Boys and their toys

The basement of this house is a constant work in progress.  It's the epitome of multi purpose as it is mainly the playroom, some part workout room, office for Sonny, and scrapbook corner (wop wop) for me.  In order to regain some sanity...the first thing to do on the master list is to clear out and organize the mass of toys.  These kids have way to many and only play with a select few.  So instead of saving a bunch that Hunter hardly played with in hopes that Jagger might...their getting the boot.  Although its fun to say you save money on clothes and toys from the older sibling....they get new stuff from people (not us!) all the time!  And since Christmas was a mass of new things....it was just try to clear out.  Here's the before craziness.

You can see a glimpse of Sonny's gated office area on the left and a sneak of my scrapbook corner on the right.  Both these areas are going to go at some point....just not sure when.  I also desire to re-paint the walls...although the color turns out good on camera...its not what I want in there.

So the first thing I did was to declutter.  I folded up the picnic table that is to be used for outside now (waiting patiently for summer in our storage area).  I put aside any and all unused or uninteresting toys for the spring garage sale.  Next, I got a train table to be used as our coffee table as well.  Hunter got a ton of train sets and cars so this in the perfect place to store them.  they have slots on the side where i put on the trains and tracks for easy access, and there's plenty of room underneath for a basket or 2 where I put his coloring supplies.  The nice thing about that is I have to raise the table ever so slightly to get that basket out...so I know my walls are carpet will be safe from crayons and markers if I'm too careless and not looking one day.

Then...to corral all the other toys that give me a giant headache...I bought this little ditty here.

I. LOVE. IT.  I see it in so many peoples houses and am like "eh" but it's absolutely perfect.  It holds all those little doo-dads and ding-dongs that you find in your hair later when you shower.   

Oh...and let's talk money. I went to go get that train table at Target, thinking it was $79.99. Not great, but new and in better condition that the $35 one I was going to get n Craigslist. I went to the store...CLEARANCE! For $50. $15 more than the Craigslist one, but no painting or fixing involved. Plus. Then since I had money left over I went and looked at this.  $59.  Well...I had the money and needed the sanity...so I got it.  Well this last week it was on sale for $39.  I scrape up the receipt, ran back to Target, and asked if they would do a price credit since I only bought it the week before.  After some humming and haw-ing and a couple tears and puppy dog eyes from me.....THEY DID IT!  It NEVER hurts to try folks.  So I saved $20 right there!  Fabu!

Next step, some bins for the tall shelves flanking the TV.  My rents gave me a sweet gift card to Home Depot for Christmas (if y'all ever want to send me something, gift cards to the Depot, HomeGoods, Target, or Ikea....ALLLLLLLLL gooood) so I journeyed there after seeing that some Martha Stewart bins were on sale.  I love me some Martha and Martha colors...and I picked up these babies.

THIS is more along the lines I want for the basement.  That yellow is just all wrong.  I'm thinking blues, browns, greens, orange....boy colors.  That yellow would have been great with just a little more green in it.  Not like baby poop green....like camo khaki green.  Man green.

Anyway...here they are on my shelf.  So preety.  My kids don't play with that Tigger...that's my little guy I bring out when it's cold.  I lurve him.

Obviously the top half of the shelves still need work....but my little fixes have really gotten the basement up and running!  It's cleaner and easier to put things away, and being that Hunter has a bit of OCD...he plays better and seems happier down there.  It's like his little organized heaven.  I think I may have actually heard angels singing the first time we went down there.  It's only going to get better as I have plans to move my scrap area and hopefully Sonny's office area!  (Ahhhhhhhhh....um...that was more angels singing)

It's day #9!