About a year ago, my house looked like this.
And I realized I had to do some serious toy purging, furniture rearranging, and some major cleaning out to do.
Our house seriously lacks storage space, so we had to get creative with storage solutions. We wanted Chloe’s toys to be easily accessible for her, easy for us to pick up, and for our house to be clutter free. In April, my husband installed laminate flooring throughout our upstairs so we took the opportunity to really clean the house and go through Chloe’s toys. Anything that she had outgrown was cleaned and packed away for future children, and some of the toys she didn’t play with quite as much were taken downstairs (which we are turning into a play room). Our living room and dining room has an open concept, so we turned the area between the couch and dining room into a little play area for Chloe.
This is the most played in area of our house, so it gets messy quickly but it’s also very easy to clean. Almost everything goes in a bin or a shelf, and Chloe is really great about helping us pick up her toys at bedtime and putting them where they belong.
– 9 cube organizer from Target
– Baskets from Target and BRU hold diapers, diaper wipes, play food and other toys
– KidKraft corner play kitchen — this was a Christmas gift, and is the most played with item in our house!!
– Melissa and Doug Pots and Pans
– Little People Princess House
– Apron from IKEA
– Stuffed Strawberry from IKEA
– ABC Bucket from Target
On the other side of our living room, we keep Chloe’s arm chair and her baby’s crib. It’s filled to the brim with her stuffed animals that she “puts to bed.” I counted 11 stuffed animals in there after taking this photo.
In her bedroom, have another storage cube. This 8-cube expedit shelf is from IKEA. We added legs to the shelf to give it more height. This shelving unit holds more toys, stuffed animals, shoes and books.
1. Grey bin is from Target, and holds more stuffed animals.
2. Pink bin is from BRU and holds all of her shoes
3. Pink Piggy bank is from Things Remembered
4. Cool Mist Humidifier is from BRU. We hardly use the humidifier, but Chloe loves the stars it casts on her ceiling at night!
5. Gilded blocks spell W-I-S-H and are from Cabin7
6. Gold crown is from Kirklands
7. Pink bird canvas print is from Pier 1
With little closet space, we quickly became huge fans of storage shelving and baskets. It helps keep the clutter off the floor, and makes picking up toys so much easier for us. There is also a toybox in Chloe’s bedroom, and we keep more toys in our game room that’s slowly being converted into a play room.
How do you organize toys in your home?
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
When she got her big girl bed, we got 4 rolling under bed totes. Its great because they each have a “set” of toys that fit on her bookshelf. Every few weeks we get out a new set of toys!
pomegranate / 3414 posts
Toy storage is a huge issue in our house. Right now they are sort of all over: plastic storage tub holds most but we also have books, puzzles and baby toys on the coffee and end tables. We’re looking to get some cube shelves like you have but need to find ones that fit under our living room windows because that is the only place we can put them.
With a twin bed, crib, and dresser in the kids there isn’t any room for toys aside from a small cube bookshelf.
grapefruit / 4187 posts
We did something very similar although we don’t even have room for the shelves that you added. We have almost no ‘real’ closet space and floor space is limited too, so large round baskets work best for us. They are a little too high for a baby to reach into, but they’ll have to do since we don’t really have any other options. They are large and hold a ton of things, I like that you can just throw everything into them and walk away. We also have tall Ikea billy bookshelves in our living room against the wall and I cleaned out the bottom compartments for all of future LO’s books and made space for square baskets like the ones you have to also hold more toys. We actually have room for more large baskets if needed and we can invest in a storage ottoman style coffee table in the future if we’re feeling really desperate.
guest
love these organizational ideas! so perfect for toy storage!
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Ooh! Very nice
I don’t really have DD’s toys organized! I can’t wait until we build our house and the kids get a play room!!!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
I love how you added legs to the Ikea shelf!