toy organizers

[jennistarr1]

 I think I have a problem with every system out there so let me know what works for you and if there's something I'm not thinking of

Our needs:

Baby 2 is will be in same room with kid 1 making that room mostly just crib/bed/dresser and not much more room

So stuff is moving into third bedroom which currently houses bookcases (we have condensed from 3.5 to 2), computer, and lots of musical equipment that can't go somewhere else

We need a toy organizer for this room (this can be messy, nooone sees this room)

and a second one for our super small family room (this needs to be more organized)

I feel like the choices are toy box, toy bins, and cube organizer

We currently have a toy box...problem there is daughter never goes in it to find toys. Maybe plays with what is on top and the rest is forgotten about

I hate the look of the toy bins (too open)

But then the cubes are likely to also suffer from the forgotten about phenomena

I'm kind of thinking of shelves behind an easy to access door???

or something hybrid?

has anyone perfected this system

FWIW, I do feel like I do a regular purge of stuff and we aren't overrun with toys...but still she's not reaching for what she has

Also, there is never enough room for the playdough accessories, that stuff is admittedly every where

So what you have loved or hated???

[lilac05]

We use cube shelves with clear plastic containers in them. It works great for us. One night, my H and I made labels for the boxes (nothing fancy...paper, sharpie, and clear packing tape) and that has been great. It doesn’t look like it belongs in a designer catalog, but it’s uniform and it’s very functional. It helps keep their stuff organized really efficiently and everyone knows what goes where...which is great if guests are over and helping clean up. It keeps their toys to a limit (can only have whatever fits in a box before having to get rid of stuff). It’s also super easy to swap out toys. We only keep some toys out and the rest go in our storage room. Being able to swap out so they have something new frequently is still a hit and they’re 6 and 9 now! Now they swap out their own toys. It’s also nice because you can use some of it as a bookshelf, too.

We don’t live near an IKEA, so we have the Better Homes and Gardens ones from Walmart and we use these bins of different sizes: www.target.com/p/sterilite-15qt-clear-view-storage-bin-with-latch-purple/-/A-13794491 I love the locking lids because they’re easier to open and the kids are more likely to close them correctly instead of just balancing the lid on top.

This works great for all but a few of their toys. We even threw all of the costumes in a box! The bigger stuff either sits on top or next to it. There’s less and less of that as they get older, thankfully!

[joy]

We have the Kallax shelves with the fabric cubes inside. I’m speaking for my kid and myself as a kid, but we all go through phases and top toys change a lot. I used to want her to *see* all her toy choices then realized that was overwhelming and made everything kind of old hat.

The fabric cubes help with this muuuch better than a toy chest. It puts a few amount of toys in a spot and there are about eight spots. Lots of times, she starts to look for something and pulls out a cube full of toys she hasn’t seen in awhile and BAM! New favorite toys. The toy chest is a one stop mess.

I actually rotate toys from cubes to toy chest so new things pop up more often.

[mccallister84]

IKEA trofast. You can choose different sized bins. In the cubes things get lost in the bottom.

[macmars45]

We have a cube shelf in DS' room that has books, DUPLOS, vehicles and play kitchen food. Under his bed in clear plastic bins with lids are his LEGOs.
In the living room there are two shelves that are half DVDs and half DS' toys in bins. His train set, bowling set, puzzles, blocks, remote control construction vehicles (2) & construction cones.

To be fair, the bins are those fabric ones and they are falling apart after 4 years of continuous use.

ETA: we use the same containers that lilac05 linked for DS' LEGOs. And they are organized. One has flat pieces, one bricks pieces and the third has everything else.

[ohgillian]

It sounds like part of the issue is that you are struggling with "out of sight, out of mind." If that's the case, you might have success with something like this. When mine were younger we had a double-decker one of these and it worked well. Mine was secondhand but similar to this picture.



ETA: Here's another example. www.amazon.com/Stackable-Wooden-Storage-Organizing-Cubby/dp/B0049U5UG6

[sandandsea]

We have the ikea cube system (25 squares). The bottom 2 rows have boxes organized by category (cars, play doh, trains, etc), the middle row is books, the top row is decor (pictures, lamp, etc), and the second shelf is bigger toy items that sit out alone (like a box of knex, a Star Wars ship, etc.).

We have legos in separate clear project box containers along a shelf in the closet and board games in another cabinet.

To not forget about the stuff in the cubes you could label them with a picture or buy clear plastic bins.

The biggest key to keeping it organized is picking up regularly and not mixing boxes. We have a. 1 box rule but will sometimes have a few at a time. Any more than three and clean up/sorting takes forever.

[Mrs.flang]

These are out of stock, but I had them saved from a while ago and never purchased them. The dimensions include the handles so it seems like they might be too big, but I thought I had seen that you could stack two and fit them into a 13 inch cube organizer. So that might help break up the toy groups more if you can fit smaller stuff into each.

www.target.com/p/3-5gal-medium-toy-storage-bin-gray---pillowfort--8482-/-/A-53060391

My DDs usually dump the whole cube out so top toys don't really matter.

I also have a couple of these on our living room bookshelf and I like that it doesn't look like toy storage. Organization isn't a thing though and they also just dump the entire contents out when they're playing.

www.target.com/p/13--34--decorative-coiled-rope-square-base-tapered-basket-medium-white---threshold--8482-/-/A-53193156

[Velar Fricative]

We have the IKEA Trofast (bins), a Kallax (cubes) and various other storage shelves plus ottoman storage and the Trofast seems to be most effective. The kids are always reaching for the bins inside the Trofast and kind of "forget" about toys in the other storage options.

[shauni27]

www.amazon.com/Tot-Tutors-WO701-Springfield-Collection/dp/B07CF7HWPL/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=toy+organizer&qid=1593016342&sr=8-4

Then other toys go into storage in regular plastic crates/totes while we rotate through them.

[starryfish]

Jun 24, 2020 8:25:12 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

IKEA trofast. You can choose different sized bins. In the cubes things get lost in the bottom.

This. I love the smaller buckets it comes with

[waverly]

Another vote for Trofast and small bins for that. My kids always dumped bins so big bins meant more toys they dumped and didn’t want to pick up. I don’t like the looks of the bins that are all open and primary colored. I like that the Trofast has a nice wooden top.

[isabel]

We have a couple stand alone ikea cabinets and cafeteria trays. We organized toys by type on the trays so they were easy to find when the kids opened the doors. I’ve since removed the doors now that their playroom is not in the living room anymore.

Overall, I actually prefer our cube storage. We have bins for cars, legos, dress up stuff, train tracks, etc. I think that’s worth a try as it can get nicer looking bins for it. But if your kids don’t have collections of toys that really go together, it might not make sense. Sounds like you’d probably do a 4 square organizer, which doesn’t give you room for a ton of variety.

[lessel]

We have the Ikea cube storage. Generally what we do is have the bottom row (the 4 cubes-wide ones) with bins filled with assorted toys and then we put toys on the open cubes in the top row. I generally have a basket on top to just kind of toss stuff in that gets scattered around.

We also have a closet where we keep some toys in clear bins with lids that have little plastic handles that snap closed and 'lock' the lid. I had hoped to do this for DS1's toys so that DS2 wouldn't get in them, but he mastered the side lock around 18mo.

[loira]

We have the Trofast and it works reasonably well. I think all kids "forget" about toys in storage, but this has always been a good thing for us because every few months I'll pull out a bunch of toys she's neglected and it's like they're brand new.

[redheadbaker]

We use Kallax shelves. Some toys are in fabric boxes (Hot Wheels cars, action figures, Pokemon stuff, etc.), but we are in the process of sorting his Lego into clear boxes which will be stacked in the cube spaces. We're using Really Useful Boxes of various sizes for that. And he can use the top of the Kallax cubes for displaying assembled Lego sets.

[andi]

We bought 3 of the 4-cube systems, put them side by side, and have the fabric bins. I like that they can't see everything at once as someone above mentioned. Especially my 2yo, I'll pull out a 'new' bin he hasn't looked in a while and he will play for a long time. Our playroom is another living room though, so I want things more hidden. Play doh and craft stuff are in the laundry room closet, so it only comes out when they ask or need a change of activity.

[MrsE]

Jun 24, 2020 10:29:11 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

It sounds like part of the issue is that you are struggling with "out of sight, out of mind." If that's the case, you might have success with something like this. When mine were younger we had a double-decker one of these and it worked well. Mine was secondhand but similar to this picture.



ETA: Here's another example. www.amazon.com/Stackable-Wooden-Storage-Organizing-Cubby/dp/B0049U5UG6

These look really nice. Thanks for sharing! Did you anchor yourself to the wall or did the brackets hold them securely enough for only two stacked together?

[dancingirl21]

We have IKEA Stuva cabinets. These are currently in our basement but we had them in an open playroom at our previous house that was on the main floor. I wanted our toy storage to be cabinets with doors so the toys can go away when you want them to. We just do plastic bins with most toys in them and loose toys in the drawers. There are many different Stuva configurations.

[ohgillian]

Jun 25, 2020 13:04:56 GMT -5 MrsE said:

Jun 24, 2020 10:29:11 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

It sounds like part of the issue is that you are struggling with "out of sight, out of mind." If that's the case, you might have success with something like this. When mine were younger we had a double-decker one of these and it worked well. Mine was secondhand but similar to this picture.



ETA: Here's another example. www.amazon.com/Stackable-Wooden-Storage-Organizing-Cubby/dp/B0049U5UG6

These look really nice. Thanks for sharing! Did you anchor yourself to the wall or did the brackets hold them securely enough for only two stacked together?

So, I don't know if the ones I linked are this way, but mine connected together by the top one sliding onto a groove in the lower one. However, I felt that the top one could slide off the lower, so I connected them to each other with some flashing and nails. I think that's the right term. I didn't anchor them to the wall, though, I felt it was too low and wide to tip. 

ETA: But these worked very well for us for several years. I eventually replaced them with an armoir to hold board games, and I do kind of regret parting with them. They're great for the billions of small toys that can accumulate, and things remain relatively visible, but they make it easy for kids to clean up. I was very satisfied with them as a toy solution.