Christmas has come and gone, and I’m sure Santa spoiled your little ones with everything they had on their wish list. Now it’s January and you still have boxes of Legos, Barbies, and board games stacked all over the floor… Where do you put it all??
I think I’ve tried every method possible to store my kid’s toys, and this is hands-down the best way I’ve found!
When looking for storage solutions, I knew it had to meet certain criteria:
1. It had to get the toys up off the floor that were taking up precious floor space.
2. It had to make it easy for the boys to put their own toys away.
3. It had to be durable (remember, I have boys).
4. It had to be within our budget.
I ended up choosing two sets of white storage cube shelves (like these) and fabric drawers (like these) from Target. Many stores carry shelving units like these, so keep an eye out for sales!
I first went through their toys and purged anything that was broken, missing pieces, or no longer played with. Next I separated every single toy into categories to best see how to organize them. It made it really easy to divide everything into the drawers. Here’s the categories I used:
Action Figures
Bey Blades
Blocks
Electronics
Large Cars
Leapster
Legos
Lincoln Logs
Plastic Train Tracks
Play Kitchen
Small Cars
Tractors
Tools
Toy Guns
Wood Train Tracks
The Bey Blade craze hit my first grader this year, so those got their own drawer after Christmas. The electronics bin holds toy cameras, computers, and phones (did you have all that high-tech stuff when you were little?). Another bin holds my son’s Leapster Explorer and Tag Reader and all the games that go with them. We got rid of our play kitchen last year to make more space, but we kept the play food and dishes since they liked playing with them so much. The rest of the drawers are pretty self-explanitory.
I left three cubes open on one side of the unit for some of the bigger trucks the boys have. This would also be a good place for books if you don’t have extra room for a separate book shelf!
The drawers have held up nicely over the past year or so we’ve had them, and it makes putting toys away so easy! The boys know exactly where everything is supposed to go. It also keeps everything organized when they get new toys for Christmas or birthdays. If there isn’t room for something new, something old has to go to make space. No more overflowing toy boxes!
I hope this helps you organize toys in your house! I’ll show you more storage solutions for bigger toys coming soon!
What’s your method for organizing toys? Do you have neatly labeled bins or do you use the shut-the-door-and-walk-away method? I’d love to hear your thoughts! 
Want to see all the projects from our Playroom Makeover?
I love your cute kid friendly storage. We had one of those overflowing toy bins for a while…then I started tossing some of it. Lately the toys have just gone into totes in the closet!!!
For toy storate – I love using MOMMBY Storage Bags – http://mommby.com/Store/Bag.php – clear reusable zipper bags you can see the toys and then store the toys in baskets, bins, toy chest, ect.
Impressive!!
This is perfect for me!! I have three boys, so your toy list sounds very familiar. I need to get cubbies like yours! I have the containers, now I just need a nice place (like yours) to put them. Thanks so much for sharing! Have a wonderful day!
Looks great and sounds great that it has been working for you. I love these shelves and drawers. We have plenty of them around our house. They work great and are not too expensive.
KC
This looks awesome! What are the tags?
Amazing, i wish i could get our toys looking like this! We have some similar (but smaller) fabric boxes that my boys have managed to break already by sitting on them!
You really can’t go wrong when using those cube units and bins. We have several of those in our house! I can’t wait to see what you share for larger toy storage. Thanks for sharing at Pinworthy Projects.
This sounds AMAZING. Pinned!
We have labelled bins, but since Christmas they are overflowing. (Especially now Miss Emily has toys too!) This has inspired me to get cleared up!
That looks great! 🙂
This is a great! Love when everything has it’s own spot. 🙂
Toy storage ideas are always welcome!
Love this idea, pinned it, thanks for sharing!
I have two boys, we just moved and I’ve been looking for a solution to organize the toys! I LOVE this! My boys are 3 & 1, do you think the cloth bins will hold up okay? I really enjoy reading your blog, and am your newest follower! ; ) My sister and I are focusing on organizing as moms this month, if you don’t mind maybe i’ll share this link! welovebeingmoms.blogspot.com
Hi Holly! Thanks for stopping by!
I think the cloth bins will hold up pretty well for your little guys. We got ours when my boys were 2 and 6. I’ve seen other bins similar in size that are plastic or other materials if you’re worried they won’t hold up. I just always told the boys the bins are not to stand or sit on! Lol
You’re more than welcome to share the link! Thanks for asking : )
This looks wonderful Liz! I have two boys – isn’t it amazing how many toys they accumulate? I did something similar with Ikea bins after last Christmas – still need to go through and purge again after this year though. Love the map above too – perfect colors with the bins! 🙂
Hi,
You have some great ideas and we would like for you to share with our readers too. We are hosting our first link party tomorrow and we would like to invite you to link up with us. We have a fun blog to co-host with us. Hope to see you there.
Thanks!
The Busy Bee’s,
Myrna and Joye.
http://thebusybhive.blogspot.com/
I have three boys that constantly make a mess and I LOVE this idea! Thanks for sharing! I pinned it! Julia @ http://www.juliakendrick.com
The TYPE A in me absolutely drools over this! Found you on Lil’ Luna’s link party and I’d love for you to come link this up at my Tuesday Time Out that is still open! I love it!
Reasons To Skip The Housework
This is a great use of space and storage! Anything to motivate helping in the clean up process is a PERFECT solution! XO, Aimee
That is an attractive and practical way to store kid’s toys. I wish we had something like that when my guys were smaller. I love the blue and green with the white cubbies too.
I love the tags and how stylish it turned out!! Have a great weekend!
Take care,
Trish
I love the colors and tags! We could use a bin like this at home, my kids toys are constantly all over the place. Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
Great idea! I am featuring it today! Plus I pinned, tweeted, stumbled and +1’ed it.
You have to come to over and fix up my daughters toys!! Oh and the color scheme is GORGEOUS!
Thanks so much for partying with me last week at The DIY Dreamer… From Dream To Reality! I’m really looking forward to seeing what you share tomorrow evening!
I love the idea of the drawers… they look fantastic. Makes it easier to find the toys they want to play with when they’re organised like that. The drawers are also a lovely way to decorate a child’s room.
These look great! We are setting up a playroom right now too in our first house. I’m your newest follower. Come by any time and if you’d like feel free to follow along as well. Love your blog!
Jenny
http://Www.simcoestreet.blogspot.com
I did the same in my house. I have a 12 month girl and all of her toys are in the living room( slash play room). My husband and I decided to get one of those bins from Ikea. We thought it would look good in the living room and it would be easy for her to pull out the toys and them put them back. Love the colors and tags you used! Thanks for sharing.
-Jamie
First, I apologize to the late comment on an older post! However, I am loving this room! I have a question though – and I hope that I didn’t skim TOO much and miss it, I’d feel silly! The grey divided storage bins that you have hanging on the wall by the desk… do those hold lego? How did you organize those? By color? What did you do with the bits too large to fit in those bins? Thanks so much for the fabulous ideas!
Hi Sara! Not a problem! Yes, the bins on the wall hold all our Lego pieces, and so far it works great! I originally had them sorted by color, but my 7 year old has come up with his own system of sorting (a.k.a. none!) All the individual pieces fit great in the bins, and I have a shelf where he can set the projects he’s in the middle of working on. I’m so glad you like the room, and thanks for stopping by!
I use the Trofast storage system from IKEA. It’s super affordable, and there are several size bins so the system is completely customizable depending on what your kid has. I have a daughter who LOVES barbies, so there are a few shallow drawers that fit about 6 Barbies per drawer lined up in a single layer, and a deeper one below that for all the clothes and accessories. Then she has bins for art supplies, stuffed animals, baby dolls, baby clothes and accessories, wooden cars and train tracks set (the Lillabo set that I also got from IKEA), and her electronic toys and game cartridges. Books go on top of the shelf and I took pictures of everything and pasted the pictures of each category on to the corresponding bins, along with a written label. I love that this toy box will grow with her, and I can keep it til she’s done with toys or re-purpose it for my own craft room storage.
Wow! This sounds awesome! We don’t live anywhere close to an IKEA, so I don’t get over there much, but I LOVE all the storage solutions you found for your little one! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂