In plain view

I realize that my lifestyle is not for everyone, but if you really want to avoid kid clutter this is a great option.

I have lived through a sea of toys with broken and misplaced parts. I have found puzzle pieces in my kitchen and doll heads in my bathroom along with a multitude of messes that I hated. This was how my over indulged, first two children experienced toys.

Fast forward 15 years...

My two year-old daughter has a more Spartan collection of toys contained almost entirely in these bins.

Two contain books, one blocks, one Playmobil sets, and the others are a jumble. She is very content with the number of toys and I don't think I would be doing her a service by having too many.

I love these bins. They are about $5 at Target and other stores and sturdy as far as I can tell. While I am not thrilled with the color combination of the bins in this new house, they keep things tidy with only the tiniest effort and keep toys from becoming a numbing pile of stuff. The kind of "can't see the trees for the forest" sort of mess.

Only the "beehicle" and tiny chair remain in view when everything is put away but can be stashed elsewhere quickly if I wish.

I hope this method works in the long term because we have kept her bedroom mostly toy free. With two twin beds there is precious little floor space and a few things are stashed in her closet but it one less mess to pickup.

Balance: Kid stuff ~ Anything not plastic

I struggle with creating a relaxing, indestructable, and attactive family room.

Last week, my almost two year-old saw a bowl like the one above, filled with wooden balls, like above, in Restoration Hardware. Before I could stop her, she heaved the largestone  into the air and upon its hitting the floor kicked it like Pele shouting, "Yay, I did it!"

Luckily, the staff thought it was adorable.

My TV room is not a formal entertaining space and won't be setup as such but

I despise throw away furniture and kid plastic.

In an effort to be interesting and practical, I "refinished" this old coffee table.

I say "refinished" because I distressed an already distressed from abuse table. Call it controlled distressing.

I stained it black then removed much of the black stain and added a gunstock over it leaving every gouge, crack and scratch intact.

The result looks like a reclaimed wood floor or shop counter and there are no fights about it because I don't care what happens to it, its already messed up.

I never want this in my house but a kid's got to play, right?

This shelf was a toy hiding solution at our old house and I am planning on a similar one here.

In an effort to save my coffee table from Mattel I should probably get a few of these...

Seriously cute! in a cool way

It is bothersome to me that my Christmas budget does not allow for one of these for my littlest.

Starting at $3840 for the chair alone. I am afraid my little sugarplum is out of luck.

Knoll kids has a womb chair too, but alas it is also out of budget range.

This cutie (the chair) is closer to realistic at about $585 from Littlenest.com.

Check out the really cool mini mid-century iconic furniture HERE