PLAY AREA FOR 6-12 MONTHS

The LO is now 6.5 months and is ready for a play area upgrade.  I recently got her some toys and I needed to make some changes to her current area to accommodate them.

DIY CARDBOARD SHELF

I think I outdid myself this time. I made a cardboard shelf. I am upgrading the LO's play area and I needed a shelf to store her new toys.  The LO has started to crawl and explore her surroundings and I am not comfortable with a shelf where she could hit her head.

MAKING THE CLOSET WORK FOR YOU

How do you organize your closet? Do you take out everything, sort through your items and then put everything back only to redo everything in a week or two? For me, organizing is like doing a math word problem.  You define your problem, identify what is given and look for the solution. 

Take for instance my husbands closet.  His current "system" wasn't really working anymore.  Here is a picture of his closet.  I would not say his closet is disorganized but some things do not belong where they should be. 

B&W CONTRAST PICTURES

When my baby girl was born, I went crazy looking for ways to stimulate her (yes, the teacher in me just had to!).  Upon research, I came across black and white contrast pictures.  As newborns, babies do not have the visual acuity to see the things around them.  What stimulates them are high contrast colors, like black and white. (I have a free printable at the bottom of the page!)

ORGANIZING WINTER ACCESSORIES

About 2 weeks ago, I got a hanging shoe organizer from Target for $5 on sale.  I figured, "I'll buy it and I'll find a place for it".  And I did! It has been a very very brutal winter here in NY so our scarves, hats, gloves and earmuffs had to be easily accessible.  I re-purposed the shoe organizer to an accessory organizer --

BABY MONTESSORI PLAY AREA

All done! Loren now has her own play area! She is now 5 months old and I can no longer keep her on the sofa or let alone the bed.  She's at the stage of rolling over and going in circles.  I wanted a Montessori based play area for Loren and though her current play area is not as Montessori as I want it to be, I am very happy with the results.