Storage Ideas for Oversized Toys?

Updated on October 27, 2010
J.M. asks from Framingham, MA
12 answers

My son has a few good-sized trucks, a toy vacuum, and a couple other "bigger" toys. I have some good storage ideas for the little stuff (I have those cloth cube boxes and they work pretty well), and a couple of closed bins for the mid-sized toys, but short of lining the playroom wall with the bigger stuff, I haven't come up with a way to make things look neat. The playroom isn't very big, and we don't have a basement to keep "extras" nor do we have a big closet we can spare (this house is very short on storage). Any good ideas out there? Looking for some "out of the box" suggestions (pun intended!). Thanks!

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N.V.

answers from Boston on

I use the pack-n-play, my first used to play in there, now with 2, I seem to only use it as storage for all the big toys and I still use the changing table on it for my 9 mo old. It helps me also to rotate some of the bigger toys. The drawers under the TV stand are now 'toy drawers' instead of movies and CD's they hold the little toys, the kids love it!

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T.M.

answers from Bakersfield on

Not sure why you are fretting about having these toys "put away".
Lining them up against the playroom wall seems like the natural thing to do.
You only make it harder on yourself if you have to "get them out and put them back".... The playroom is afterall the playroom, it isnt expected to look barren and boring. Putting up the small stuff is all I would worry about.
You could look into some "hooks" and place them around the room in various spots where the studs are in the wall and just hang them to get them up off the floor, that's about all I can think of.

2 moms found this helpful
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A.M.

answers from Boston on

i use lots of tubtrugs (http://www.tubtrugs.com/). they're soft, flexible, and come in great colors and sizes. i've found them on amazon. i figure once we're done with toys, i can use them for laundry or my husband can use them for gardening.

L.C.

answers from Washington DC on

I used laundry baskets for everything!
You can also skirt a table with fabric and shove the big stuff under there - it will be hidden and can be used as "a tent".
YMMV
LBC

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C.M.

answers from Dallas on

I have the same problem! I can't wait to see what others say.

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S.S.

answers from Cincinnati on

you have a playroom and you are complaining about room lol! we live in a very small house and all my sons toys are in his room. all of the small things are in a laundry basket (small ranges from tiny cars to big trunks) I also strore things under others. example: his lego blocks are in a tub under his play table. he has a riding toy that is just pushed in the corner. when I was little we used the basement as a playroom and I remember that my dad built shelves that reached from one end of the way to the other. They were big enough to set bigger toys on (though as I remember the toys never made it there that often they were usually on the floor!)

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A.E.

answers from Hartford on

I felt like a genius when I decided to store these items under my son's bed. I told him it was a parking garage. Well, he wouldn't hear of it and said he was afraid. So now they are lined up against the couch....oh well. In a few years they will be done playing with toys so I just live with it. I always said (before I had kids) that I wouldnt let toys over take my house...well they have...and its ok.

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K.M.

answers from Boston on

I was hoping to find some good ideas for this too! Right now we use the toy box for the big trucks since they don't get lost in there. The medium sized trucks and cloth bins for smaller toys get put on a book shelf (got it at the unfinished furniture store and had them finish it for a small $$). For balls and 'stick' type toys (vaccum, sweeper, golf clubs) I use a wire basket. It is cute and keeps things upright.

I am considering attaching wheels to some old drawers to utilize under the bed storage as well as putting some strong cute hooks on the wall (or a piece of decorative wood first, then on the wall) to hang netted bags of toys from the hooks. This will atleast gets stuff off the floor.

Let me know if any of these ideas have worked or not for you all...

A.W.

answers from Kalamazoo on

You could put a table in the room with a "skirt" around it and hide the toys underneath it. The table would also function to put bins on top of and/or do puzzles etc. If there is not enough room for a table, you could mount a large shelf to the wall at table like height and do the same thing.

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S.S.

answers from Chicago on

get one big size laundry basket a big rectangle one. they make them with handles now. put the bigger stuff into that. they don't have to be closed away jsut up off the floor. the other spot i used for years was under the crib.

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J.H.

answers from Boston on

We store a lot of stuff under the bed. Depends on the type of bed you have - some have more "under space" than others, although you could always get those platforms that you place under the legs to give more room underneath. My son has a whole separate playroom under his bed!

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A.C.

answers from Houston on

Hang a rod or curtain wire from wall to wall about 18" (or whatever you need) out. Buy some curtains (IKEA has a good selection of curtains that are extra long). They can simply be pushed aside and no playroom is lost, but will conceal the clutter.

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