Show me your toy storage areas!

[Jennifer132]

Does anyone want to share what they do for toy organization? We have a basic shelf with plastic buckets from Target that we use for the toddler toys, but it's really not sufficient for their puzzles and other nicer toys that I don't want out all the time (because they would lose essential pieces). I tend to like to rotate them. So how would you store the ones that aren't out on rotation? For older children, what do you do for toys? We have plastic lidded bins in my dd's closet with post it's on them labeling them. My son mostly has Legos and books, and the Lego mess is a constant issue...I'd love to hear about and see your toy organization!

[craftyerin]

We have a super structured full-scale toy library.  My friends think I'm nuts for keeping up with it, but has been in place almost 8 months now and I LOVE IT. Here's the blog post I wrote on it: http://lookwhaterinmade.blogspot.com/2013/09/toy-library.html

[gardenmom5]

I have an understairs closet just off my family room.  it has adjustable shelving.  I have buckets on lower levels for lego, k'nex, blocks, etc.  games and puzzles can fit on the shelf.  I also have hooks on the opposite wall for some items.

[Um_2_4]

Here is ours (I don't like open storage mostly):

Boys room:

Large wheeled under bed storage boxes: 1 for Duplos, 2 for legos (great for looking through for just the right piece), 1 for cars/trains/planes, 1 each(smaller, no wheels) for their "personal" collection.

In the closet: 2 of those plastic wheeled 3 drawer carts: 1 drawer Ben10 toys, 1 drawer of dragon books/toys, 1 for hexbugs, 1 for wooden train tracks, 1 for DS10's rawing/cartoon books/supplies and 1 for

1 book shelve for books

 

Girl's room is similar set up, but with one for doll clothes, 1 for play food, 1 for dress up clothes, 1 for friends legos, etc. and instead of a book shelf they have a large wheeled bin from target they keep some books in.

 

For puzzles (I assume you are not referring to toddler/board puzzles, right?), I cut out the picture for reference and labeled the backs of the pieces (for the 24-64 piece puzzles) with a matching shape and put them in large ziploc bags in a basket. So the whale puzzle is labeled on the back with a star on the pieces as well as the cut out from the box. Next I will move on to letters. My Melissa and Doug floor puzzles are still in the boxes on a shelf in the schoolroom closet.

 

[abba12]

We have just revamped our toy organization area because I an nesting, lol. I'm pretty proud of it!

 

First off, we have two sets of jumbo plastic drawers. Each holds a big toy set (duplo, play food, animals and trees, 'toy box toys' etc). When I assembled them I made a single stack of 7 instead of two stacks of 4. the extra tub not in the drawer is the one being played with. If the kids want a new drawer they need to clean up the current one, then ask me to swap drawers. Because they are rather bulky, the kids can't just empty them all themselves.

 

Then we have 4 of those rubbermaid type tubs, color coded. All the baby and toddler toys are divided between them, and each one also has two big toys (doll house, baby activity table, etc) which go with it but are stored elsewhere (currently in the bottom of my wardrobe). These get rotated out sunday night, so a new set of a half dozen toys and two big toys each week on a 4 week cycle keeps everything fresh. Each tub also has a couple of wooden puzzles and a blanket for the week (pieces are less likely to be lost when less toys are out at once, and grandma is a quilter so the kids currently have 3 floor rugs, soon to be 4 when baby comes)

 

We have a shelf for toys which remain out like the magnet drawing board and the pencils, and a few current favorite toys (right now the doctor set and the pretend laptop which are both seeing daily use, when their use lessens they will go into rotation with the rest, and new favorites may emerge or come as presents)

 

And finally, I have some educational toys and manipulates in a shelf in the school room for table time, where I bring out a single educational activity for each of them, dd1 at the table and dd2 in the playpen. These toys are only brought out when I bring them out, and include things like special puzzles I don't want in general circulation like lauri puzzles, math toys like pattern blocks or counting bears, and motor skill toys like threading beads or pipe cleaners in a colander or sticker books. It usually buys me 30 minutes our so each morning for chores or to get lunch ready.

 

It means they have less toys at a time, so each one is played with more and not lost in the pile. The tubs contain 6-8 toys including baby toys and toddler toys, so really each child is only interested in 3-5 of them each week. The two big toys are usually one baby toy and one older toy, and since I am expecting I am just keeping outgrown toys in the rotation for now.

 

Since implementing it I have noticed better and more imaginative play, longer attention span, things which haven't been touched in months seeing use, less lost pieces, and since the drawer toys are strictly one at a time, no more spending half an hour sorting the duplo from the play food and the toy box toys! I find toy rotation one of the best things ever for my toddlers

 

ETA: forgot to mention, all the stuffed animals except big ones are inside a bean bag case, constantly available as either a chair or toy. Big ones are at the end of their beds. Easy clean up, they finally have a storage place that doesn't look like a mess of stuff!

[ChristusG]

I do something similar to craftyerin.

 

One day I got TOTALLY FED UP with the toy chaos. It looked like the toy store had thrown up in the playroom. So I went out and bough a bunch of shoe box sized bins. This is the size that we have the most of. We sorted all their toys.....AG doll clothing, Disney figures, stickers, cars, magnetic dolls, Barbies, etc. If there were too many Barbies to fit into a shoe box sized bin, then they had to get rid of some! Same thing with all the other toys. A shoe box sized bin is FINE for most toys. Too many AG clothes? Weed them out, pick your favorites, sell the rest.

 

There were a few types of toys that I allowed larger bins for, which we also went out and purchased. Trio blocks and Playmobil have quite large bins. Legos and dollhouse furniture have flat, under the bed type boxes. And My Little Ponies have a larger-than-shoe box-sized bin (MLP is their very favorite toys so I didn't make them get rid of any of those).

 

I bought the collapsible mesh laundry bins for stuffed animals. These stand in the corner of their room. They can keep a few on their beds and the rest in these laundry bins. If they won't all fit, you have to get rid of what doesn't fit.

 

We keep the small bins stacked and lining the top shelf of their closet (they have a long, shared closet). The larger bins sit on the floor of their closet. They have to consult me before removing any of the bins from their closet, then I come and check the room to see if it is clean enough to take down another bin. For the most part, this has worked well. Only when I slack off do they end up dragging out too many bins and scattering them about.

 

This is for the 9 and 6 year olds and we began it about two years ago. I don't keep the 2 year old's toys like that. We have an area of our sunroom where I keep her toys. She has much less and it stays pretty organized.

 

 

[Indian summer]

Clear plastic containers on shelves is the way to go, IMO. And for games and puzzles, a tall bookshelf, bolted to the wall.

[KRG]

Everything is in  dollar store baskets.  I also have one of those toy bins.  I thought I would like it but I'm over having it in the way.  I've asked Dh to start working on something like this:

http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2012/05/playroom-progress-bunch-of-baskets.html

 

[Ausmumof3]

Does all over the lounge room floor count?

 

The only thing I do have success with is my kids know if the get out the Lego they have to put a sheet down first then we can pour it back into the box.