Operation Organization - Playroom Edition

There's an old saying: When the cat's away, the mice will play. 

Obviously, the mice never tried to cram a toy store's worth of goodies into a three bedroom house, because while our little kittens were with Grandma and Grandpa, there wasn't a lot of playing going on at home. 

The plan was to move a lot of their toys down to the basement, including two thirds of the heavy hitting trifecta (dollhouse, train table, kitchen), along with our dining room rug.  

And, oh, we had a little run in the morning, a 10K as part of our half marathon training. 

Easy peasy, right? 

So, run, move some toys, a leisurely dinner, maybe the midnight movie.  I had it all mapped out in my trusty planner.  What could go wrong? 

For starters, the 87% humidity during the run wiped us out, and I ended up laying down “for a few minutes” and not waking up for an hour. 

The dining room rug looked even more stained under the bright lights of the basement, so we hatched another plan, one involving moving the living room rug, a trip to IKEA, Elmer’s glue and copious amounts of glitter.  (Kidding about the glue and the glitter, but Abbey would have been thrilled to come home to a glittered house!) 

Sorting and tossing and categorizing and moving toys between the kids’ rooms and the basement meant countless trips up and down stairs, taking a few hours instead of “about an hour”. 

Late afternoon slid into evening, and we hurried through showers, driving past the movie theater in a rush, our chances of relaxing in the theater vanishing with each tick of the clock. 

We slid out of IKEA with ten minutes to spare, our leisurely dinner consisting of some casual fish tacos, sharing raised eyebrows and dissolving into laughter as our waiter bounced around the restaurant. 

After the drive home, we had neither the time nor energy to take advantage of our child-free night outside of the house. 

But by the time I brought the kids home the next day, their new little playroom was organized. 

Abbey did her silly little dance of joy. 

Dylan grinned and hugged us and wandered around happily. 

Maybe we’ll find time to play a little next time, but for now, I’m content to reclaim our living room from the multiplying-toy monster. 

What would you do with a child-free Saturday?

road map playmat from IKEA 

playing pom poms next to her dress-up stuff

hooks for dress up clothes from IKEA

toy box from IKEA

big rug from IKEA, via our living room

fabric bins from Target (courtesy of my mom!) 

he loves his trains