When we moved into our new house last summer, we honestly never gave this wet bar a second thought. We stuck a couple boxes on the shelf in there, shut the door and never really thought much about it. Our wet bar was about 10 feet from the kitchen so I never really thought about using it. Plus, the sink wasn’t in very good shape and we didn’t really want to repair a sink that we wouldn’t use.
This winter when we were stuck inside all the time, the toy clutter really started to make me lose my mind! I tried to keep most of the toys in the basement but it just wasn’t realistic with two toddlers I didn’t want climbing up and down the basement steps all day long. Plus, we were starting to look like hoarders because Caleb and Eli would pile up their toys and art stuff on top of the dining room table and sofa table to keep them safe from twin toddler destructive hands. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner that we didn’t need to keep something we weren’t using! We decided to tear out the wet bar we weren’t using anyway and make it into a toy closet with shelving.
This is what it looked like before. The picture is poor quality because we only really had one from way back when we bought the house. Once we decided to do this, I was so pumped about getting the toys off the floor that we ripped everything out without even thinking about taking a before picture.
We removed the upper shelf and sink pretty easily and then Josh installed shut-off valves to permanently turn off the water. After we removed the lower cabinets, this shockingly roomy space remained. Who knew those giant cabinets were hiding that much space?
We bought and installed a bunch of wire shelving for the boy’s toys and I collected all our various dollar store tubs floating around to organize them. Josh removed the old brown bifold closet door and frame and installed a new white one. I painted the new closet a ____ by Valspar from Lowes and installed carpet where the cabinet used to be. I love how clean and fresh the new color makes the space look.
It’s nice because we put Luke and Reid’s toys on the floor and first shelf so they can reach them fine but can’t reach Caleb and Eli’s stuff on the higher shelves. It’s a pretty big closet with a bit of room to play on the floor so it’s not uncommon that I walk in on ‘meetings’ like this one. Reid is trying to tell me to close the door again so they can play. Haha!
Honestly, it feels amazing once the kids are in bed to be able to shut that toy closet door and pretend for a minute that our house isn’t full of toy clutter. I only wish we had thought of it sooner!
Fighting the ability of toys to overtake our home seems to be a constant battle. How do you handle the toy clutter?