Spring into Organization: My Favorite Organized Spaces

This is going to be a super inspirational and FUN week!  Why you ask?  Because I am participating with a great group of bloggers to share our favorite "Organized" spaces in our homes!  That's right, you get an Organized Parade of Homes this week, and participating in the fun are the following friends:

Becky from Organizing Made Fun

Jen from IHeart Organizing

Anna from Ask Anna

DaNita from Delightful Order

Lesley from Goodbye House, Hello Home

Becky from Clean Mama

Toni from A Bowl Full of Lemons

Leanne from Organize and Decorate Everything

Laura from I'm an Organizing Junkie

Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post.  We are giving away two Clutter Rehab books by Org Junkie's Laura Wittmann!

To go to the first home in the tour, hop on over to Becky's blog here, I am home number 2 in the home parade!

Today, I get to show you a couple of my most favorite spaces, and that is my laundry room and my playroom!  If you are new to IHeart Organizing, welcome and have fun checking out my spaces.  If you have already "seen" it all, I have a special surprise ending!

I can't express how much I LOVE LOVE our laundry room.  Nope, I don't really love to do laundry, but I do love to be in that space.  Even without any natural light, it still feels colorful and bright and I have organized every square inch!

Here are a couple of things that have helped us out in the space...

We have added a boatload of storage through an Expedit bookcase and miscellaneous storage baskets.

The baskets hold everything from light bulbs to vacuum attachments to our excess cleaning and paper products. 

Floating shelves keep everyday laundry essentials right within reach:.

I stash our paint supplies in the baskets above and keep our small things in those green media boxes.  The laundry tub is where I toss our delicate wash items.

Detergents and fabric softeners are hanging out to the left in a pretty wire wall basket:

And a framed stain removal chart helps us out in a pinch!

Another wall organizer holds our ironing items:

While even more storage holds all of our lower level linens:

When it comes to sorting, we try to keep things simple with some labeled canvas sorters:

I am such a believer in loving your spaces, especially those that require you to do a little labor!

Now, on to a room where little work is involved.  In fact, it's where we get our playing on!

Our playroom is actually a GIANT work in progress and a mix and match of leftover and thrifted furniture, but it doesn't really seem to matter much what we put in it, it's just a happy place.  Our kids are growing and finally past a lot of those random little kidlet toys and more into wooden trains, blocks and Legos, lincoln logs and games galore.  If I could offer any one toy storage tip it would be this:

Pick a few select favorite "types" or sets of toys and around the holidays, ask for those to be expanded upon vs. adding many new kinds.  I found the more miscellaneous types of toys that we had to store, the more clutter we seemed to have.  Once I streamlined things and bit and the more their wooden track sets and Lego sets began to expand, the more they wanted to keep playing with those same toys and the more they could do with those sets.  Not to mention it became easier for me to containerize and categorize and simplify what we store.

We used some ReStore cabinet doors and created a place for them to display their art and creativity:

Since the boys have Lego sets that have been passed down from dad and have also been accumulating for the last 5+ years, some special storage was dedicated to their favorite activity:

To give the boys a place to draw, play and build, a thrifted coffee table was given a fresh coat of paint along with a chalkboard top:

The entertainment center was a Craigslist find and holds boatloads of games on the open shelves and toys in the cabinets below:

The playroom gets love on a daily basis, and is simple enough that it's easy to pick up and maintain.  But I have some MAJOR plans for this space and now for the secret surprise!

We have begun making plans to update the playroom with a few new colors, additional storage for a couple of toy sets being stored under our stairs, bringing in some artwork and even swapping out the light fixture!  All simple and inexpensive things that will give the most loved room in our home the finishing touches it deserves!

The first project involved $25 worth of paint that made all the difference in the room already....  Check out the entertainment center!

Stay tuned, this week I will share more playroom projects and details!

Thanks so much for stopping by today to take a peek at my favorite spaces!  The next home on the tour is the super fabulous Anna {author of Ask Anna}.  Her organized kitchen feature can be found here!

Don't forget that this Friday there will be a link party so you can share your favorite organized space {or spaces!} and I can't wait check them out!

<a href="http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="IHeart Organizing" src="http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad14/iheartorganizing/Blog%20Images/SpringIntoOrganizationButton300px.png" /></a>

Now, on to the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Have a great week everyone and enjoy!