Toy Storage

Here's another resurrected post from my old blog's archives.

I posted about how we store our large collection of stuffed animals. Someone asked me if I had a tip for the millions and trillions of action figures in their house. Well, yes...yes I do. Here it is...




I've seen these bins at Fred Meyer, Target, Walmart and other stores like that. To my knowledge, they come in primary colors, white/clear, and pink/purple. They aren't expensive. I've seen the white/clear ones as low as $9.99 but they are usually about $15-$20 each. The colored ones usually cost a bit more. They come with caster wheels but I prefer to use them without wheels in this situation; the drawers stay put better.
What I have done is sort out the toys into natural categories and placed each category into a drawer. For example, some of our drawers are sorted by balls, cars, action figures, Legos, Barbie, My Little Pony, Polly Pocket. etc. Some of these categories are too large for a drawer so I've further broken those down into subcategories such as Barbie and Barbie assessories.
Each drawer is labeled making it easy to remember what is in each drawer. There are two benefits to this; the kids can find all the pieces to a collection without having to dig into the bottom of a toy box and they can put their toys away quickly and easily. I have also found that guests can easily help put away toys after a play date as well because it is easy to find where everything goes. If someone doesn't know where something goes, my kids can simply say that it goes in the yellow one on the left or that red one there. I have found that since I've implemented this storage system, it is easier for my children and their friends to pick up after playing. If needed, each drawer can also pull all the way out which makes taking just a few toys to another room for playing easy.
Now, I'm not saying that their room stays clean all the time. We generally try to make picking up their room part of the nightly routine. Over time, though, it does tend to get messier and drawers get stuffed full of things that don't belong. I've found that once every few months, I need to take a day to help my kids sort through their things. We declutter and reorganize when needed. Overall, though, I find that this system works well for us and has lasted us for several years.
If you don't like plastic bins, try doing the same thing with the wooden cubicles that use fabric bins instead. They look very nice.

Stuffed Animal Storage

I wrote this post for my old blog nearly a year ago. It was a great idea at the time and still continues to be so now. I thought I'd pull this one out of the archives and share it again....

I once read an article about children and stuffed animals. She talked about how kids often own many stuffed animals and asked something along the lines of, "What happened to the days when a child had just ONE beloved stuffed animal?" She suggested to her readers that they pair down their child's stuffed animal collection to just one beloved stuffed animal. The child would appreciate the animal more and there would be less clutter to clean.

I thought about her words. I agreed with her words. Oh, how nice it would be to clean a child's room when they have only one stuffed animal that gets lovingly placed on the pillow each morning!

Then reality brought that fantasy to a screetching halt. I have a child who would never part with her stuffed animal collection. She loves stuffed animals more than any other toy. I don't think she could choose 10 to keep let alone just one. I don't think she would EVER forgive me if I donated half of her collection let alone all of it minus one. So what's a stuffed-animal-loving-girl's mom going to do? Create a perfect stuffed animal storage space...

Our Stuffed Animal Zoo

click for larger view

I bought this shelving unit at IKEA. It is part of their gorm collection which comes in two depths; this one is the 20 inch deep shelf. It was $39.99. Because these plain, unfinished pine shelving is meant more for the garage than a child's bedroom, I prettied it up by painting it with bright blue enamal paint designed for a kids room. Then I purchased 1/2" wide elastic. Using a staple gun, I stapled the elastic to the top of the top shelf, stretched it slightly, and stapled it to the bottom of the third shelf down before cutting the extra elastic. (This gave me two shelves for stuffed animals. You could easily staple under any shelf you want, give you as few or as many shelves you need.) I repeated this every 3 inches or so, creating "bars" all the way around. I left the back side against the wall undone.

Our new stuffed animal zoo works perfectly. It holds the stuffed animals in so that they don't fall out. It is easy to put the stuffed animals in...just push them through the "bars". It is easy for the kids to get their stuffed animals out...just reach in, grab the animal you want, and pull it through the "bars". I've placed a basket on the bottom stuffed animal shelf to hold clothing (some of our animals wear clothes on occasion) and tiny animals that fall out of the zoo.

These shelving unit is large so the bottom shelves are a perfect place for storing larger toys. I love this solution and I think the IKEA shelving is perfect for it. You could easily adapt any shelving unit or bookcase to hold stuffed animals this way, especially if you don't have quite as many as we do.