Trofast Storage from IKEA

[lovemyfamily6]

We've moved our "big kid" playroom upstairs to keep all the older kid stuff away from the 15 month old. His stuff is in the old playroom on the main floor. I feel like we started way too late with the older boys, not asking for help until they were around 3, and we're paying for it now with cleaning up being more difficult. I want to do it better this time around and would like to find a great storage system right away. We use white bins for all the other toys upstairs, but I'd kind of like a more furniture-like look for the main floor. My friend suggested the Trofast stuff.

If you have it, do you recommend it? If not, what don't you like about it? Can it be anchored to the wall? I can see it being a climbing structure (wouldn't prefer that, but it could happen and I'd want him to be safe).

Is there something you'd recommend instead? I see that you can either buy one for $124 that has bins included or $99 that doesn't have bins. If you don't use the bins that came with it, what do you use?

How do you organize yours?

Thanks!!

[Penuche]

I don't have it, but every time go to IKEA, my two year old climbs it. I think it looks neat, but that's kept me from buying it.

[lactivist]

We have it and my kids climb it all the time and sit on the top. It isn't anchored (most everything else is) because it isn't wiggling at all and seems safe. My 10yo (100 lbs) sits on it and it doesn't even creak. We have had ours for years and it has held up really well. It changed my son's ability to clean his own room. I love my trusty trofast!

Wendi

[leerypolyp]

We have the low units, and they are very, very solid. I figure when she outgrows them they can become entryway benches or something, with cushions on top -- they're that sturdy. I like that they're solid wood, no particle board.

The only thing I don't love is that sometimes the plastic bins slip out of their tracks a little (sometimes they're not quiiiite wide enough) but the wooden shelves stay in fine.

You can anchor anything to the wall -- you just need a little L-shaped bracket and some long wood screws. Since trofasts are solid wood, you can just screw it in wherever you like, and then attach another screw to a stud in the wall.

[tuck]

We have lots and love them all! In my son's room we have the tall cabinet with red doors on the bottom, shelves on both top and bottom. Right beside that we have the lower piece with 4 blue drawers, and beside that another one of the same height with a red door. We opted for shelves inside that too as we didnt need the little hanger thing. We have the tall cabinet attached to the wall.
In our family room/homeschool room we have 2 of the lower units, with the space underneath for ( 3 blue) pull out bins. I just switched to smaller sized bins and it wasnt expensive to do it. Mounted on the wall we have the little 6 bin unit. I havent seen that one on the website but it was only 35 dollars and its adorable! My ds has labeled each bin and now they hold pencils/erasers, a rescue boat, Bob books, playsilks, magnet stuff, and little animals. He LOVES switching these around and for some reason , maybe because we hung it eye level, he uses it often. The lower 3 bin units are a great size to play on. Two together have made a table like area thats about 6 feet by 15 inches, and ds often sits there with a book, or uses it to make a marble run, etc. Without the bins they can be used for books. And they were a cinch to put together!

[DTmama1]

I bought the TROFAST system a week ago and am LOVING it! We spent around $1000 and got units for 3 different rooms. My 8yo has one tall one with drawers on bottom and hangers on top, then next to it is one which is half the height and has two sideby side. One has drawers in it, the other has shelves with tubs on them. Above that is the stairstepped unit with half bins half shelves.

6yo has just the half unit and stairstepped on top of it (one set of drawers, one set of tubs on shelves, and mix on the stairstepped)

Toy room has two of the shortest ones with tubs in them.

Next we want to buy 4 more of the shortest ones, they work perfectly for the short spots in our cape cod! Possibly a few more things as well. Will be werid to have a house of IKEA, but I like that it is interchangeable since with foster care we never know what ages/sexes we'll have and have to move bedrooms around, and we havent had much other luck with finding things that work in our upstairs, so I like it.

[lovemyfamily6]

I guess my ony problem is the bins aren't see through. I like that right now with our bins on the floor, even though you can't see through them, you can look in them without moving anything and see what's in them. Has anyone found that to be a problem?

Also, can you put shelves on them instead of the plastic bins? At my boys preschool, I notice their toys are all on shelves. Some are in a bin on the shelf, but many are just on the shelf itself. I wonder if we could do something like that?

I saw a bookshelf at target.com yesterday that I really like. It has two shelves and then three cubbies on the top, but it didn't get very good reviews and people said it was kind of small. That would be an idea too though.

[lactivist]

I am not sure about shelves but we label our buckets with the p-touch labeler. That way we can see on the front of each bucket what is in it.
Wendi

[hollyvangogh]

Originally Posted by lactivist

I am not sure about shelves but we label our buckets with the p-touch labeler. That way we can see on the front of each bucket what is in it.
Wendi

I've also seen systems in which parents/day cares/whoever take pictures of what is supposed to go in the bin and put the pictures on the front. That way even children who don't read yet can know where things go.

[moodymaximus]

we have it, and one of the reasons we bought it, was for the kids to climb on it! we have it against the wall, two units next to each other to form a staircase. it is very sturdy, no anchoring required. and we love the "double function"

[ashleyhaugh]

Originally Posted by hollyvangogh

I've also seen systems in which parents/day cares/whoever take pictures of what is supposed to go in the bin and put the pictures on the front. That way even children who don't read yet can know where things go.

thats how we did it when i worked at a daycare.

i was just coming to post this question, we're thinking about getting some for ds's room

[kittywitty]

I bought the system with 3 steps and I have 6 white bins. They're pretty see through. That's where we keep our blocks, dinos, food toys, etc. I love it. On top, my kids don't climb. I let each one put some of their special stuff on it to seperate it from the other kids.

[2lil'monkeys]

We have the Expedit bookcase from Ikea for my son's toys.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50103086

He has the world's SMALLEST bedroom and our house isn't big enough to have a playroom, so we have to keep all his toys in his room. They all fit on the bookcase, which fits in his closet. I keep all his clothes in his dresser (it's too much work to hang them anyway!). Here's a pic of his closet:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...r/P8080122.jpg

His room always looks nice and neat with the toys put away and the closet doors closed!

[lovemyfamily6]

That's a nice bookshelf too. Are those fabric bins in it?

I think I have dh convinced to get Trofast. Probably not until next year as we are trying to paint, get curtains, lots of other things that take priority right now, but he does like the idea.

I'm glad to hear the Trofast stuff is so sturdy and durable. Now we just need to see which setup is best for us.

[chantald]

We have it. I LOVE it. It is about 2 years old now. Sometimes the littlest one climbs it.. but not usually. It has held up so well. Even the bins, which I thought would snap or break, have not and they have been stood upon!

We have two sets.. stairs up.. stairs down.. Absolutely love them

[lovemyfamily6]

Originally Posted by chantald

We have it. I LOVE it. It is about 2 years old now. Sometimes the littlest one climbs it.. but not usually. It has held up so well. Even the bins, which I thought would snap or break, have not and they have been stood upon!

We have two sets.. stairs up.. stairs down.. Absolutely love them

Alright alright. All the rave reviews are going to make me not want to wait until next year!

What system do you all have? The one I had in mind looks like stair steps but apparently they have all sorts of set ups.

[tbone]

Wow, now I really want to go get the Trofast! I've been trying to decide what to get to keep their toys in now that we're moving them all to ds's room.

[Katie Bugs Mama]

We've had the stairstep one for about five years now, and it's great. It's incredibly solid -- I've even stood on it once or twice (I'm short, but no light weight) and it hasn't wobbled even a little.

What I really like about the stairstep model is that you can use the top as three separate shelves, so you have even more organizing potential. We keep magazines on one, activity books on another, and construction paper on the third.

[ollineeba]

We have two- one for dd and one for ds. We love them. Keeps things very organized & I love all the different compartments. Ds has the staircase style and dd has the long, bench style one.

[AbbieB]

I love it!

We have 2 stairs and a low bench. I want to get another bench and 2 of the wall shelf units for things like markers and tiny math manipulatives that I want to keep the baby out of. I bought some of the shelves for the bench unit and we have been using as puzzle and boxed games storage (books get snuck in too). The other units hold buckets with toys.

I love how sturdy they are. DD uses it as toy storage, a desk, stairs to her loft bed, a night stand, a play house, etc... I also like the modern/utilitarian look of the furniture. It's the kids room I wanted as a kid (thanks to all of my moms 1970's modern design magazines and books).

DD also has the loft bed that kinda matches. We have the bench under the bed and a stair unit next to it (against a wall). It looks really nice and kid friendly.