Family Room Toy Storage Solutions

With doing home day care and having my own 1 & 3 year olds, I'm a huge fan of rubbermaid/sterilite bins for about anything with pieces or multiples. We have the building pieces all in their separate rubbermaids, cars & trains in theirs, instruments in another, Little people in another big one, dress up clothes in another, etc. etc. We have a little media cabinet with a stereo on it for the books on tape, music, & movies. The bigger toys, LeapFrog and that type of electronic toys are in a toy box. Balls are in our football shaped toy box. It helps so much to have the toys in Rubbermaids I think because it not only keeps like toys together so missing pieces aren't everywhere, but it also provides for different things to play with all the time as you use the different bins each day. We have built in shelving in the wall we use and we also use the fireplace mantel for bigger toys with pieces (though my husband wasn't so excited about the mantel being toy storage, but it works well for now and he's not the one picking up the toys from all over the place :)). We also have shelving in our mud room so I store a LOT there to switch in and out along with storing puzzles and games there. I also keep art in there and have the art table in there. Art supplies are stored mostly in old wipes containers or shoe box size rubbermaids. Hope this helps!

If you are willing to do some putting together, try IKEA. The price is right, and they have every kind of shelving unit imaginable! We just got a great deep and tall book shelf that is working well for dd's stuff.

Hi,

I wish there was a way to attach a picture. We recently purchased some shelves from IKEA that hold colorful bins in different sizes for the toys. The price was right at about $300 for everything. It has really helped keep the toys organized and out of sight. If you want me to take a picture, email me and I'll send it to you. ____@____.com

T.

Pottery barn has some really nice storage and shelving units in the kids catalog. A less expensive option is IKEA. They have lots of storage options, some units are sold individually and you can put as many as you need together and configure it based on your needs. Check it out!

We bought some free standing bookshelves from Target that are doing the job for us. We have the below art table and my 2 year old LOVES it.

http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Super-Table-Paper-Benches/dp/B...

Try Ikea. They have some great storage ideas for kids rooms and tables and chairs.

Cheryl

I just ordered my son a table and chairs from this company. http://www.childrenstablesandchairs.com

I love the quality of the table and chairs. They are a bit tall but it will last them a long while. I can sit at the table and get my legs under it. Love it!!!

Hi! I don't know if this is the type of solution you are looking for, but I bought two large cloth baskets (from Bed Bath and Beyone) for our living room (downstairs) and our play room (upstairs). My son, who is 4, has a lot of toys and I like to have some of them downstairs because that is where we spend a lot of our time. So, he uses these baskets as toy boxes. This limits the amount of toys that he has in each room and it keeps those rooms tidy when he's not playing. They have them in multiple colors, and I don't think they look bad in our rooms. Also, I can take the baskets upstairs and put all of his toys away in his room so he can bring other toys downs.

This is just what we do.

A.

All of the ideas posted are great. One thing other thing I can add. I've gotten large hat boxes from Tuesday Morning for my daughter's dress up clothes & accessories. They are different colors to match her room and she loves putting her clothes in them. I love that they fit into her closet easily. Or they are pretty enough to stack in her room.