Organizing toys

[*Kelly*]

What is your method? HOW do you keep your kiddos things organized. *pics would be fab*

My 4yo has more trucks, cars, trains, books, puzzles, balls, you name it.. I'm having a hard time keeping it organized so he knows where things are and doesn't dump every cube out.

Help, suggestions, ideas are appreciated!

[.Megan.]

I can't offer any help or suggestions because we are going through the same thing! I can't wait to see what the others say.

[Designer Ali]

I use lots of baskets. They match my decor so things can be hidden. Her art stuff is mixed in with mine which is in the guest closet organized with Target plastic bins. I had issues getting pictures on this post without them being ginormous... so here are links if you'd like to see what I've got going on in our house.
http://s694.photobucket.com/albums/v...t=IMG_0834.jpg
http://s694.photobucket.com/albums/v...t=IMG_0830.jpg
http://s694.photobucket.com/albums/v...t=IMG_0831.jpg
http://s694.photobucket.com/albums/v...t=IMG_0832.jpg

[newfiemountiewife]

I have a huge shelving unit that my DH built. On the bottom of each piece (there are 3) is a space big enough for 2 large Rubbermaid containers. So we have a Polly Pocket container, LPS container, Duplo container, Dora container, and 2 Little People containers.

Each of those pieces have shelves, we have two shelves of books, a shelf for DVDs, a shelf for Puzzles, etc. We also have a big set of bins like this, except in primary colors.



Each bin is divided up, we have one for balls, one for Musical instruments, one for figurines (like little Disney Princesses or mini Barbies), one for cars.

Each kid has their own toy box in their room, and keep whatever they want in them. Rae actually has a set of Backyardigans bins instead in her room.

Each girl has a Barbie pull along trunk, with all of their Barbies and accessories in them.

Benjamin has a Lego Table in his room, that Tony built, with 3 big baseplates to build on. He has 8 small drawers underneath, but any Lego sorting has long since been abandoned LOL

[meganmecrazy]

I have baskets, bins, etc. but yet all the toys remain scattered throughout the whole house so I wish I had some advice for organization!

[Voodoo_Bryn]

Seriously. And girl mommies need not answer. It's a WHOLE different ballgame with boys, LOL!!! >.<

[newfiemountiewife]

LOL I have a boy!

It helps to have a room just for toys, so they are not all over the house

[Emmy]

Most everything has a home in either a basket or bin. Baskets are from Ikea and fit in our expedit bookshelves, bins are inexpensive plastic ones (Sterilite I think) that we got from Walmart and two of them stack on top of each other to fit in a cubby of the same bookshelves.

Mr. Potato head has a bin. Duplos live in 4 baskets. Legos are in bins by type. Action figures are in a bin. Little people and their small accessories are in a large bin. Wood food in a bin, play dishes in another bin. *everything* that is part of some great set or identifiable group goes in a bin. Anything that does NOT go in a bin goes in the respective child's "toy bucket". Each kid has one toy bucket for random toys. When it's full, they have to clean it out and make room because they can't have a second random toy bucket (IMO 80% of the things in the "random" toy bucket are crap).

We have Ikea expedit bookshelves in 3 rooms of the house.

[sevenupps]

We do baskets and bins too but I totally can relate to the boy aspect! My daughter loves to organize but the boys need to be "motivated". You still have to get on them to actually use the organizing stuff.

[Sharon Kay]

well now my boys are teenagers...so no pictures...best thing...plastic tubs...and "rotate" the toys in and out of the room...that way you don't get a disaster with too many toys everywhere. They can only spread out...what you give them...and nothing more. lol

[schock77]

I think girls are worse! Our trouble is the TONS of stuffed animals and baby dolls. Of course, my son had TONS of action figures and video games, but those easily fit in a bin. We still have a basket of stuff in the living room, but I hope to get rid of it soon!

This is the office where we did have a toy basket- it now holds only stuffed animals. I love the "busted" look they have- I was getting everything in bins and they were "caught" playing in the remains!


This is the toy closet where we keep the bins- we've got them grouped as best we can, dress ups, animals, transportation, action figures, games and puzzles, etc. You can see they were messing with the top shelves, but at kast we can close this door and not see the mess!



HTH!

[KirstieGai]

We have a big bookshelf as well as big buckets. No matter how organised it is the kids will always mix it all up anyway LOL!

[mom2peanuts]

Polly Pockets and Pet Shop toys are the worst. My girls have 2 plastic containers full of them. Try gathering all those little shoes and outfits, it takes forever. And keeping the Polly Pockets separated from the Pet Shop toys is another challenge.

[Leah]

We rotate our toys, so every 3 months or so, we bring out new ones and it's like Christmas all over again.

Also, I find that less is best. My kids have their favorites, Barbies, Trucks, etc., so I always have a few of those out. I also try and have one thing that is consistent, like our play kitchen. But I rotate the food and the dishes.

I have a daycare in our home, so if I just let them have everything, my house would be complete and utter chaos and it would drive me nuts.

If you have too many toys, it's overwhelming for kids and they don't know what to play with first - so they play with everything, all at one. LOL

[MamaBee]

I learned a tip from my son's physical and speech therapist... using those small laundry bags that you would use to wash separates or if your child is old enough, using zipper bags that come when you buy drapes or bedding... works awesome. And if we need to go on a trip, just grab a couple of bags and go.

[meganmecrazy]

We do baskets and bins too but I totally can relate to the boy aspect! My daughter loves to organize but the boys need to be "motivated". You still have to get on them to actually use the organizing stuff.

OMG! I must have strange children! It's my DD who doesn't want any part of organizing or keeping things picked up. My son on the other hand does have some of those action figures throughout the house but he will pick things up and put things where they belong if I tell him. Aubrey on the other hand rolls her eyes or growls at me when I ask her to do such things!

[meganmecrazy]

Polly Pockets and Pet Shop toys are the worst. My girls have 2 plastic containers full of them. Try gathering all those little shoes and outfits, it takes forever. And keeping the Polly Pockets separated from the Pet Shop toys is another challenge.

EXACTLY!!! I hate those little itty bitty toy pieces!

[Teresa]

As a new mommy of only a 3 month old....you guys are seriously scaring me. LOL I can't imagine dealing with all those toys! I'm already going nuts with just the few we have already.

[meganmecrazy]

As a new mommy of only a 3 month old....you guys are seriously scaring me. LOL I can't imagine dealing with all those toys! I'm already going nuts with just the few we have already.

YES! Be scared, be very scared! LOL! Oh, just wait, your going to LOOOOOOVE it! LOLOLOL!

[jaylensmom]

we have a toy box with storage containers underneath...we have bins (with rollers) that i got from the container store...he has a desk with storage...but there is still stuff everywhere...i think our problem is that he has too many darn toys and everyone keeps buying him stuff (ok i'm guilty too)...plus he has firetrucks and monster trucks that can't go in bins because they are too big...

[newfiemountiewife]

I also have a rule, you aren't allowed to have two things out with "small parts" at the same time. Like, they're not allowed to have the LPS out at the same time as the Pollys. It all gets mixed up and then they can't play with it properly. We clean it up as we go, and at the end of the night, all the kids help tidy up. I never let them go to bed with a mess in their rooms or playrooms, and it works for us! Always tidy!

[jsikardi]

Originally Posted by meganmecrazy

EXACTLY!!! I hate those little itty bitty toy pieces!

I have 2 of those big bins just FULL of transformer pieces and parts. While y'all are picking up polly pocket/barbie shoes I get arms, doors, legs, guards, and blasters all unattached to any given 300 transformer toys.

I divide (because I'm totally type A personality) my bins into Types. I have a bin for trucks, bin for transformers, bin for balls, bin for pirates, bin for dinosaurs, etc

(ha! even my 7 month old gets his own shelf)

I have two of these in our family room -


with baskets similar to these



so that it sort of blends in to the grown up furniture look.

The best advice I have is to have the kiddos help in a 5 minute de-clutter a couple of times a day (or at least once before bedtime) - I set the egg timer for 5 minutes and what gets done, gets done. We can do the rest later (keeps it lower stress for me... and WAY less overwhelming)

But really - good luck!

[jessica31876]

I dont have any toys to organize anymore because my kids dont really play with toys. When they did I had rubbermaid containers with drawers and I had a picture of what went in the drawer as well as the word (lincoln logs, cars, legos, k-nex, barbies, polly pockets etc) I drew the pictures on index cards. Now this didnt stop the kids from dumping them all out but I just made them clean it up if they dumped it out. It worked pretty well for me.