Our primary play space is integrated with our living room so it needs to remain neat and organized. One large wall contains lots of Ikea Billy bookshelves. The other wall contains a few of the bookshelves but with doors in the front. We have the doors that can be decorated so we have a happy fabric covering them. Almost all of the toys are stored, sort of Montessori-style, so that they can be seen and selected and played with and can be returned to there shelves and aren't jumbled about. I think this gives each toy a certain amount of respect and certainly makes it more attractive when all its pieces are visible and available. It also helps clean up. I don't actually like bins. I just wish we had another storage area that would allow us to rotate toys rather than keep them all together. Toys I don't like or don't actively promote (you know the ones), extra art supplies, and goodies are stored in My Secret Closet Of Mystery.
You can buy willow basked or canvas buckets (like those used in the Expedit above) but they tend to take up too much room so we have some clear plastic, lidded, hinged containers that fit exactly into the fairly narrow shelves from Container Store. I don't like the plastic but they are pretty neutral and since you only see them when the doors are open, they don't bother me that much. The containers house tracks/little cars/play food/duplo blocks.
The Billy bookcase is really narrow and doesn't take up much room plus I love the custom doors. A few things won't fit there and are stored randomly wherever I can cram them.
I've been thinking about the canvas bins - are those unacceptable in a Waldorf playroom?
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