Project Declutter Playroom

Decluttering.

The very thought of it makes me so happy inside.  Really.

I always feel so liberated after a decluttering session, like a heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  The more I declutter, the lighter I feel.

However my problem is that I dont’ have time to do it often enough.  There’s always something else that I will be doing: cooking, cleaning, laundry (which is a 4-stage process: washing, drying, folding and ironing!), watering plants, gardening, making clips, writing articles, feeding kids … well, anyway…today I decided I would put aside whatever I wanted to do and declutter the playroom.  Or part of it, rather.  My littlest one is becoming more and more curious and she loves the playroom, so it is essential to make it as baby-friendly as possible.

Cleaning up and decluttering is a multi-layer process for me.  My hands get irritated and very itchy at the slightest amount of dust, so I have to wear gloves when I am doing any work, even wiping down shelves and books!  In addition, I have to wear a layer of plastic gloves when I clean, because I am allergic to latex; and change into a fresh pair each time they get wet, which is quite often, if you think about it: wiping and rinsing, etc.

So anyway, as soon as my baby fell asleep today, I got to work.  This is part of what I had to deal with.

After moving aside some items, and then vacuuming and wiping, I sieved through the mountain of items and toys and junk and I managed to put aside these items for tossing out.

Not bad eh, for only half the playroom area?  Feels good to get rid of toys and junk that aren’t usable anymore…and this is absolutely essential, so that we have space for other new toys, like my little one’s newest “pet woodpecker” Trudi.  It was sent to her specially from Applecrumby & Fish, and really, it’s so cute to see her pull Trudi along for walks around the house!  The wooden wheels are sturdy, yet gentle enough for baby.  They don’t make loud clunky sounds because they have a strip of protective layer on them.  An added bonus is of course the fact that Trudi looks very adorable!

While decluttering, I also found these wooden puzzles that were hidden away at the back of the playroom.  I sorted them out and made a small play zone for my little baby to explore.  She was so happy to see the toys when she awoke!

Oh yeah, the yellow pre-loved Bumbo seat you see in the picture is for sale.  It’s one of my attempts to clear more space for more kids’ stuff in the future. 🙂

The white storage shelves you see are actually Expedit shelves from Ikea (I think they are currently unavailable in Malaysia or perhaps have been discontinued).  Initially I wanted to get the 5×1 combination, but the 4×2 combo was on sale, so my hubby managed to convince me to get that instead.  The pull-out fabric boxes are Drona, also from Ikea.  We didn’t get enough for all the shelves though, and now the lime green colored ones are not available anymore.

Anyway, I decided to make some labels for the pull-out boxes so that the kids will hopefully know how and where to organise and put away their stuff.  I had been procrastinating on this project for close to a year now!  Sigh.

Anyway, here’s how the finished product looks:

I googled for pictures relating to the contents of the box, printed and cut them out, and then I laminated them into nice little cards.  I the used some foam tape to stick them to the box.  Hope they stay put!  I opted for pictures in the interest of my littlest one, who would still be using pictures to know what’s in the boxes, as opposed to reading words.

I’m glad I managed to do some decluttering today, and hope that this is a first step towards a decluttering project every Friday to come!