So how *organized* are your kiddos' toys? - UPDATE @ 20

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

DD has so many toys with small pieces, and she LOVES small (we're talking teeny tiny) stuff to the extent that she'll carry around a dime-sized toy for days (good pincer grasping, though!). Problem is, I frankly cannot get them organized. I actually, often, just end up sweeping them up and putting them in baskets. Is that awful? Am I doing irreparable harm to her? I know my own psyche is suffering, but I'm not sure how the heck to organize this minutiae <she says sitting at her crazy crazy desk>.

[earthmama369]

I'm thinking about renting a bulldozer for their room.

[elsie]

Well I like small containers for small things. I have a few I picked up at the container store and tend to organize things by type - all the tiny shoes go in one box, all the fairies go in a bigger box, all the mermaids have their own space and all the tiny doll clothes in another. You can also use things like ziplocs and other bags so that you can see what is in each thing. I have one DD that just loves all that tiny stuff and we try our best to keep it together. However, I often find small purses filled with random small things.

[marimara]

I do various containers as well. All of dd's toys have a home of their home.

Dolls go in the cradle or rocking chair.

Stuffed animals live on the shelf at her bed.

All play food has it's own containers. I get thrifted stainelss steel or wood bowls, or baskets that I make or buy. Acorns in one, strawberries in another. Cookies on one tray, cupcakes on another.

Doll house things are stored in the doll house.

Tiny fairies and little dolls and accessories are stored in a small wooden box w/lid.

Blocks are in big basket.

Legos are in one drawer in her closet, in one of those 3 drawer rubbermaid thingies.
Top drawer is Mr. Potato head stuff.
bottom drawer is little people and other little figures.

Another basket holds all the Schleich figures and dinosaurs.

Puzzles and games go in the armoire in the living room.

She has her own 2 bookshelves in the living room for her books.

Homeschooling/arts and crafts supplies go in an Ikea organizer shelf in various cubbies, baskets, bins and shelves.

Caveat:
I have to straighten this daily though. If it is a mess she doesn't like to play with it.

[sncmom]

We use baskets and bins. For Xmas last year, I asked all of our relatives for gift certificates to Land of Nod and used them to buy our playroom storage. It was just too expensive otherwise. Several people were a little bummed with that request, but once they saw how nice the playroom looks now (and how much easier it is to clean) they understood. I also think it makes it much easier for the kids to keep things organized if there are specific places for everything. Just my Type-A 2 cents.

[cappuccinosmom]

Small sets have their own containers here.

Each boy h as a set of matchbox cars, and each one has a box for their cars. Blocks are in the block box. Legos in the lego box, etc. Any game that's been played with has to be returned to it's box before the next box can be emptied and played with.

[Fairy4tmama]

Take my .02 for what it's worth as I am organizationally challenged. I have tried keeping toys by smaller subcategories and it has resulted in frustration for the kids and myself so here is the middle ground that I have come up with. For our legos, lincon logs and playmobile (think pollypocket for boys...thousands of tiny accessories) I use a medium rubermaid bin and every thing goes in it with a quilt folded on top so if the boys want to play with it or dump the bin to find something they spread the quilt out on the floor and play on top then clean up is a snap just lift blanket at the corners and pour back into bin, fold blanket and replace lid.

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

Originally Posted by Fairy4tmama

Take my .02 for what it's worth as I am organizationally challenged. I have tried keeping toys by smaller subcategories and it has resulted in frustration for the kids and myself so here is the middle ground that I have come up with. For our legos, lincon logs and playmobile (think pollypocket for boys...thousands of tiny accessories) I use a medium rubermaid bin and every thing goes in it with a quilt folded on top so if the boys want to play with it or dump the bin to find something they spread the quilt out on the floor and play on top then clean up is a snap just lift blanket at the corners and pour back into bin, fold blanket and replace lid.

Now that's my kind of organization!!!!!

We tried the container route, but what totally made sense to ME made NO sense to DD in terms of categorization. I do occasionally just take the waste bin in and toss stuff (I know that's awful.). She's really into blocks these days, and they have their own thing, and books are on the shelf. The oodles of stuffed animals, which rotate in and out of favor, are in a big rolling basket in the closet. And the puzzles are in an under-bed drawer. The little stuff? Ugh. I just, like I said, scoop it up into the previously categorized baskets.

[Fairy4tmama]

Originally Posted by AndVeeGeeMakes3

We tried the container route, but what totally made sense to ME made NO sense to DD in terms of categorization.

yep that was our problem as well, also once my kids have taken out 1500 different playmobile pieces to play with they get overwhelmed at the prospect of sorting them and would rather have it go to timeout them clean it up. The blankets have also helped give them a defined area to keep said 5 gazzilion pieces while playing so that they aren't as likely to be strewn around the.entire.house!

[ParisApril]

I have toys sorted into categories. Most are kept in wicker baskets or clear plastic bins.

Lego
Lincon Logs
Dinky Cars
Trains
Doctor's Kit
Dollhouse
Schleigh
Puzzles
Board Games
Crafts

DD(11) is great at keeping these organized. DS(almost 5) needs help.

[zoebird]

our guy is only 21 months, and he doesn't have a lot. 1 basket of soft toys, 1 basket of instruments, one container of blocks, a small box for his tops, a small box for his wooden train, his drum, his uke (uke goes on the mantle, drum is where he can access it next to his instrument basket), and his books (nice books out of reach, with art supplies; cardboard books in reach.

we try to keep toys down to a minimum.

[BeanyMama]

Little things and games have their owns bins or baskets on bookshelves. They're in height-reach of who they're available to. We have one big toy box that gets weeded when the lid won't shut easily and a basket of toddler toys.

[wife&mommy]

What about something like this...

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...LYT6lwf_y_XLBw

Or this...

http://hometipsandtricks.net/wp-cont...rs-300x300.jpg

or even just something like this....

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...D4Gclgf26tnLBw

or this

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...KoK0lQfXqJDkBw

[RollerCoasterMama]

For my own sanity, and to help DS put things away again, I try to really limit how many toys are in the house and keep them organized.

The bulk of his toys.
On the shelves: one basket of blocks, one basket of wooden animals, one basket of his musical instruments. Plus what you can see. In the playstands: a basket of playfood, a basket of balls, a basket of misc bits that don't fit other places.

There is a medium size bin in the closet of puzzles.

Plus his room.
This is all of his books and stuffed animals (recently thinned out).

Random cubbies for random things, plus the basket of playsilks and his few dress-up things.

And his dollhouse/doll-bed.
There's not much in the closet.

What you see in the pictures is what we've got. Whenever it gets overwhelming, I go through and evaluate what's being played with. Since it's all out in the public areas, I feel much saner with everything having it's own place.

[seim.ge]

These pictures are a little old, but the basic setup is still the same.

Musical instruments stay in a basket, while push toys/walking toys go in a line on the wall, parking lot style.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../playroom1.jpg

Wooden cars and animals/peg people for the dollhouse go in the white shelves. I've since added a row of little baskets for pine cones, rocks and shells. (...and a doll house! ) Tray puzzles go under the white shelves.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../playroom2.jpg

You can kind of see the doll area in the last pic. The dolls stay in their bed or highchair. Kitchen items are in a crate inside the kitchen. Blocks live in a basket under the shelves, elemental stackers go on the shelves.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../playroom3.jpg

Elsewhere in the house, we have more books stored in spice racks we found at IKEA. They mount onto the wall to save space. The dress up lives on hooks and a small shelf in the entry way (since DS likes to wear his dress up out of the house, and why fight it lol). We have a train table that rolls under our bed, and a small collection of stuffed animals lined up along the wall under the window. Art supplies live on the easel on the patio in a crate, balls get kicked into the hall closet every day.

And that's it! It's obviously much, much easier to organize things with only one kid. =]

[O's mommy]

seim.ge~where did you find a train table that goes under the bed?

[USAmma]

My girls are 6 and 9 and share a very very small room with no closet. Their room was made smaller recently with them taking their bunk beds apart. They each have a couple of under bed storage containers and whatever they can fit in there they can keep. They are semi organized but not really. They also each have one shelf in their wardrobe for their stuff, and one small wall mounted shelf for fragile/decorative things. The stuffed animals were purged so that they have to fit their collection into a laundry basket each, and those are stored out of the room in a cupboard and they can exhange them as needed for sleeping with. (Hope to get rid of a whole lot of them eventually!)

My oldest dd has her clothes hanging in the small wardrobe and two bins below for her shorts and her underclothes. My youngest has a small wheeled clothes hanger rack against one wall and a bin with her underclothes/shorts under it. Thankfully they wear uniforms during the school year so they don't need a lot of play and dress clothes.

The games and puzzles go in the main room in the TV/entertainment center area.

The room is a mess most of the time, but easy to clean up fast when needed. I don't' care that their stuff is organized as long as it's able to fit into their bins and be pushed out of sight. ;-) And I want the clothes off the floor. About once a year I do a purge with them and ask that they fill up a medium sized box with any junk or toys they don't need anymore, or if their stuff has grown beyond the capacity of the bins.

They key is to not accumulate too much in the first place. I swear those stuffed animals breed and multiply!

[laurabfig]

Similar to others- I want to be organized but struggle to keep systems in place. Our basic system for the kids' room- which is small- is this:
-bookshelf for books and kid games (some games go in the living room on bookshelves- the ones we play as a family)
-2 under bed storage baskets from ikea under the bunk beds that store bigger toys (doll stroller folded up, trucks, etc.) and dress-up clothes
-a plastic 3-drawer chest (rubbermaid?) that holds the "junk" toys. This I go through every now and then and purge a lot of. But it is a great place to just throw the "non-organized" smaller toys.
-a basket of legos
-a drawer of art supplies
-a drawer of doll clothes
-a mesh basket full of stuffed animals/dolls

I do like the idea of using wall space as storage. Like hanging dress-up clothes on hooks, and using slings for displaying books.

I wouldn't worry if the miniscule toys are not organized. Keeping them that way is more trouble than it is worth, imo.

[clutterwarrior]

I feel your pain...sorting toys is always a struggle for me, causes some sort of low level brain irritation doing it. I think I am just not anal like that and not naturally into sorting things!

Basically I do have the lego separate, the art supplies in shoeboxes, and we have a big bucket for all the long pointy things that little boys like to play with (anyone with boys will know what I mean!)

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

SOLUTION: Have friend who is not emotionally attached to child's minutiae, but who has a child of her own (and is thus moderately compassionate to those sensibilities), volunteer to come over and clean said room. Do not hesitate when she asks for the broom and dustpan -- just get it for her. Do not pay attention to the crap that she sweeps up and deems unworthy -- just open the trash bin. (I did rescue a couple of sticker pages. ) Marvel at the tidiness that emerges when a dispassionate agent imposes order.

Thank her profusely and bake her a loaf of lentil bread.

Problem solved.

(Laugh at daughter who asks, incredulously, "Why is my room clean?")