Pages

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Toy Storage

OK, so I'm sure most of you that have kids look around their room and wonder why there are so many toys, how to keep them cleaned up, do the kids even play with most of them, and WHY ARE THERE SO MANY TOYS?!?! I know I have lol. Especially with Christmas coming up, and most likely more toys are about to invade the area, we wonder how to get it under control. We don't want to throw it all away because, after all, we paid for those, and they might play with them again some day.

So one day I took some advice I heard from someone else. I put about 80% of the toys away, really away. Boxed up, hidden away on shelves, stored out of reach. My 2 yr old doesn't even miss them. I left out a few of his favorites (which is still enough to make a pretty big mess lol). Then you can rotate toys when they start getting bored with them, put the ones out away and get out some of the boxed ones, it will be just like Christmas for them! This has really cut down on the mess, clutter, crowded space, and cleanup time in my boys' room.

Next is to have some sort of system for storing the toys in use so they are easy for kids to get to, but easy to put away. For me what works best is a small bookshelf, designated areas, and a few containers. Cars go into one container, blocks in a bag, miscellaneous small toys go in another container and everything else goes back in the same spot every time. I also utilize the area under the baby's crib for thing that don't fit on the shelf, like a Tonka dump truck.

Here is my boys' toys. This is about 95% of his toys that we have out (a few things like the dump truck and play table aren't pictured). It's so nice not to have a ton to pick up. Though I wish I had more containers but it works :)

I admit this isn't a flawless system, I now have a closet full of the boxed up toys, so I can barely open the door, but that's only cuz I haven't gotten the shelves for my storage room yet, then they will go in there. :)

Check out Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer for more great ideas!

9 comments:

Someone Beautiful said...

I love this! I have boxed up a lot of toys too, but now even I have forgotten what's in there. I was tempted to give them all away, but the boys are getting bored; so it's time to rotate the toys. I was going to ask how you store them b/c I have them stacked in a closet too, and it is hard to get to them. When you are done with your shelves, I hope you will post an after pic. Let us know what you come up with. Thanks!

Kara said...

Yeah, right now the stored toys are kinda thrown mosh-posh into the boys' closet, I seriously can barely open the door. And we have vaulted ceilings so there's a high shelf in their room that bigger things are stacked on, it doesn't look too great, but they are out of the way and who's going to care anyway lol. But yeah, once we get our storage room shelves, it will all be boxed nicely, labeled, and put on a shelf. I'm so excited!

Rae said...

Great ideas! I'll have to remember them for the future =)

Barb said...

You have been TAGGED with the "Six Weird Things About Me" MeMe.

Kara said...

Aw, I've already done a 10 weird things about me :P Doesn't that count?

mist1 said...

I don't have a house full of toys, but I do have a house full of shoes. It would just kill me to box up 80% of them. Unless they were out of season, of course.

Barb said...

Just take 6 and do it over lol. I love the music playing.

Great organization ideas!!!

Anonymous said...

Great Idea.

Smalltown RN said...

When my girls were little I suffered from the same thing, where to put all those darn toys...I had toy boxes etc...but they seemed to always be around...guess that is a sign of them having a good time. But I do like the idea of putting some away and taking them out later. You know when my girls were getting older we ended up with a box of McDonald toys!!!!

Happy Tuesday....found you through Skittles Tuesday links