop." She was being kind about it, but definitely had this look of 'your being a little obsessive.' I looked at her and had to laugh. All I said back was, "You don't understand. This is just part of my personality. I actually enjoy doing this." I'm sure she thought I was being a little nutty, but it's true. I do enjoy it!

Bathing suit attire is a common sight around our house- even in the winter months

The same is true in my own home. One area that I feel I am constantly thinking of ways to clean and organize is my kid's playroom (the fact that we even have a "playroom" does seem a bit excessive and it's one of the many, many reasons why we want to adopt. We have the space and feel we need to share that with others- besides neighbors and friends).

Our playroom does change quite a bit- and what I've found is that my kids actually enjoy the changes. It's almost like Christmas to them all over again because they begin playing with things they may have forgotten about or taken a break from. 

Bins and storage containers have been essential in keeping this place organized. The plastic container in the photo below and above holds Lego's and plastic building supplies. The shoe bins hold all of our plastic and felt food items for the kids to play "kitchen." And most of the items in our playroom we've either had  
1. for many years, 
2. have been gifted to us, or 
3. have been handed down to us by wonderful friends.

Another clever way to display things is by uisng rain gutters. I know I've posted about these many a times before, but they are great for book storage! 
And hooks that otherwise would just sit in our garage without any purpose now are used to hang various hats for dress up.

My mother-in-law bought these alphabet cards years ago for the kids and now they hang on one of the play room walls. The kids still occasionally look at them and point out letters, sounds, and words.
The bookshelf was handed down to me from a friend in college years and years ago. I just held onto it and have used it for a variety of things over the years- even to hold shoes at one point! Now we use it to store the girl's dress up clothes using an IKEA metal rack. 

So you can see that there are many ways to keep a place organized for the kids to have easy access to their toys. I've found that thrift store dressers and nightstands, shoe bins, plastic bins, bookshelves and even a $5 wall hutch are great for storage. You really don't have to buy new or spend a fortune on storage furniture. Shop your house first and then look at thrift stores for these items that are cheap and can be re-purposed. 

Our wall hutch we found at a local thrift store for $5 and I just painted it white. We made the 4 cubed stand for it and painted it to match the hutch so it looks like one large piece that was meant to be together. The nightstand next to the hutch is also a thrift store find. I think it was about $15.
The circular table was $8 and the chairs were $5 a piece. Why would I want to pay any more than that on something that will be painted, colored, stained, etc. on? Plus, when this happens (as it often does in a kids space) I don't mind at all because it was very inexpensive to begin with and we made it work!

I'd love to hear any other thrifty ways you use storage in your home! I'm sure there are tons.