It all started as a rattle and a few stuffed animals but has now grown into heaps of Legos, pretend food, and Matchbox cars. Sound familiar? You may feel like the toy situation in your home is slightly (or majorly) out of control and in need of a little (or a lot) of organization. Not only does an organized play area look nice, but it also allows your children to play and clean up with greater independence. There is hope. Don’t become a victim of the toy monster. Today’s post features five creative ideas for organizing toys.
1. Soda Crate Toy Cart
Holly from Holly Mathis Interiors transformed old soda crates into storage carts for her son’s out-of-control Lego collection by simply adding $1 casters to the bottom. I love the vintage feel of this storage solution and how the sectioned crates allow for additional sorting and organizing. The best part is that these bad boys easily roll under the bed for storage. Holly points out that many containers can be repurposed for unique storage solutions. So very true!
2. Chalkboard Labels
When it comes to organizing, label is the magic word. I am a labeling maniac. My label maker has gotten it’s fair share of use over the years, and I love using my Silhouette to create cutesy labels for pretty much every room in the house. For all you label lovers, Shanna from Swoon Style and Home created her own adorable chalkboard labels to organize her kids’ toys. These are super easy to make and change out as toys are endlessly rearranged and rotated.
3. Game Board Storage Art
We are a game loving family, yet I loathe the boxes they come in. (Yes, loathe. That gives you an idea of the depth of my feelings toward the cardboard atrocities.) In little to no time, they will be creased and torn, and you will inevitably be finding teeny game pieces in all kinds of weird places. When it came time to decorate the walls in our game room, I had a major brainstorm and created this framed game board storage art to hang on the wall. The game pieces are stored on the back, so you simply remove the board from the wall when you’re ready to play. That means you get bright, fun décor for your walls and no more game boxes. Sounds like a win-win to me!
4. Plastic Toy Storage Bags
As kids get older, their toys get smaller and smaller. Ruby from Zaaberry shares a tutorial for making your own decorative plastic bags for storing all those teeny toys that don’t seem to have a home. Kids can easily see what’s inside of the bags, and they are waaay cuter than sandwich baggies.
Dress Up Storage
Kayla is all about playing dress up. Princess dresses, tutus, tiaras… So far we have been able to contain her collection of “pretties” in a fabric storage bin, but I know a day will come when it just won’t cut it anymore. I would love to build a dress up “closet” like this one from Jess at Craftiness Is Not Optional. Her idea is so awesome that Ana White drew up plans for the design. Is this not a little princess’ dream?
If you would like to DIY a more traditional toy box, check out how I made a Wooden Shipping Crate Toy Box.
Pin it to save it for later if you need to after the holidays!
What are your creative toy storage solutions?
Beckie,
When you made the game storage boards a year ago I loved them and thought I would have to give it a try… fast forward almost 1 1/2 years later and now we have a family room. We may drag some of the old games out of the closet this week and see if any can be candidates. Thanks for the reminder!
Aren’t old soda crates the best? We have 3 of them which help contain the “collections” of a teen and a tween!
Have a great weekend!
Love these ideas – especially the game board storage frames to hang on the wall. I would love to do this – what a great idea.
I’m not so much a believer in bins with labels for toys, since we have the preschool set here, and they can’t read! I like shallow baskets on shelves (Montessori-style) or wire crates so that they can see what’s inside. Much easier to get them to clean up that way.
The other thing I am a BIG believer in is toy rotation. My kids have way too many toys for them to have access to all of them at once. I rotate in thirds. At any given time, I have 1/3 of the toys in the playroom and 2/3 in the closet. They get 1 of the 3 sets of blocks at a time (duplos, large cardboard bricks, and unit blocks), 1/3 of the dress-ups, 1/3 of the puzzles, 1 of the 3 large Little People sets, etc. I try to switch them about monthly. They play with things so much more when they get a break from them, and it makes clean up SO much easier.
I especially love the princess dress up storage! So cute!!!
Holy. Crap. I love that soda crate cart!
I love the soda crate idea! This is how I organized our chaos of toys. It has been in place for months and has worked wonderfully.
http://erinscreative.blogspot.com/2011/02/photo-label-tutorial.html
GENIOUS!! The board game idea is amazing! I was trying to come up with a new way to update our play room, totally copy catting you!
Imitation is the highest form of flattery if you ask me. Copy away i would be honored!
I LOVE your game storage idea, and it came at the perfect time. We just started redecorating and, of course that means also, reogranizing my son’s room and playroom. I have the same dilemma. Dilemma solved! Thank you.
So…….cute i love it ♥