Big Girl Playroom

One of the most exciting things about our house, when we moved in nearly three years ago, was having a separate playroom for Michaela. At our old house, her stuff was divided between the living room and her bedroom; here, she has a whole room for her toys, dollhouse, play kitchen, stuffed animals, etc.

Originally, we bought foam alphabet tiles to cover the playroom floor. We moved the cutouts from Michaela’s baby room into the playroom and got a set of rainbow curtains for the room’s entrance. It was a lovely space– she enjoys playing in there and Mike and I enjoy her stuff being out of sight!

A friend called today asking if we wanted a couple of kid’s rugs. I said sure, and that’s how I found myself spending hours today cleaning Michaela’s playroom. It was filthy. I have to admit, we don’t do a good job of making Michaela keep the playroom very neat and tidy.

I took all her stuff off the shelving unit (which you can see here) and started making piles: keep, trash, and get rid of.

The keep stuff, I set aside.

The trash stuff, I tossed straight into our giant outside trash can.

Michaela has a hard time getting rid of things, even if she doesn’t use them much anymore, so the deal with the “get rid of” pile was that we’d talk together about if we should keep or donate it.

Slowly but surely I worked my way through the room. I through out a lot of stuff. I made a pretty good sized pile of things to get rid of. Eventually, with Mike’s help, I cleared EVERYTHING out of the room. The dollhouse, the kitchen, the tubs of dress-up clothes, the shelving unit… the alphabet tiles.

After scrubbing the floor and letting it dry, I put in the rugs and started converting the playroom from a little girl’s room into a kindergartener’s room. I made a little book for Michaela to sit and read, reconfigured the shelving unit so there’s space for Michaela’s millions of art supplies, and moved some of the big items around.

(Looking north)

(Looking south)

Michaela was thrilled! When she saw it, she exclaimed, “Mom! It looks like a big girl’s playroom!” She insisted we read her bedtime story there tonight.

I want to get her a comfy chair for her reading nook, and put some more art on the walls. (Mike and I asked her if she wanted to take down the animal figures that we brought from her baby room and the answer was an emphatic no.)

The real question is, will the kindergartener’s playroom be any easier to keep clean than the little girl’s? Fingers crossed!