If you’ve been following us at all on social media, you’ve probably seen some of our stories as of recently regarding toy room organization and makeovers.  This has been a personal vendetta of mine, to redo our toy room, and specifically create a space that is more functional and useful for my family.

Over the past couple of years, we discovered that one of my kids has Autism Spectrum Disorder.  This is actually something that I suspected since he was born, but through the Minnesota state early childhood screening (something that is required of every kiddo before heading to Kindergarten), we found out that he was struggling in a few areas.  As we worked through some of the problem areas and as other areas progressed (with his amazing school and teachers!), we found that he was still lagging in some areas that are correlated with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  We will continue to work, test, retest, and learn as we go….but this gave me a great excuse to create the toy room of our dreams!

Enter…a Sensory Room!

I was recently introduced to SENSE-ational Spaces, a Minnesota based company, that creates amazing spaces for children with a variety of needs or developmental delays.  I knew that this would be an amazing collaboration for us and for all of our clients who have children that are going through the same thing!  I had them come to our home and do a consultation; they spoke with both of my kids, my husband and myself, and found out exactly what we like.  They provided great input and feedback into what the kids might benefit from and also grow into.  SENSE-ational spaces is owned and run by two pediatric occupational therapists, so you KNOW you are in great hands with their recommendations!

Our project included two main phases.  The first phase was ORGANIZATION!  This is where Meat & Potatoes Organizing came in to shine.  Before we began, our toy room was a conglomeration of toys from all ages, given to us from friends, family, and birthday parties.  I will admit that it is also a product of us being at Target and the kids begging me for a toy, and me not being able to say no… It is a work in progress!!! For all of us, right?!

It always bugged me that all of these toys did not have a particular home.  And when things don’t have a home…we all know what happens – CLUTTER CENTRAL!

As I normally do when I begin a project, I started by pulling literally everything out and categorizing it into piles of similar things.  I made sure all the toys had their parts.  If they didn’t, we put them into the garbage.  The boys actually helped me with this part and they were so proud of their work!

Then, I told each of them that they could keep five of their favorite toys.  That was the hardest part for them.  Of course, we ended up keeping more than five of each, but the volume of our toys decreased significantly.  To rid ourselves of the good toys we decided not to keep, I gave them away for free to moms and families in our local MOMs Club of Lakeville group.  After the moms had their pick of our toys, I donated the rest to Goodwill.

Of the toys that remained – the favorites – we categorized them into “units”.  I was left with 5 large tubs labeled with toys of similar category or learning opportunity.  This system is called a Toy Rotation.  You may have heard about this strategy before.  A toy rotation is great because they decrease the amount of overstimulation in the toy room, allowing for children to develop a deeper play interaction with the toys that are actually present.  The theory is that you rotate your tubs every two to three weeks, or monthly (like me) and the newness of the toys brings on more stimulation and deeper imaginative play.  This month, we are featuring building and car tracks.

Once our room was empty and our remaining toys put into units, we were ready for Phase 2 – Installation!  We chose a full installation by SENSE-ational Spaces and Lex and Marlee did the entire thing – it took about a full day to install!

I’ll briefly discuss each part of our new sensory room.  See if you can identify these parts in our photos!

Vestibular Support: Silk swings hang from ceiling

Large Motor Support: Monkey Bars, Rock Climbing Wall

Relaxation: Large Projector Screen with Projector (for watching our favorite shows and playing nintendo games!)

Transition Space: Emotional Regulation Charts, Dry Erase Board, Mounted “What We are Working On” Boards, Blackout Curtain

Crawl Space “aka Alone Time Space”: A lego wall with legos in bins mounted on wall, magnetic chalkboard, fine motor fidget box and putty, visual stimulation via led rope lights, aromatherapy diffuser, and oral motor kit (think gum and life savers, etc..)

Lighting: converted all lights to Phillips Hue Smart-bulbs so we can adjust the light according to the necessary mood regulation.

Overall, this collaboration was simply amazing.  Our kids are over the moon about their new toy room and we spend WAY more time in there vs when it was filled to the brim with every toy imaginable!!!  They also installed a flip down desk for me, so I can work while the kids are playing.  I could not have asked for a better transformation.  We are so thankful for SENSE-ational Spaces and thank Alexee & Marlee for their knowledge and hard work on our project.  We cannot wait to do the next one with you!

If you are interested or have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to myself (cori@meatandpotatoesorganizing.com) or the SENSE-ational Spaces team to learn more about what they have to offer.

Please check them out and give them some love <3 :

Insta: @senseational_spaces

Web: www.senseationalspaces.com