How to you organize your kids toys?

[nikandbud]

I have a 2.5 yr old and 4 yr old and I'm in the process of getting rid of some toys and trying to keep the good ones organized. Just wondering what you type of bin, etc you find helpful.

[Jaxinator]

We have a big bucket for art stuff, paper, crayons, markers, that sort of thing, and use big plastic tubs with lids that flap open for big stuff. I like those because the lid doesn't roam around the house, it's always there. We also have smaller colapsable cubes for smaller things. The cubes don't stack well though, they'll... well, colapse. We had bigger cubes too, but got rid of a bunch of toys, and kept using the plastic for the stacking factor. Having different sizes is helpful, big Hess trucks go in the big bins, things with lots of small pieces go in the smaller ones. I found pictures:


http://www.rona.ca/img/product/small/0022066.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NqRTqWH-L.jpg

[flatstanley72]

We use plastic milk-crate-type containers for things like stuffed animals, larger blocks, bags & purses and a variety of smaller baskets for smaller toys like Little People, smaller blocks, etc. I like the look of baskets more than plastic. For us, it works better to have many smaller containers to keep things organized instead of one big toy box. I think the toys get played with more that way because the pieces aren't all lost at the bottom of a toy box and it's easier for the kids to get out only what they want to play with and then put it back in it's basket. Just my two cents.

[jenniferadurham]

Organize? What's this? We use a play pen up against the fireplace bc it's low and DS can dig on in it if we dont keep something in front of it. We've actually never used the play pen for what it's made for. LOL! It's easy to throw all the toys in there at the end of the day. And then we pull it on it's side when we want to build a fort! Fun fuN!

[astrophe27]

Low shelves and a mixture of baskets, easy latching lid tubs, and hard latching lid tubs. I get these at Target.

That way there is a limit to what she can get herself (baskets and easy latching tubs) and then she has to ask me to open the hard latching tubs still at 6.

And I won't open them for her to play with if the other stuff is still strewn around.

Old thing goes back before new thing comes out.

She's gotten slack, so I have to change the easy latches to hard latches.

A.

[sapphire_chan]

She has one low bookcase and the bottom shelves of a couple of our bookcases for toys she can play with whenever (based on whether it's annoying to me to pick them all up although she's quite good at putting things back as she's done with them).

Then she can look at things like board games, beans, water, etc by request.

She's got a TV cart in the kitchen set up as a play kitchen. (Her idea, I just gave her some pots to bang on and she decided to pretend to make soup.)

One corner of the living room has a table with her laptop (she pulls off the keys and we set it to playing music ) and her wagon and dolly stroller (from a neighbor) are parked underneath that table. The wagon holds her puppets, the stroller holds the dolls and their clothes.

Stuffed animals are in a basket.

Books are in a box on the bottom shelf of our TV stand. I took out the middle shelf (it was designed for having say a VCR on one level and a DVD on another) so it's open enough to have the books standing up and facing out. I divided the box into a section for large picture books and a smaller side so her board books don't get lost.

Oh, and we use a mix of plastic tubs and baskets and boxes. I match the container to the amount of the object. Her color tablets, for instance, are in a little 4"x4" tray.

[moss]

bookcases for kits, board games (we stack them sideways like books), books!, toys in baskets, rocks in baskets, fancy boxes full of special things

latch top, see thru, stackable, rubbermaid bins for legos, playmobiles, gears, barbies, farm toys, hotwheels, similarly themed toys that need to be grouped together.

craft supplies live in one of those plastic towers with lots of drawers. it's amazing how much stuff we can store in one of those, and it all stays pretty organized. it's on wheels, so we can pull it over to the table when we need it, and store it in it's spot when we dont. we used to store the craft supplies in a lovely wooden hutch (when we were a mostly plastic-free home), but it just wasnt anywhere near as practical as the plastic tower.

[Katie T]

I have a china hutch in the dining room that has 4 doors across the bottom and almost all the kids toys fit in baskets in there. We have a tote in there with all the train stuff but otherwise it is all just put in baskets and they dig for it. Above that is shelves and across the whole thing are all there books. It spans almost my whole dining room and I love it!

Sitting out is the doll house with a small tote of the pieces and a wooden cradle and stroller along with 2 big tonka trucks who "live" behind the rocker when they are put away.

All the oldest things are in her room of course but the littles don't have a room set up yet since they sleep with us anyways.

[~cassie~]

We have a train table--and I have a long, short plastic tote(about 4-5" high) that holds all train pieces and it fits perfectly under the train table.

-I have a large bucket that holds the big toys.
-I have small bins and a bin shelf thing to hold small toys---play food, blocks, lacing beads, fridge magnets/letters, etc and it has 4 bigger bins in it and that holds the puzzles.
-I have another smallish rubbermain tote that holds all trains and other diecast vehicles and that sits on their dresser.
-Legos are store in a couple of large lego totes-also sits on their dresser where they can't get it down and dump if everywhere. They have to ask me to get it down for them Helps contain the mess being spread all over.
-Board games are stored in the closet in a child proofed cabinet, again so they can't get them all out(mainly the littlest ones) and lose the pieces.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by jenniferadurham

Organize? What's this? We use a play pen up against the fireplace bc it's low and DS can dig on in it if we dont keep something in front of it. We've actually never used the play pen for what it's made for. LOL! It's easy to throw all the toys in there at the end of the day. And then we pull it on it's side when we want to build a fort! Fun fuN!

That sounds pretty good.

I lived in one place where the previous tenant had built a low wooden fence around one corner of the living room. We were going to rip it out, but instead thew all ds1's toys in there (we moved in when he was 1, and out when he was 3). It was great. Even if he got them all over the living room - and he usually didn't, because he'd ask to play in the little "room" inside the fence - we just threw them back in.

[palmgal]

We have a large toy chest with shelves that my in-laws had made for us as a gift. It is great as it holds a lot of stuff, but you can't see what is in the back so things get lost easily. I think that is why the bins work so well.

[rootzdawta]

Moved from Stay at Home Parents.