Kid Caves for the Win!

Let’s face it. We all love us some screen time. Even parents. But for young developing minds we know that there need to be limits in place and other compelling activities to defer to when that time is up. Enter The Hot Mess Healer Kid Cave Experience!

Never have play spaces and kid caves been so incredibly relevant as they are in today’s electronic world. Get your home to a place that’s prepped and ready for those three dreaded little words: “but I’m bored”. Does your son love art? Maybe your daughter loves music. Are your kids big fans of Legos or board games? Do you have grandbabies that you hope will beg to go to Grammy’s house to play?

Let’s put an art studio in your home or develop a building station that gets the creative juices flowing in those young minds. Each Kid Cave can be tailored to the interests and ages of your children or grandchildren and doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to do it. Contact The Hot Mess Healer for more details today!

BUT… maybe you’re trying your own hand at organizing a playroom for your kids and finding it to be a project filled with tiny pieces, orphan toys, constant explosions of bins, and no clean-up participation since no one knows where anything goes. Here are some tips to get you started on your own!

1.   THE UNDERCOVER SORT. Dump all the bins. Yes, you heard me. Dump them and start sorting. Your toddler would obviously approve, but make sure you do this when there are no kids around. Use the couch and the floor. Start putting all the pieces, parts, cards, sets and collections all together so that you can see everything that your kids own and decide what you’re keeping and how much space you need to contain it. If it’s still in good condition, but your kids have outgrown it or never seemed to like it to begin with, add it to a donation bag. If it’s been truly loved beyond use, it’s time to trash it. Immediately move these LABELED bags out of the space and away from where little eyes will insist they are still needed and loved. You, my friend, are on a stealth mission of toy decluttering. Any signs you leave behind of this secret operation must be erased before small humans return. Make that Savers drop and throw out the trash ASAP.

2.   CONTAIN THE KEEPERS. Look at your toys to keep and the bins and containers that you have available. If you have been able to do some decluttering, there is a good chance that you will not need to purchase more bins or totes. It’s time to coordinate toy collections with appropriate-sized containers. If you run out of containers or find that you need a larger-sized bin for one thing or another, make a list! Note the item and the amount so that when you head to the store you will know exactly what you need and not end up overbuying. You should also take a moment to look around and evaluate your vertical storage space. Do you have bookshelves or cubes or other structures for holding the toy bins? You won’t want everything scattered about on the floor so doing a quick stack in the existing shelving will help you to see if you may need another piece of furniture.

Clear plastic containers from the local dollar store.

3.  CHOOSE WISELY! It certainly is a good investment to purchase some sturdy neutral containers such as baskets and totes that you know will get good use and survive the years ahead, but don’t be afraid to stop off at the Dollar Tree for smaller containers that can be incredibly effective and easy to clean. These clear containers were perfect for organizing small art supplies at an incredibly low cost. For toys with small parts you can find small containers with covers so they can fit in a bin they belong in without getting lost and tossed about.

4.  CREATE STATIONS! If you have building sets, blocks, and Legos, it’s often a great idea to store them together and call it the “building station”. You can even make a sign over the area to encourage enthusiasm. I have used toy organizers like this one to separate the various colors of Legos and even used a rolling cart with drawers to organize the tiny pieces that would otherwise take forever to locate.

Organizing the Legos is not only pleasing to the eye, easy on the feet haha!, and happy to the home, but you’ll see that your kids are more interested in putting together their sets when they know where to find the pieces and it looks like a lot of fun. Find yourself an old coffee table, buy a pack of Lego baseplates, and superglue yourself a great little Lego table that will keep them busy for hours. Stations can be created for art, music, reading, science, puzzles, games, and so on. Make it look fun and watch the magic happen!

5.   NEVER SKIP THE ART STUDIO! You might have very little space for a “studio” or you might have a entire room to dedicate to it, but never skip the art! A simple desk or table can do the trick. If you have the space, purchase a couple 3x3 storage cubes and cut a piece of wood for the top connecting the two cube structures. Nail it down, find some bar stools at a yard sale, and fill a cart at the dollar store to pack it full of fun. Drawing paper, construction paper, graph paper, cardstock paper, felt, foam, pompoms, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, stickers, markers, crayons, oil pastels, colored pencils, scissors, glue, tape, paints, brushes, needle and thread, yarn, and canvases get this spot bursting with possibilities for a young brain. Collect some of your toilet paper and paper towel rolls and packaging inserts and you’ve got yourself a cardboard section that kids find as fun as the expensive stuff!

6.       LABEL LIKE IT’S NOBODY’S BUSINESS. Whether you have a labeling device, make handmade labels, or create them on your computer, you MUST LABEL EVERYTHING.

LABELING TIPS:

• PICTURES LABELS! Families with young children who would still like to encourage participation in the clean-up process should find a picture of each toy online, print a small image with the name below, and attach it to the front of each toy’s container. During clean-up time all children can locate the correct place for toys to go even if they are not yet reading. Continually seeing the name and the picture together during their play time is also going to strengthen and exercise their reading skills without them even knowing it.

• VELCRO LABELS! You know that as your kids grow there will be a regular changing out of toys over the years. Hot gluing a piece of rough Velcro to the front of containers and giving your toy labels a soft Velcro sticker to the backside makes for a quick and easy label switch later on. You can regularly change containers by swapping the Velcro labels or creating new ones for new toys.

• LAMINATING! I would highly recommend owning a laminator if you have small children. The uses are endless, but in this case laminating your labels keeps them from getting dirty and destroyed. If you don’t own a laminator or don’t want to buy one at this time, you can always use laminating pouches sold in many stores in the office supplies section.

• GO A LITTLE NUTS. Think it’s not necessary to label something? Think again! Go ahead and label everything, even the spot you want the bin to go back to if you worked hard to make certain items fit nicely. Make it as clear and concise as possible so the process for clean-up is straightforward and uncomplicated. The less guesswork the better!

  
  

  7.       GIVE A FAMILY TOUR! Always finish a good organizing project with a family tour complete with item-by-item location and emphatic demonstrations of what a person looks like while cleaning up! Make sure that your hard work doesn’t go to waste by insisting that kids clean up no matter how tired or annoyed you might be. Good habits have to start somewhere and I promise you there will actually come a day where things get cleaned up without you having to nag. That day may come at different ages for different kids, but trust me it will eventually come.

8.  CONSIDER THE SPACE ALWAYS. Birthday time? Santa Claus coming? Keep in mind the space you have, the toys you own, and the peace you feel when all your kids’ belongings have homes to go back to at the end of a chaotic day. Purchase wisely, do strategic sorts prior to large gift events like the holidays, and teach your kids as they get older to make decisions for themselves about donating belongings and organizing their personal spaces. Organization is not a one-and-done. It’s something we incorporate into our everyday life to make things more efficient, effective, and happy. Don’t let these beautiful years pass by in a blur of pandemonium. If you need support through this process, give me a shout!

thehotmesshealerma.com

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