10 Genius Ways to Store Toys

Ashley Marcin — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 15:00:25 +0000

Your kid's toys can quickly take over if you don't have a great organization system. Sometimes all you need are a few bins or boxes to whip your place into shape. Here are a few ideas you can try in your own home to restore peace and tranquility to your living spaces. (Related: 25 Cheap and Easy Fixes That Make Your Home Look Amazing)

1. Window Seat

Hide your toy clutter in plain sight with window seat storage. You'll need a couple of those cube storage shelves from a big box store. Line them up under a window, fill the bins with toys, and then use some decorative throw pillows to finish off the look. Bonus points if you label the containers!

2. Shoe Organizer

Is there anything a shoe organizer can't do? We use one in the playroom to hold anything from art supplies to toy zebras. The method is pretty darned easy, too. Simply hang the organizer on a closet door and fill with whatever you need to organize. By the way, I like clear organizers best because your kids can see what's in them.

3. Bath Baskets

Scroll down a bit in the link to see this genius bath toy storage idea. Basically, you pick up one of those hanging three-tiered baskets. I've looked for them in stores, but can only seem to find them on Amazon. Then rig it up in your shower to collect rubber duckies, bath crayons, and all other fun water toys.

4. Puzzle Peace

Puzzles are seriously the bane of my existence. We used to find rogue pieces strewn about until we starting following the bag method. Use quart or gallon zip-top bags when puzzles aren't in use. I've also seen people use pencil bags, boxes, and other containers. No matter what you choose, you won't lose that pesky last piece this way.

5. Storage Mat

We're thinking of getting our daughter her first set of Legos for Christmas this year. And I love this Lego storage mat. You just sew fabric into a round and thread a drawstring through it for gathering. Of course, you could use the mat for storing similar blocks and trinkets. Don't sew so well? (Me neither.) Skip the fancy quilted design and stick with a single piece of fabric. A bed sheet would be an inexpensive option.

6. Hidden Cart

Make this wood storage cart to roll toy clutter under your child's bed. The tutorial describes how to build the low cart from scratch using wood, nails, and basic carpentry skills. I have a better idea! Find a cart at a thrift or antique store that's similar in size (even an old dresser drawer) and add wheels to it.

7. Car Rack

Place all those matchbox cars on the wall instead of in a bucket. I love this IKEA hack idea to take the magnetic knife boards and use them in the playroom. Screw them into the wall and stick up all your cars. This isn't just practical, it will also add some cool decor to the room.

8. Book Slings

I made these book slings when I was still pregnant with my daughter. We've since moved from our old house and into a new one. I'm thinking about trying the tutorial again because I love displaying her books with the faces out versus the binding. To make one sling, just get a couple dowels, some fabric, hemming tape, and wall brackets. You'll fold over the fabric to make a channel to put the dowels through. Then use some anchors to screw your brackets into the wall.

9. Dollar Solution

If you're short on cash, you can still create a great storage system for your child's toys. Head to the Dollar Store or other discount joint and pick up some plastic bins or milk crates. Then make this awesome storage shelf by mounting them all onto the wall in a straight line. You may want to use anchors for extra support.

10. Toy Rotation

Is your place a toy-explosion no matter what you do? Perhaps you just have too many things out at one time. Try these easy steps for toy rotation and organization. Start by dumping all the toys onto the floor (no, really!). Group toys into categories. Figure out what is broken, unused, or can otherwise be purged. Then fill a couple storage containers with a variety of toys and keep them in storage until you're ready to rotate.

How do you keep your kids' gear organized and out of sight?

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This article is from Ashley Marcin of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Stuff will never make you organized

Philip Brewer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:58:34 +0000

There's a store near where I live that sells stuff for organizing your other stuff--racks, boxes, cabinets, and shelves for tools and toys, sweaters and shoes, spices and CDs. They've got a perfect container for anything. But there's only one right time to buy any of that stuff: When the stuff you want to store in it is already organized.

At least, that's my experience--both with my own stuff and with stuff that belongs to people I know.

If I've got two tidy row of shoes on the floor of my closet, and buy a shelf that lets me store those rows one over the other, that works fine: I install the rack, move half the shoes, and I'm done.

If, on the other hand, I've got shoes scattered all over the house--some near the door, some in the bedroom, one pair in my gym bag, the pair I just took off next to the chair where I sat to put on the ones I'm wearing now--then buying that shelf will do me no good at all.

I've seen it happen so many times that I'm prepared to call it a general rule. If you've got all your receipts neatly organized in a shoebox, then it may well make sense to buy a handsome wooden receipt box. But if your receipts are scattered among drawers, tucked into envelopes, folders, and purses, and stacked up with unfiled bank statements, then buying a handsome box will do you no good at all. In fact, it's worse than no good at all: next time you need to gather your receipts you'll have to look in all those old places and your box as well.

I suppose some of you will have counter examples--a cousin's brother-in-law whose garage was always cluttered until he bought a new tool chest and pegboard and now it's all tidy, or a great-aunt whose sewing supplies were a mess until she bought a taboret and organized everything neatly into little drawers. But my experience is that any such result is a rare fluke.

Understand this, and you come out ahead two ways. For one thing, there's some money to be saved here, by not wasting money on "storage solutions" for stuff that's not already organized. But that's not the big win.

The big win from internalizing the rule is that it improves your organization.

Here's the key: Before buying a "storage solution," organize the stuff you're buying it for.

At this point, you're doubly ahead of the game: Your stuff is already organized and you haven't spent any money. If you still want to buy the storage solution, go ahead (at least now that you know exactly what's going to go into it, you know exactly what you need). My own experience, though, is that most of the time it turns out to be entirely satisfactory to use a file, folder, shelf, box, or drawer that I've already got.

There's much to be said for handsome boxes, shelves, cabinets, and racks. Don't hesitate to improve the tools you're already using to keep your stuff organized. Just don't imagine that buying new stuff will help you become organized. The only thing that organizes your old stuff is organizing your old stuff. If you haven't already done that, any new stuff you buy is just more stuff to organize.

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This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: