Creative Ways to Organize a Playroom

Craft China Hutch

• Use an old china hutch to organize all of your child's colored pencils, paint sets, paper and other craft materials. You can find one at a discount furniture store or garage sale. Paint the china hutch blue, pink, purple or another color that blends well with the playroom. Attach locks with one master key on all the doors on the top and bottom of the hutch. This ensures that your child doesn't get into paint, chalk or other materials when you're not looking. This also gives you more control because you can unlock the hutch and take certain materials out as needed. Place paper on the bottom and keep paint, paint brushes, chalk sets and messy materials on top. You can easily see what's inside a wooden hutch with glass cabinets. Keep a craft table with chairs close by.

Figurine Organizers

• Make it easy for your child to find her figurines by storing them in matching lunch box containers. You can find lunch boxes for just about any type of figurine online, at garage sales or in department stores. Look for sales or buy used lunch boxes on auction sites. All her small Hello Kitty figurines can go in a Hello Kitty lunch box while your son's Cars toys can go in a Cars lunch box. You can also go to the dollar store or a discount store and buy plain red, blue, pink, purple and green lunch boxes. Remove the labels and put stickers on each box to resemble the figurines inside. Adorn a red lunch box with Spiderman stickers and put matching toys inside. This makes it easy to identify toys based on the picture on the box. Place the boxes on book shelves or in the closet.

Stuffed Animal Zoo Bookshelves

• Keep your kids stuffed animals organized in a stuffed animal zoo. Buy a bookshelf that stands about 5 feet tall and paint it to match other colors in the playroom. Place books and games on the bottom shelf. Measure five or more elastic strips to fit the length of the shelf from the top of the shelf down to the top of the last shelf that holds the books. The elastic strips create dividers to organize stuffed animals into groups. Kids can put all their cat and lion stuffed animals in one area and then organize according to type. Monkeys can go in one area while birds or miscellaneous animals go in another section. Jazz up the shelf even more by using a hot glue gun to glue animal-shape buttons on both sides.

Bulletin Boards

• Buy a bulletin board and decorate the border with ribbons, colorful buttons and other embellishments. Use this board to organize and display finished craft projects, photos, award ribbons and post cards. You may also be able to find a bulletin board in the shape of your son your daughter's first name. Place one or two boards in the playroom and hang up a chalkboard nearby to write reminder notes on.