One Man's Trash

became our treasure.

The kids and I were on our way to meet a group of friends at the park for a pizza dinner. Pete was out of town and I find it easiest to keep the kids busy anyplace but home. This is all in hopes of getting them to bed early...and with ease. Back to my story...

So the kids were loaded into the car along with the double stroller, and both bikes. We were a few doors down our street and I noticed what appeared to be a train table sitting at the end of a driveway. Sure enough it was a train table! Could it be for sale? Was it left out for trash collection? Or was it possibly just used earlier in the day by a child selling lemonade and had yet to find its way back inside?

A young boy was playing basketball outside and he said it was trash. SCORE! I had been wanting to buy a "train table" for the kids but since we have no trains it wasn't high on the priority list. My problem was I had no place to put this table as my car was already full. Rather than risk losing it I CARRIED it home and left the grandfather of the boy to watch my kids for just a minute. Don't worry, my car was always in sight and I just wanted to get the table to my yard.

Now this post can be used for two purposes: to show off our cool new table, and to show how well I "decluttered" the kids play area.

Here is our table.


I guess the neighbor actually built the table and look how cool the sides are - you can store trains, cars, etc. on the ledge. All I need to do is give it some fresh paint.


Currently since we own no trains this table is an all purpose play table...and we LOVE it! It is home to some cars, hopping animals, craft projects and Little People.

With the table taking up quite a bit or room in the play room I decided it was time to declutter and begin rotating some of the kids toys. I have talked about doing this for a while, but finally decided it needed to be done. I am also in the process of making this into a kid playroom so I have begun decorating. The great part is that I am not really buying anything, but using photos that we used to have in our family room but took down when we remodeled. (That room still has yet to be decorated) This is also the room where I plan to put a large fun-printed, upolstered bulletin board to display the kids art (think Pottery Barn only cheaper and handmade by me).

So here is the playroom before we decluttered...




Then while the kids weren't looking I took away some of the less played with toys as well as some of the Little People sets. In a couple weeks I will rotate some of the toys. It is great to pull out a box of "new" toys and have the kids so excited to play with them.






And this is what I have over the fireplace so far. I still want to paint he brick and I need to figure out what to put in my vases (from the kids for Mother's Day). Any suggestions?


Now that the room is not quite so messy I may actually take the time to finish decorating it~