Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Toy Storage Solutions?

This happens to me occasionally: I get an idea for something and then I can't rest until I come up with a solution. With Ella's birthday coming up and the new baby due in December, I need some affordable solutions for toy storage. I've followed the advice to put away toys that my daughter has grown out of and I rotate toys in and out, but I'm still left with the puzzle of organizing the toys we do have out.

I need some toy storage ideas that will work in our family room. It's important for Ella to be able to see the toys and easily access them or she won't play with them. I've seen some cool storage units online, but I don't have $150 plus to organize toys right now. The biggest problem is the mid-sized toys, like the little people vehicles, and a way to keep the toys organized so they aren't jumbled into a big pile and don't overrun the space. I have the books and puzzles on a shelf in her room and the stuffed animals and dolls in fabric bins, but I'm not sure what to do with the remaining toys.

Does anyone have any suggestions for toy organization that's worked well in their home? I'd love to hear any ideas!*Rebecca made a good point about cost, so here's my addition for today. If you have a solution that does cost $150 or more, I'm interested as well. I just don't want to randomly buy and expensive unit.

1 comment:

Rebecca Pierce said...

I don't have any suggestions that would cost less than $150. Well, maybe I do...hmmmmm...check out this post. It seems to me, you could buy some kind of old piece like this for pretty cheap and make it really presentable and accessible. The nice thing with what we chose for our toy storage is that we can lock down our toys when we don't want free reign. We never do this when it is just us, but you know how some kids (this isn't a bad thing, just not what my kids do) will want to dump EVERYTHING out just because? Well, when we have playdates or whatever, I'll pull out a decent amount of the toys that the kids would want to play with and we make a big mess with just those...and leave the rest in their place. I bet with a few Labor Day garage sales, you might find something decent...if you have the time to pretty them up!