Has anyone found a great solution for storing toys?

Question

My kids are 1, 2.5 and 4....and we have tons of little toys. I am looking for something other than those plastic bins or canvas totes. Besides those, I have some nylon storage/toy bins. They are fine, but I feel like sometimes it looks even messier. Or perhaps I need something better than what we already have. Has anyone found shelving, bins or anything else that works well for them? For ex, some piece of furniture from a store---like Ikea, Target? Toy box from somewhere? Something that works well if you have a lot of pcs, like Mr Potato-head?

There are a lot of GREAT answers here!!!! Thanks!

Answer 1

I buy the plastic 3 drawers container. They sell them at Target, Kmart, Walmart, etc. I put all the like toys in different drawers, eg. cars in one, actions figures in another and all the swords, ninja tools (little) action hero accessories in another. Its nice because I can close the drawer and the room looks neat.

Answer 2

I prefer storage containers that have attached lids, such as Rubbermaid. They stack well you can see in them if you buy the clear ones and the lid never gets lost. You can label them for what goes in there with a picture and this way they can put the toys int the correct bin without needing to read. We have a shelf my husband built that is only 3 feet high but is long(kind of like the ones you had in school) it has 3 shelves that the bins sit on. This works very well for us and is very organized. I have four kids and we go through each month and get rid of toys that no one plays with or are worn out this helps keep down the clutter too.

Answer 3

I was having a problem with having lots of toys that my kids would dump out everywhere. So I went and bought a storage cabinet at ShopKo...it has 8 square shelf areas on the bottom part with one big shelf area on top, and it has doors on it. Then I found these square wire baskets with hinged lids that fit perfectly in the shelves. So we went through all of the toys and decided which ones the kids actually played with and were nice, and we ended up giving away half of the toys. Then we put the toys in the baskets, the similar types go together. Like blocks in one, kitchen toys in another, dress up clothes, fisher price little people, etc. It works pretty good for us now, it stays cleaned up a lot more. I try to make sure they only get one basket out at a time then clean it up and put it away before getting another.

Answer 4

When my kids were little, I found the best solution was something I called the "toy store". I let my kids each pick out a few toys that would fit in their existing storage space -- a toy box in their room. Smaller plastic shoe-box sized totes for Legos, Mr. Potato Head, ect. Everything else got packed into a plastic tote and stored in the garage (or shed).

Even when they were as young as 1 or 2, they had the simple chore of putting away their toys at the end of the day. If they could take it out and play with it, they could put it back! At the end of the week, they could trade one one of their "old" toys for a "new" toy in storage. It helped with the mess in my house, they started earning an "allowance", they started to learn that everything had a "price", and it kept their toys new and exciting for them to play with.

Additionally, before every birthday and every Christmas, we would pick out one or two toys to "share". My kids would voluntarily trot into the Goodwill store with their "old" toy and tell the clerk, "I want to give another little boy or girl a good birthday/Christmas present, too!" That way, my house wasn't always over-loaded with toys from grandparents. :) ;)

Answer 5

We use different containers like the gallan-sized ice cream buckets for barbie shoes/clothes, or army men, or cars, or those plastic containers you mentioned for the larger type toys, however, try building some shelves in the play room, label the bin/container with what type of toy it is, then put it on the shelf. The child can get out one container to play with, then if he or she wants more toys, they have to pick up the ones they were just playing with, put them back in that bin, and then you can get the next one down for her. Works well!!! Put the containers up high where they can't reach them. I have a children ages 6,4,1, and one coming soon.

Answer 6

I bought a buffet table at one of those home made wood stores (Just Cabinets is the name). This is what I use for my toy box in my living room. It just looks like a piece of furniture until you open it up. We were able to paint it any color we wanted. We also put the kids' hand prints on there on each of their birthdays. It is wonderful because it has doors instead of a lift top. We have also bolted it to our wall. For the little toys, I to little storage bins and am able to slide them in and out.

Answer 7

Try Home Depot or Lowe's. They usually have sets of storage totes for under $10. If all else fails, get rid of some of the toys. If you're anything like me, you buy something cute everytime you see it, then run out of space. Don't let your kids see you go through the toys though, they'll try to keep everything.

Answer 8

There are shelves you can buy that come with plastic boxes on them - for sorting. You usually find them in primary colors. Like this...

http://www.bizchair.com/13809-wdd.html

We just used the plastic bins pretty much - and we got the flatter ones - so we could shove them under the bed.

Also - I don't know if you have stuffed animals that never get looked at (but the tears start if you talk about getting rid of them). If you do - you can get this great thing - it looks like a net - and you stretch it across a corner and throw all of the animals in it. Then you haven't thrown them away - but you gotten them out of the way.

You have kids that are 1,2,5 and 4 and you have time to be on Yahoo! Answers?? I'm impressed!

Answer 9

For our son's larger toys, we have a deck storage box from Sears. It's large, plastic, and fits perfectly at the end of his twin bed. Granted, it was about $60, but it holds A BUNCH of toys.

For smaller things, I bought an over-the-door shoe storage thing at Wal-Mart for like, $10, and that works great. It hangs on the back of his bedroom door, and is completely out of sight.

Answer 10

we have a wooden toy box with a lid that works well...close it and no one has to see all the toys. I found it at an amish country store. I also found that the nylon mesh laundry bags that you can buy at target or walmart work great for small toys. they are pretty much see thru and have a zipper to close and they come in different sizes.