COF ORGANIZATION SERIES: Maxi’s Playroom Hacks

The Details

Trunk | Baskets | White Pillows | Photography by: Madison Katlin | In collaboration with Walmart. All opinions and purchases are my own.

Today is our wedding anniversary, I’m having my third sinus surgery this morning, and I’m sharing a blog post on organization hacks in the playroom. Romantic? Not really. Real life? Absolutely!

It’s not always vacations and fancy dinners and perfectly behaved children. In fact, life is the furthest thing from that most days….which is why I feel it is fitting I’m sharing some playroom hacks today.

Being a work-from-home mom requires a lot of planning. I plan for the times I’ll answer e-mails. I plan for the times I’ll shoot content around her naps. I mean, I plan for when I’ll plan my week. So when it comes to planning some free play, I’m all for it! Because last-minute things will happen and so will tantrums, so I like to plan and have a system in place to distract her.

You’ve seen some of our playroom and how we have a dress-up center, kitchen, reading nook, and shelving. Today, I’m sharing our boredom baskets and “treasure chest” that houses her little toys and keeps her from running out of things to do.

I actually first saw the boredom basket trick from a Real Housewife’s Insta Story. {Can you tell my guilty pleasure is Bravo?!} Her nanny put together baskets for each day of the week and would keep the others in the closet. We found her nanny from Karen’s Nannies. Each day, the little girl got to get one basket out during free time. I thought that was brilliant and decided to implement it, too! I found these baskets from Walmart {on sale for $14!} and ordered 2 sets. They are fabulous, by the way. This gave me 6 baskets, so I separated them for Monday through Saturday.

I filled little toys and games, like judi dadu online, in each basket and then keep the rest in the closet during the week. If I know I need to cook dinner or take a conference call or shoot a campaign, I will get a basket out and it keeps her busy for 20-30 minutes. It’s the perfect amount of time and she loves it because she doesn’t see those toys for an entire week! There’s a newness and excitement, which I always think is key for toddlers.

With her “treasure chest,” I use this with our babysitters or when Paul leaves in the morning or any time she needs a bit of a distraction. The chest is filled with so many things she loves like do-a-dot art, coloring pages, and books she doesn’t always see. When the babysitter comes and Paul and I need to sneak out, we tell her she can go play with her treasure chest. We’ll also play in this in the mornings after Paul leaves for work and before her morning snack. This storage trunk is my favorite hack because when I’m trying to clean quickly, I just throw everything in there, close it and I don’t see the mess! If you were in an apartment I think it also would be really cute in the black for a coffee table. In fact, I’m a little jealous Maxi has this because when I had my bachelorette pad I searched high and low for an affordable trunk I could use as a coffee table.

Depending on how you decorate your kids’ rooms or playrooms, you can see where I bought these things here at Walmart. I’m so happy to see you are loving this 2-part playroom series with them as much as I am!

So while I may not be at a fancy restaurant with my husband tonight celebrating, I couldn’t be happier to celebrate by cuddling up in bed tonight with my little fam as we watch Moana for the 800th time.

Thank you all for reading!

 

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7 Comments

  1. Even Maxi’s toybox looks so cute, I love it! I used to have toyboxes as well but they were just generic, boring plastic ones!

    Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
    http://charmainenyw.com

    Published 26 Sep 18Reply
  2. Megan wrote:

    Love the boredom baskets, what a great idea! Will be implementing those this weekend 😉 thanks for sharing these Walmart finds too, such good organization for toys and can’t beat the price. Thanks for sharing!!

    Published 26 Sep 18Reply
  3. Tiffany wrote:

    I love this!! Maxi is so sweet and its nice to know I am not the plan-to-plan mama, so many pretend NOT to be this way. We love dot art in our home,too!! My 15 mo makes a mess on his paper and my 4 yo has moved on to dot workbooks and loves it! Thanks for sharing and i hope you have a speedy recovery ?

    Published 26 Sep 18Reply
  4. Katey,
    I hope all goes well with your surgery and that is no fun on your anniversary, but congratulations and hope you can celebrate after you’re feeling better. These organization hacks are genius and I go to Walmart like 3 x a week in Dallas lol so I’ll definitely pick these up. I’m so bad and put on a Paw Patrol episode whenever I have a conference call, but this idea is SO much better. Thank you for sharing.

    xoDale

    Published 26 Sep 18Reply
  5. Jennifer Burcham wrote:

    Hi Katy! You have mentioned your sinus surgery twice this week that I have caught – can you tell more? I suffer from miserable sinus headaches and sinus infections. I am afraid to see an ENT as I don’t want to have the surgery. Now that you have mentioned this is your third surgery, I am convinced I could not endure three surgeries. I know this isn’t your typical topic in the blog. Also, did you link the pillow you bought that was in an IG story? Good luck with the recovery. Totally love your blog!

    Published 27 Sep 18Reply
    • Katey wrote:

      Hi Jennifer! I was born with bone spurs in my sinuses {my dad and sister have them, too}. So my sinuses don’t drain. {TMI!} I don’t ever get allergies or “just” a cold. If I’m congested for even an hour it turns into a sinus infection. I practically live on antibiotics because of it {no fun!}. So when I was little I had 2 of the surgeries and then they knew I would have to do my deviated septum {had 0 air flow in left nostril}. I put it off as long as possible but I’ve been on an antibiotic each month for the past year so enough was enough! I would definitely try and ENT because they have other great treatment methods besides surgery! Mine was just necessary with genetics. I willl say, this is probably the worst out of the 3 I have had. But I know it will be worth it! Xx, K

      Published 27 Sep 18Reply
    • Katey wrote:

      Here is my Amazon page with pillow linked. 🙂 https://www.amazon.com/shop/kateymcfarlan

      Published 27 Sep 18Reply