New TV Stand

My brother recently upgraded his tv.  We were the recipients of his "old tv".  It wouldn't fit in our old entertainment center so I started the look out for a new tv stand.  As I was looking around I realized what I really wanted was the 6 cube bookcase from Land of Nod.  The tv would fit perfectly on top and I could hide/store toys in all of those bins!  But, at $279 it wasn't coming to our house any time soon.  Tim agreed that it was perfect, except for the price.  We looked around for something similar that was cheaper and in our search found some free building plans from Ana White.  We went to Lowe's the next day to get the wood and he started working on it immediately.

We just used stain that we had at home, we might try a different color that better matches my rocker and side table later.  Who knows, in a different house I might want it painted white and in the kids' playroom.  That's what's so awesome about building something ourselves.  Oh, and saving a lot of money.  It did take some time though.  There's an optional backing that we didn't put on.  We might add that later too.

When I bought the bins I sorted their toys and organized them.  I showed Tillie what was in each bin and told her that only one bin could come out at a time.  Since I started with this expectation from the beginning on the bin I didn't have to correct any behavior, just model it.  It's worked awesome so far!  I mean, it's been 4 days, but still.  It's a pretty easy concept for a 3 year old and I'm sure is a rule she'll have in preschool this fall.

This is what I have in the bins right now.  It will be great to be able to switch them out periodically.  So far Tillie is already playing with toys that are usually stuck in the bottom of the toy basket -- and my living room is neater.  Win!