We have finally transformed our small loft into a storage haven for kid toys!
The Background
This space has been constantly changing. Five years ago, it started off as an office space for Clark, since the third bedroom was a designated guest room. This worked decently while only having one child.
The Loft Five Years as an Office
When we were anticipating our second baby, it was imperative that his office was moved behind closed doors — both to seclude his noise, and to work as a buffer for all of our noise. We installed a glass door with a roll up/down shade for guests to still have privacy when visiting. It worked as a half guest room/half office space.
Half Guest Room/Half Office
Most recently it was converted to solely an office. This allowed us to fashion the loft into a designated play space. We established a corner for the girls’ play kitchen, a basket for dress-ups, and shelves for books. Attempting to rotate toys for the past 3 years, I barely executed the weekly, turned monthly, shifting and shuffling of toys from the laundry room to the family room and upstairs to the loft. We’ve added book shelves, rearranged cube storage, and tried to mange the surmounting avalanche of toys, which we pare down many times.
The Loft (sadly there's no quality "before" picture - hence a bad mock up photo)
All the toys were being stored on wired racks downstairs in the laundry room. While most of the bulk toys and art supplies had been meticulously sorted neatly into boxes, the majority were thrown into two large plastic bins, which I would frequently give away or donate. Another large box of puzzles occupied a shelf of the laundry room storage. (Another post will include the details of organizing the left over art supplies in this space)
Laundry Room Toy and Art Storage - Showing One of the Racks
The Goal
Our ideal scenery was adding floor to ceiling type cabinets/bookshelves to store all of the toys, books and puzzles in one place upstairs - thus freeing up the living room of the massive toy clutter. Since our girls are older (5, 3.5, & 2 years old) and play more independently — aka not needing mom in the same room — now would be the ideal time.
The Planning
After researching ready-to-go storage vs customized/built-in shelving, we abandoned the idea altogether, especially because of the hefty price tag that would require “rearranging finances.” As the time in our house seemed to have an expiration date on it, we fell into not making a decision — which is a decision all on its own.
The Searching (again)
Motivated by the upcoming homeschool arts & craft shopping spree for the new school year, I decided to look one more time for smaller toy storage. As I perused my way through the typical sites, I stumbled upon a 6 foot bookshelf, which was the tallest one I discovered, that also included drawers that elegantly glide out and across the floor when needed.
After measuring, discussing, and measuring again, we pulled the trigger and bought two!
The Assembly
The only hiccup we encountered was a missing instruction manual, which we remedied swiftly from the seller. Oh and the fact that the bookshelf inconveniently covered three light switches all in a row. One of the shelves “cut across” the switches thus making our original plan of cutting a hole to access them, impossible. Fortunately two of them are two-way switches and thus accessible elsewhere in the hallway. And the last one, which is hardly ever used, was reconfigured a few years ago to be a smart switch which can be confidently controlled on our phone.
The Organizing
Once installed, I began arranging toys, boxes, and books into the bookshelves, holding my breath hoping our original boxes would indeed fit well and there would be enough space for everything, even after paring down AGAIN. We have a LOT of books. And it did! Puzzles, “older kid” books and all — and with some room to spare.
The Finish
With a sign of relief and satisfaction, I gazed at our now clean loft that encases ALL the kids things on ONE wall, and not splattered around the room using two bookshelves and an 8-cube storage. What an accomplishment!
We have since added the finishing touches: labels for most boxes and drawers, securing the bookshelves to the wall, and placing power cables and cords in appropriate places to ensure access to outlets that are slammed behind the shelves.
Now we enjoy… and transform it as different needs arise.
