The boys had been begging to share a room for quite a while, so back in the spring we converted Cooper’s former nursery in to a super fun shared bedroom, complete with the coolest storage bunk beds. It’s a pretty small room, but we managed to create dedicated play space, and we packed in tons of storage, including hidden behind the doors of this cute Eiffel Bookcase.
This bookcase is a bit on the shallow side, so the style of bins I normally buy for organizing toys {these and these} were too deep. But I found these gray felt bins that are just perfect for the space.
But as you can see in the photo above, it’s a bit overwhelming to look at these twelve bins with no labels. How the heck does anyone know what’s inside? Good question. No one did, and so for the past few months, these baskets became a disorganized mess. It was frustrating the kids because they couldn’t find the toys they wanted, and it was frustrating me because it make cleanup much harder.
Of course, it’s my fault, because I should have labeled the bins when we first finished the room makeover. But it was one of those situations where I was so relieved to have the major decor and DIY projects in the space finished, so details like labeling the bins behind the doors were left for later.
One of the reasons I initially put off this project was that I wanted to come up with a plan to make these labels quick and easy to update, knowing that over the years what’s inside each bin will change many times as they outgrow toys and games, and get new stuff.
I decided I needed to finally make this a priority, and once I came up with a plan, it only took me a few minutes to execute. Here I am kicking myself for not just spending five minutes to create these labels months ago!
Let me introduce you to my new favorite way to create easy-to-update labels – self-adhesive business card pockets paired with scrapbook paper!
I picked out a variety of colorful scrapbook papers {to coordinate with all the color of the other side of the boys’ bedroom}, and I cut each 6″ x 6″ sheet of paper into four business card sized pieces.
I stacked up each matching set of paper labels, and tucked them inside one of the clear pockets, creating twelve sets in all {one for each toy bin}.
…and stick it onto the bin.