How to Organize Kids Toys
Happy New Year! The holidays are history and now the real work begins. Oh.. you thought that planning for Christmas was the work? Silly you. I’m talking about trying to organize that influx of toys that just invaded your house. I have serious anxiety when I step foot into my kids’ rooms. No matter how often they “clean” their rooms, a tornado still seems to plow through every few hours leaving a mess of toys, stuffed animals and random junk all over the floor. I have tried numerous organization systems for my son and all have failed miserably. The other day, I reached my breaking point after watching my son’s room go from clean to atomic bomb aftermath in warp speed. So I made a plan and then a beeline to the store and decided to organize my kids’ toys once and for all.
This go around, I decided to organize my kids’ toys using clear plastic bins. I’ve tried the fabric bin approach to make everything color coordinated and matchy matchy but it just doesn’t work with my son. And although my Type A personality wants it to look perfect, I just need to go with what works. This system seems to be working and here is why…
Clear plastic bins are key because they allow kids to actually see what is in each one.
Each bin contains one specific themed toy. Example… all Angry Birds items are in one bin and all Star Wars items are in another bin and so on and so forth. This allows him to take out one bin and know that everything he needs to play with one specific toy is contained in the bin. No more digging through the bin filled with every figure imaginable just to find the right little man.
The bins are placed on a shelving unit to keep them orderly. The shelving unit may not be the prettiest thing but it functions. I pieced it together from an old unit we had in the garage, a set of drawers and a few old cubbies. Each section of the wire unit can hold 3 small clear bins or one large bin. Bigger items that don’t fit in a bin (like the pirate ship) just get placed on a shelf. The drawers currently contain play food, trucks and the ever popular miscellaneous drawer (although we try to keep items in this drawer to a minimum). I have a few more spaces for clear bins so the drawers will probably be eliminated soon.
What types of organizational methods have you found to be successful?
we have the same shelving system. we had trouble with the shelves popping out, so we used zip ties. It is a very useful system to keep things organized for sure!!
Zip ties are a great idea, Erin! Thanks for sharing.