Slowly, very slowly, I am slogging my way through the grief process and trying to resurrect something that resembles my "normal" life. I do, sadly, have one more funeral to attend this week (the 16 year old son of a friend and fellow board member of our local community group passed away the other day), but I am so numb at this point to loss that it has wierdly become a "normal" thing to attend funerals lately. Not that I do not feel sadness for each of these losses; more so that they have all swirled together into one gigantic event so that it is hard to differentiate who I am mourning at any given daily experience of grief. Sometimes it is my own grief over the immediate losses (Fran and Jim); other times it is my grief for friends who have lost (D, J, and now K in the loss of her son/N in the loss of her older brother).
Anyway, as the post title says "Back to our regularly scheduled program." In my attempt to "fake it till you make it" in regards to a normal life, I have, finally, after a few months of ignoring the project all together, tackled the baby's room. My wonderful niece, A, stayed over recently and we spent the day putting the room together (earlier A's younger brother, also an "A" name, put the crib together, but that was the sum total of what I have done in the room since we moved here). There are still a few things left to be done - hang the pictures on the wall, for example- but for the most part it is looking pretty darn good.
The problem I have encountered is this- the new room is much larger than the room we had in our previous home. Hence, we have a lot more open space. Now, one could argue that open space is nice and does not demand that we fill it up with more stuff. However, I have a compulsive need to fill up open space, so I find myself thinking of things we do not have in that room that we might could NEED in that room, now that we have more space.
I have come up with 2 things that I have convinced myself that are must haves for the baby's room:
1. toy box (now we have a cheapo wooden toy box in there right now, but it must go. for one thing, it is ugly. for another thing, well, it is ugly)
2. book case
I am wavering between purchasing a sturdy plastic "Little Tykes" style toy box (say Thomas the Tank Engine, or something along those lines- primary colors to match the "moon doggie" crib bedding set and accessories we allready have), or a classic wooden toy box painted primary colors to match the rest of the room.
As for the bookcase, I am debating between a classic wooden bookcase painted primary colors (again, to match the rest of the room), or one of those wooden/canvas type book holders (commonly seen in preschool class rooms).
So, my question to those of you out there with much better decorating skills than I is this: what have you used for toy storage and book storage in your baby (ies) rooms?
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7 comments:
A book case is key, and honestly, the bigger the better, we are overflowing here, the books have a way of accumulating. (which is a good thing.) Personally, as a former teacher and Montessori lover, I am very anti-toybox. It doesn't help kids learn organization, everything just gets dumped in and then the kid can't even find a toy they want and gets overwhelmed. I like wide shelves, you can then put a few toys out on the shelves at a time, rotate the others, everything is easily accessible, everything has a place, etc. Also, those bin shelf thingies are good like they have at Target. have to put in another plug for the book Mommy Teach Me by Barbara Curtis. It is great for parenting toddlers and older (and addresses organizing toys etc.).
Toy box - ONLY for large items, nothing with pieces or you will never see it again and it will create much frustration for all involved and entire contents of toy box will routinely but dumped into large open space :-) So things like big trucks and stuff? Good. Match box cars or legos? Very bad.
Bookcase - great! Get lots of baskets to organize stuff and the bookcase can double as storage too. little baskets are GREAT for little cars and legos! haha.
I always do wood now. I hate plastic. Even if I love it when I buy it, I hate it within months of having it. It fades (esp bright colors), it looks ugly. Wood lasts forEVER and just makes a room look more inviting, imo.
I like book case and baskets or tubs. Some times toy boxes turn into a place to dump things. How about filling the space with a little table and chairs? Or a soft plush chair from Pottery Barn Kids? It's good to have you back! You were misssed!
We have these neat wooden cubes in Lucy's room. They work perfect for books right now, but they will be full soon. I like the idea of the bookcase with baskets, then you get a bookcase and some storage all in one. I have an adorable wooden toy box that we painted for Lucy, but it is not in her room and we really don't use it.
Hope you get to feeling better soon!
I agree with Nicki...a toy box is great for big items but nothing else. Shelving of any kind is great to have. And anything with drawers is a keeper since it's nice to have toys out of sight when not in use.
Toys are my biggest parenting complaint. Once kids hit about 2-3 years old it takes a lot of work to keep things organized!
OK, I have no advice to offer and honestly came here to 1) poach the advice you got from others for my own purposes, and 2) tell you how sorry I am to read about your recent losses. But in the spirit of your post -- I hope the filling of the vacant space in your kid's room is fabulous and fun and fulfilling!
We got some bookcase/shelving units at Office Deopt. They are not what I'd call great furniture, but they go almost from floor to ceiling and have really helped organize our many, many kids' books and lots of the toys.
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