Playroom Organizing – Part 3

Toy Storage

So now that you have your toys sorted (well hopefully) you need to know where and how to put them.

My Guidelines and thoughts are Simple

I like a shelf rather than a toy box.  Toys get lost in toy boxes.  Kids don’t want to dig down to the bottom. Pieces fall down into that dark hole of toy misfitness and are never seen again.

Be sure if you use a shelf that you anchor it to the wall.  Kids like to climb on things, especially if they see something up top that they want and can’t reach.  You want to always be sure that shelf can not fall over on them.

Be sure to put the toys at age appropriate levels.  Put the toys where the young children can find them.  Put the older toys and games with small pieces up higher so the younger ones can’t choke on small things.  This toy shelf I bought years ago when my boys were young.  It had been a coat rack in a daycare.  See the smaller cubbies on the right. That was their top cubby when it was turned on its side and their coats hung in the other longer part. I probably bought this about 25 years ago (wow that makes me feel old…I still remember how excited I was to find it…and it was cheap!)

I am all for the clear baskets or like these….where you can see what is in them.  They don’t all have to match or be stylish (depending on where your playroom is). These are from the dollar store.

This one we use for the marbles. Yes…that is a big sock..filled with marbles. Don’t ask me why we keep them in a sock. I just know that my Dad put mine in a sock years ago and these are still the marbles I used to have….(yes in a newer sock)….but it works.

Think outside the box.  I had to figure out some way to hang these guitars for guitar hero.  I had this hook already and it fit perfect….solution.

Our playroom is in our unfinished basement.  We have put down a rug and have a futon, some restaurant benches that my son got from a friend, several old TV’s for the game systems.  So you can make due where you have the space.

We made a bedroom in the basement for one of our older boys (his choice). The kids used to use the “under the stairs” space for a fort. But since that was now made into his closet…we had to block the other side.  This was our solution.

Several bulletin boards did the trick. It blocked off the opening and provided a great place for the kids to display their art work.

I’ll have a list of some other toy storage solutions that you can find tomorrow!

I am all about practicality.  Make it work….think outside the box.

Linking this post to:

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Kids Playroom

Organizing a Child’s Playroom

Would this be cute in a kids playroom or what? It would be great for keeping all those little stuffed animals in.
Although there may be bins and baskets and toy boxes in most playrooms, what usually happens is that you get too many different toys together and everything gets mixed up. When you have one container with 5 different toys with little pieces in it….it takes too much time and is not fun to dig out all the pieces necessary to play with the one toy that the child may want to play with. Its much easier to pick up the toy beside it that is altogether. So many times there are toys that aren’t played with anymore, just because its more of a pain than its worth to get the toy out.
A toy unit like this would help in that there are several smaller drawers that you could separate toys into. Its at a good level for most children. It is bright and colorful, so that they may remember that their legos are all in the big red bin and their race cars are in the smaller blue bin.
It would make clean up very easy also.
This is something that I found at the Ikea store that really stood out to me and looking fun and cute and the cost was not that bad.

You can find these at Ikea.com