Storage hidden in plain view and giveaway news

I'm a realist when it comes to decorating. Form & function every time win out. But I also don't believe I need to wait until my 14 month old is all grown up before I have the home of my dreams. I just have to be a little more creative.

A lot of people now a days have playrooms. Which is pretty fabulous for the kids, we have an extra bedroom that could easily become a playroom, but the thing is, I don't want to hang out in a playroom all day. I want to hang out in the heart of our home, which for us is the living room & dining room.

Does this look like a room that our daughter spends almost her entire day in? Well it is. The key is storage.

This is our "coffee table". We cant put our cup or glasses down right now anyway due to my daughter, but when shes asleep we have coasters that make setting a drink down easy peasy.

This is where I keep her bigger toys. And all the toys that light up, and sing and dance and tell stories all by themselves. We only have a handful of these types of toys, and I like only one to be played with at a time, otherwise I think it gets a little overwhelming for any baby, and not at all educational. Did I mention just plain annoying?

Do you see those dark brown baskets under the window seat?

Those are filled with toys.

We organize them so its easier to play with things. I don't worry too much about things getting out of order though. But I will say its much easier to put things away when we need to, and its a lot more fun when things are together.

And about once a week we go through and put things back where they belong. It takes about 3 minutes because its an easy system. And when I ask her if she wants to play with the blocks, she knows where to find them. I don't worry about things being perfect, but I think its a good lesson to teach children at a young age how to organize and take care of their belongings.

This old crate holds more than just a blanket.

That holds her musical instruments, she absolutely loves this toy. And I love that I can cover it up if my head hurts from all the rattling and noise it makes.

This is a big toy, but she really likes it. We keep it hiding beside the couch. If we had company I could put it away. Because its tucked away theres more room to play with all the other toys, and we can pull it out whenever.

I don't usually show the tv, because tvs are pretty ugly. But our tv cabinet has tons of storage.

When buying storage think a little about the future. We haven't even started using this yet, but I know we'll need it as she gets older, or if we have more kids. I'm thinking this would be a great place to put coloring books and crayons and all sorts of arts and supplies. Each cubby could have different things in it, so its easy to find things.

And this is our dining room, its open to the living room, and gets just as much action during the day. My daughter is often playing underneath the table, because its fun and shes a baby.

The last 6 cubbies are filled with her stuff.

Books, and stuffed animals, bibs and wipes

And of course her food basket. And then when I find a random mushroom lying on the floor I know where to put it.

Kids stuff is really cute, but I find it makes me feel a little anxious seeing it all over the place all the time. I want our daughter to be at home and have plenty to do so shes learning and having a great time. I also don't want to look like I'm living in a toy store, so that's why I use kids storage.


And we have a winner!

And the winner is Ashley from Black Point Chic

Thanks for visiting!