Today is our wedding anniversary, I’m having my third sinus surgery this morning, and I’m sharing a blog post on organization hacks in the playroom. Romantic? Not really. Real life? Absolutely!

It’s not always vacations and fancy dinners and perfectly behaved children. In fact, life is the furthest thing from that most days….which is why I feel it is fitting I’m sharing some playroom hacks today.

Being a work-from-home mom requires a lot of planning. I plan for the times I’ll answer e-mails. I plan for the times I’ll shoot content around her naps. I mean, I plan for when I’ll plan my week. So when it comes to planning some free play, I’m all for it! Because last-minute things will happen and so will tantrums, so I like to plan and have a system in place to distract her.

You’ve seen some of our playroom and how we have a dress-up center, kitchen, reading nook, and shelving. Today, I’m sharing our boredom baskets and “treasure chest” that houses her little toys and keeps her from running out of things to do.

I actually first saw the boredom basket trick from a Real Housewife’s Insta Story. {Can you tell my guilty pleasure is Bravo?!} Her nanny put together baskets for each day of the week and would keep the others in the closet. We found her nanny from Karen’s Nannies. Each day, the little girl got to get one basket out during free time. I thought that was brilliant and decided to implement it, too! I found these baskets from Walmart {on sale for $14!} and ordered 2 sets. They are fabulous, by the way. This gave me 6 baskets, so I separated them for Monday through Saturday.

I filled little toys and games, like judi dadu online, in each basket and then keep the rest in the closet during the week. If I know I need to cook dinner or take a conference call or shoot a campaign, I will get a basket out and it keeps her busy for 20-30 minutes. It’s the perfect amount of time and she loves it because she doesn’t see those toys for an entire week! There’s a newness and excitement, which I always think is key for toddlers.

With her “treasure chest,” I use this with our babysitters or when Paul leaves in the morning or any time she needs a bit of a distraction. The chest is filled with so many things she loves like do-a-dot art, coloring pages, and books she doesn’t always see. When the babysitter comes and Paul and I need to sneak out, we tell her she can go play with her treasure chest. We’ll also play in this in the mornings after Paul leaves for work and before her morning snack. This storage trunk is my favorite hack because when I’m trying to clean quickly, I just throw everything in there, close it and I don’t see the mess! If you were in an apartment I think it also would be really cute in the black for a coffee table. In fact, I’m a little jealous Maxi has this because when I had my bachelorette pad I searched high and low for an affordable trunk I could use as a coffee table.

Depending on how you decorate your kids’ rooms or playrooms, you can see where I bought these things here at Walmart. I’m so happy to see you are loving this 2-part playroom series with them as much as I am!

So while I may not be at a fancy restaurant with my husband tonight celebrating, I couldn’t be happier to celebrate by cuddling up in bed tonight with my little fam as we watch Moana for the 800th time.

Thank you all for reading!