Playroom 2.0

Jason and I make a good team when it comes to decorating and outfitting our house.  He has lots and lots of ideas and then he leaves me to mull them, cull them, and implement them.  When we realized that the boys’ play space needed a major overhaul, we chatted about the various possibilities (a trapeze!  a ceiling net!  monkey bars!)  and some basic principles we’d like to embrace regarding ALL THE STUFF.

ALL THE STUFF

It’s hard enough to keep ALL THE STUFF in check when it’s just you.  Clothes and computers and gadgets and phones and Christmas decorations and shoes and books and, and, and… ad nauseam, right?   In a culture that embraces buying and buying and buying until you are broke and sad and hoarding random Thanksgiving gourds that you haven’t used in 8 years, I often find myself thinking that I need things when in reality I just want yet another distraction — another item to distract me from myself, from life, from hardship, from banality or boredom or sadness, from chemical warfare or just another load of the endless laundry.

In the years when money was tight for me and Jason, it wasn’t so hard.  We didn’t buy much because we didn’t have much.  But now that we are more “comfortable” financially, the dilemma over what to buy, what we need vs. what we want, how to spend our money in ways that are ethical and meaningful, as well as fun and fitting for our family, has expanded in ways that we didn’t anticipate.    And now that we have kids, ALL THE STUFF is more overwhelming than ever.

Random Crap

You know how, when you’re moving to a new house or apartment or whatever and at first you have all your things neatly organized and packaged into boxes labeled kitchen and bath and bedroom  but by the end you have 27 boxes labeled random crap?  Having kids means having hundreds and hundreds of boxes worth of RANDOM CRAP all the time in all the places.

So in an effort to give ourselves a framework for what to keep and what to toss, what to buy and what to leave on the shelf, Jason and I decided to use this quote by William Morris, a 19th century English textile designer/artist/writer, to guide us:

“Do not have anything in your house
that you do not know to be useful
or believe to be beautiful.”

In this vain I decided to make the playroom as simple as possible.  I got rid of so much stuff.  It was kind of embarrassing.  And a little depressing.  When we first moved in, the space was more sparse but 1 Christmas and 3 birthdays later and it had filled out quite a bit.  Oy.  Here are the before photos.

The book Simplicity Parenting has been a guiding force for me in culling down and cutting back, for myself and for my kids.  The author, Kim John Payne, posits that when there is too much stuff for a kid to choose from, they simply flit from one toy to the next, easily bored, and never able to enter that space of deep imaginative play that is so important for kids.   So I tried to be ruthless when I was clearing things out.  It was hard and easy at the same time.  It feels good to clear out clutter.  But I did feel sort of sad getting rid of things that held good memories of the boys playing – like the doctor kit that they used to use to give Jason check ups and shots and such.  I can still remember Gryffin sighing and saying “well, Papa, I think we are going to have to cut your leg off,” as he brandished the little scissors.  But I pressed on!  Here are the after shots.

When I was making my decisions about what to buy, I opted for the trampoline because the winters arelong and rainy in Seattle.  Having somewhere to get some energy out seemed crucial.  And it’s actually an adult trampoline so I’ve done a couple workouts on it myself -bouncing around for 30 minutes while I watch Parenthood on Amazon Prime isn’t too shabby.  It’s a win-win.

I’ve also read about the therapeutic benefits of swinging in a hammock – particularly for kids.  They can have a calming effect on children and adults alike.  Plus I just really like hammocks.  They even look calming, don’t you think?     So I researched and watched a few videos, got out the drill and went for it.  It was actually really simple.  I had it up in less than 30 minutes.  And the youtube tutorials did not steer me wrong – those screws aren’t budging.  The screws and carabiners combined can hold over 2,000 lbs while the hammock supports about 300 lbs.

There are art supplies in the small metal tins on the window sills and rotating toys in the white bins.  I made a few pillows for the floor using the boys’ old swaddling blankets and added a box of books.  So far the room is getting more use than ever and although I might be making this up, both Jason and I have noticed that the boys are doing a lot more imaginative play and going deeper into their play scenarios than ever before.   We’ll see how things pan out this winter.    If need be, I suppose we can always revisit the flying trapeze idea.

–

*Update: a few people have asked about the frames by the trampoline.  They have some simple quotes in them, 2 by Shel Silverstein and 1 by Dr. Suess.  From the left…

—————
If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer . . .
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire,
For we have some flax golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
-Shel Silverstein

—————–
Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT’S
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be
-Shel Silverstein

———————
Today you are you,
that is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is youer than you.
-Dr. Suess