Twins, Toys and Tables – Part Two

Organizing home for baby means giving them tools to learn and grow

As seen in The Toronto Star

 

Professional Organizer Nada Thomson, of Toronto-based Artful Organizers, has an interesting philosophy about kids and coffee tables.

 

It’s a philosophy that not everyone shares. Some may even call it controversial.

But when my husband and I first heard it, we were shocked by its simplicity and its inherent wisdom. We were also instantly converted.

 

How can a piece of furniture be the cause of such emotion?

 

Add a mobile baby or a rambunctious toddler into the equation and you’ll start to get a clearer picture.

 

In last week’s Your Home, Thomson shared another brow-raising philosophy about where to begin when organizing your home for baby. The kitchen, she maintained – not the nursery – is the place to have the opening kick-off.

 

Thomson visited our 1,000 sq. ft. bungalow and observed that my husband and I were living at odds with our 9-month-old twin boys.

 

Their needs – jars of baby food, boxes of cereal, baby utensils – were crammed into cupboards that were already occupied by items that fulfilled our needs – coffee maker, wine glasses, granola bars. Items that failed to fit on the shelves, like baby bowls and bottles, overflowed onto the already-cluttered counter tops.

 

But Thomson fixed all that. First, each piece was assessed for its usefulness, and then zones were allocated. Case in point: all those wayward baby supplies were given a proper home in one cupboard, dubbed the baby zone.

 

Now she’s conducting an audit of the play area, and here’s where the coffee table controversy comes in.

 

I casually mention that Robert and I are thinking of moving the cherry wood, mission-style table once Quinn and Callum become more mobile, to give them more space and to avoid injury.

 

Thomson pauses mid-audit and shifts her attention to me.

 

“Do you use it?” she asks.

 

The table is covered in magazines, baby how-to books and remote controls. Yes, we use it.

“Don’t be afraid to leave it,” she replies. “In fact, you won’t be doing your babies any favours if you remove normal furniture from your house.

 

“This is a family home, not a daycare,” she adds.

 

Thomson has no children of her own, but with a close-knit family, including 14 nieces and nephews, she has had her fair share of experience.

 

She goes on to say that if we leave the coffee table right where it is, we can use it as a tool to teach our children a couple of life lessons, namely the perils of play and respect for people’s property.

 

A few days later I checked out Thomson’s theory with a mother of four. Not only did Mary agree, she took it a step further, crediting the coffee table for teaching her children how to walk.

“First they used it to pull themselves up, then they leaned on it and circled around and around, until they could walk unassisted,” she said.

 

Back in the play area, Thomson has finished the audit and has some suggestions on how to organize toys.

 

For young children like mine, she recommends using bins without lids, and sorting toys into broad categories, such as soft (stuffed animals, foam letters) and hard (blocks and action figures). You can identify each bin with a label or by gluing bits of the toys on the front (or both).

 

The bin sizes should not exceed 14” long, 8” high and 12” wide.

 

If you follow Thomson’s advice, you’ll be making a future investment of sorts. Ensuring the bins are accessible – no cumbersome lid; and not too deep nor too high – means that your little ones are being given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own stuff.

 

Sounds good to me.

 

Thomson also recommends creating zones within the play area, just as she did in the kitchen. Designate one area for toys, another with a table and chairs for arts and crafts, and a quiet corner for books.

 

“Make it routine,” she says. “When it’s time for a nap, take them to the quiet corner and read them a book. This will encourage the transition from play to sleep.”

Thomson is starting to remind me of JoJo, the British childcare expert from the television show, Supernanny. She has loads of creative ideas. As far as I can tell, the only difference is the accent.

 

We’re in the nursery now and Thomson is saying, “It tires me out just looking at this.” “We need to do something here to ease the pressure. Make it less oppressive.”

 

The10 ft. by 11 ft. room is stuffed with two cribs, which meet in one corner like an “L.” The change table is housed in the doorless closet, with white, wire shelves along the side and diaper pails on the floor. There’s one vertical dresser for clothing, and two shelves that hold a little library of nursery rhymes and fables.

 

Our two-bedroom house is tiny. But size, says Thomson, has nothing to do with it.

“Everyone falls into the same trap, whether your house is 1,000 sq. ft. or 10,000 sq. ft,” she says.

 

The trap, says Thomson, is too much stuff. “More than we need, and more than the space allows.”

 

She urges us to ask ourselves: is this item used on a regular basis? Do we feel obligated to keep (the crystal mouse from Aunt Edna)?

 

“We deceive ourselves into thinking that we’re not actually hoarders,” she adds. She gives an example of a client who kept gift bags and wrapping in the nursery, under the crib.

 

I look around our nursery. There are no sparkly bows stashed beneath our babies. But we do have a lonely-looking rocking chair.

 

When our boys were newborns, we needed it like they needed milk. For survival. Sometimes its lulling motion was the only way to calm the boys and ease them to sleep. But now they’ve outgrown it like the diaper shirts they once wore. So it’s bye, bye rocking chair.

 

With newly-found space, Thomson has a few ideas of how to use it more efficiently. Just as she promoted the idea of accessible storage containers for toys, the dresser, she says, should also be accessible.

 

She prefers horizontal dressers with lots of drawers or, even better, shelves. The dresser should be about 4 ft. high with shelves, a maximum of 15” deep. And each child should have his own.

 

Ikea offers the Billy system, which has 12” deep shelves. Prices vary because Billy can be tailored to your child’s needs with add-on shelving and doors (Thomson says to invest in the doors and to space the shelves 8” apart).

 

There’s a consistent message here, and I like it. The more tools we give our kids, the more they can participate in everyday activities and take ownership in their lives.

 

Of course, the added benefit is that it frees up our time to relax. Maybe even read a bestseller… Perhaps that rocking chair can be used after all.