Organizing the Entertainment Center

Now that the entertainment system is all in, we have our new couch and I have gone through all of the other closets in the house, let's get this entertainment center organized!

Organizing the Entertainment Center | Getting Started

The first order of business is to empty out all of the cabinets because there is just stuff everywhere and it's not all staying in here. Some of the stuff in these cabinets will stay in the cabinets, but going in a different place and needs a little bit more organization. Some need new homes entirely.

I started sorting, decluttering and going through Jackie's toys. I spent a lot of time going through the toys and putting them into clear plastic bins from the Home Edit line at Walmart. This way, she can see what's actually in each bin instead of having an opaque bin. Obviously after baby brother gets older, we might have to reevaluate the set up depending on what he gets into. This will be a bit of a change for us because we're not used to a baby that crawls and gets into stuff. Jackie didn't crawl and she didn't get into stuff she wasn't supposed to get into, she never even tried to open cabinet. I'm sure this baby will be a completely different experience, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Organizing the Entertainment Center | Categories

When organizing these cabinets, I tried to keep like things together. I know having a theme with each cabinet will make it easier to find stuff both for my husband, myself, and Jackie.

I created a home office cabinet for myself and my husband with things like tape, paper, staples and scissors. The cabinet below it has baby essentials like diapers, burp cloths and wipes. This next cabinet is all of the open ended play sets like magnetic tiles and Legos as well as baby appropriate toys.

In the first deeper set of cabinets I put all of the games and the puzzles together so Jackie can find all the stuff she's looking for in that category of things. All of her stuff that wasn't on her craft cart like coloring books, extra paper, etc. was put on the very top shelves as well as anything with little tiny pieces. When I inevitably have to move stuff around for baby proofing, I won't have to do quite as much shuffling.

I put all of the electronic stuff like the Nintendo Switch and the printer in the next cabinet because it is the cabinet with a plug. The next cabinet has sets of toys like cars, dinosaurs, Toy Story, etc.