Organizing Toys



I have been wanting to organize and sort my daughter's toy clutter for a while. There were toys everywhere and it was driving me a bit insane. Especially because all she ever seemed to do is dump everything and go! With baby #2 on the way, I don't want to have to worry about the small pieces of her toys all over the living room floor so I decided it would be best to keep them all in her closet and then she could bring them down one at the time... which is the way I was raised. At this point, I don't think we have enough toys that we need to start thinking about selling / donating either so I just wanted to organize what we already have.

What storage system should I use?



Trofast IKEA storage

 Some people seem to swear by the toy bin system. I am not a big fan. Mostly because the multicoloured bins don't usually match any decor... and it also seems like all my daughter would do is dump all the bins on the floor. Even if there were cute little picture tags in front of them, she would still dump them. So that option was ruled out. Same applies to fabric boxes. I decided to go with shoe boxes (clear boxes). I figured everyone could see the content first hand, the boxes could go on shelves in the closet and it wouldn't matter which direction the boxes faced to show off the little tag with the name or picture of the content on it. Off I went to Home Depot and bought shoe boxes at $1 each and other clear boxes of different sizes.

What needs to be organized?
I assessed the clutter in our living room/kitchen. Markers, crayons, coloring books, play-doh; fruits, veggies, extra pots and pans from her Step2 Lil' Chef's Gourmet Kitchen ; animals, blocks from her Hape Fantasia Blocks Train.

I also assessed clutter in her bedroom. Barbies, barbie accessories, barbie clothes, stuffed animals, polly pockets from when I was younger, dress-up clothes. I went thru all the toys and decided what would stay in the living room and what would go in her bedroom. I put everything in her bedroom that I wanted there and then I decided to tackle the clutter in her bedroom thanks to my new boxes.

How do you organize it?
I sorted items by category. All the Barbies went in one box, accessories in another, dress-up costumes, polly pockets too. I put all the extra fruits and veggies in another box (leaving some in her kitchen), The play-doh got its own box too etc. etc. We already had shelves in the closet so I put all the boxes on the shelves in the closet. Closed the door and tada! The mess is gone. When she opens her closet she can see what is in each box and ask to play with it or grab it herself if it's on the lower shelf. I purposely put the toys she plays with often within her reach.

But my child will try to climb it Not if you teach them not to!
And they will fall and hurt themselves Then they will learn quickly not to climb!
I will have to always help them get toys from the shelves Probably a good idea if you don't want the lego to dry out or the entire floor to be covered with toys that have just been dumped!

On the first day in her room my daughter picked up her train box and came downstairs to play with it. When we went back upstairs she pointed to the box of play-doh on the higher shelf and asked to play with it. Success.

Should I put pictures or names on the boxes identifying the content?
You can. I have seen a lot of people do it online. I don't think it's necessary if you have clear boxes to write "Barbies" on a box where you can obviously see the Barbies. I originally took pictures of the content and had planned to stick the pictures in front of the box but changed my mind afterwards. The only exception is that I still had the box for the Hape Train so I cut out the picture and stuck it in the box so I could remember how many blocks there are when it's time to clean up!




Her closet

 



Her closet: side view

  
Her closet: explained

Toys are on the shelves and bigger items/boxes under the shelves. My own toys I moved from my parents house that she cannot yet play with or I'd rather she doesn't have access to are on the very top shelf. The two baskets on the top shelf contain 1)clothes that need to be put away because they no longer fit her 2) clothes from the previous season. The chest has all her dolls and stuffed animal in it (which will need to be purged at some point!).