Toys everywhere! Please tell me how you store yours.

[Jemster]

I have a ds 6 and dd 2 and their stuff is overtaking our house. Dd's room is tiny with no room to store toys so all of hers are in our living room. Ds has a decent sized room but not enough storage so there are books, toys, games all over the place. They bring things in to our room and leave them there aswell as the landing and hall.
I spend all my time picking things up and trying to organise stuff but it's like I'm going round in circles!

I have a trip to ikea planned tomorrow, minus children so would love to get things that will help get me organised once and for all.

Please can you share your toy storage systems and help me get some control over this mess.

[ThermoLobster]

I think you probably need Expedit. Have a think about where you can fit one and get the biggest one you can, as the squares fill up very quickly! You can get nice baskets but I have see through boxes as it makes it easier to tidy up and the theory is the kids can do it themselves! Ha!

[Artandco]

We have the ikea besta unit for majority of toys (8 door one)

Coffee table has drawers which contain all art/ paper stuff etc

Large chest/ leather suitcase thing contains all outdoor stuff like balls/ bats/ bubbles. Has stool each side and kids use as play table also

Wicker basket with lid next to each bed for few books / bedroom toys etc ( both books in besta unit) - these are only toys/ stuff in bedroom as no space

When bot in use all doors/ drawers can be closed and toys hidden

[Artandco]

• most books in living room

[LuvDaMorso]

I love love love organising.

Bookcases and sideboards with little boxes to corral certain types of thing, eg loom bands, pens.

Make sure the children can easily tell where each item should be put away.

Personally I dislike big toy boxes or chests because they become a dumping ground and you can't find anything.

However by far the most effective method is to have fewer toys. Clear it out! They'll value what they have even more.

Alternatively, pack a few boxes with collections of toys. Put them in the loft/garage. One box of toys is out at any one time. Swap weekly or fortnightly.

[pegster]

16 hole Ikea Expedit here with 12 pretty coloured boxes. Box contents 'themed' so dressing up in one, craft stuff in another, Duplo, Brio, etc etc etc

[Finola1step]

Yes, get thee to Ikea. Expedit shelving units have been rebranded and are now called Kallak. They come in a range of sizes so you can play around with combinations. They are easy to put together too. You then buy boxes, baskets etc to fit snugly in the unit spaces. I use a combination of baskets, drawers, boxes and cupboard doors in mine. They now do a box called Dronas which are very good value at £2.50

Do not be tempted to just get the shelving unit without the boxes. I did this for a while and just had toys etc on the shelves. It looks really messy and doesn't really help with the tidying. Enjoy Ikea.

[Fairywhitebear]

You also need to get rid of some! Seriously, kids do not need this much clutter crap

I have a one in - one out policy for birthday's/christmas etc.

Be honest, how much of it do they actually play with/use?!

[Jemster]

Finola that is exactly what we have done! We have a 2x4 expedit from ebay but without any boxes and so stuff is shoved in there and does look really messy.
Will the new style kallak boxes etc still fit in the expedit?
I liked the look of the baskets but couldn't afford them at £15 each.
So is the idea to try and group toys by type/theme and then put them in the boxes on the expedit? Only thing is they won't be able to see what's in them or reach the higher ones so will need me to get anything they want to play with out.

How about bedrooms, what storage shall I go for in ds's room? I was thinking of the billy bookcase.

[WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]

We have some trofast and stuva in DS's bedroom. The small units can safely be stacked on top of each other. We have small deep units with doors on the bottom (good for storing games and bulkier toys) and the shallower unit on top with shelving for books etc. works really well.

[Twooter]

We have ikea hemnes tv units for storage and a surface they can play on. Great for Lego, playmobile etc

[leeloo1]

"they won't be able to see what's in them or reach the higher ones so will need me to get anything they want to play with out."

Perfect - put the toys you want them to have free access to down low and the ones that need adult help/have a million fiddly pieces/make mess up high. :)

I have Trofast and a 4-cube expedit as I found the expedit boxes too big generally.

[StripyBanana]

We used trofast as you can have thinner trays as well as bigger ones. Labelled each tray with a picture of contents and word so kids could put away. Made an unbelievable difference.

[Sightoabloodyscream]

yep, giant expedit against the wall in the kitchen. Some doors, some plastic baskets. Also have 2 plastic drawer sets-see through-for lego etc.

[Finola1step]

Yes, the boxes/ baskets for the new Kallak range fit perfectly in the old Expedit. We also have some Trofast units for art and craft storage as the smaller trays are really handy.

[WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]

The stuva combination we have that I mentioned up thread is a bit like the right hand side of this combination: stuva

We have doors instead of drawers at the bottom.

I like trofast for lego, but it's not as good for bulkier things I find.

[erin99]

We have expedit, trofast and billy!

Expedit get the most STUFF in, with the cheap drona boxes. Works brilliantly for stuff like train sets, but for more mixed stuff (eg kitchenware, games and puzzles) we found they hold a bit too much and DC don't dig down beyond the top layer. When all our toys had to fit in a minimal space (2x4expedit) it was fab for maximising storage space.

Now space isn't at such a premium, but I've streamlined the toys massively. We use almost entirely billy shelves, with just a few games etc out at a time. Collections like marble run, dinosaurs etc are in clear plastic boxes (samla) or open baskets. I love it, they get SO much more from their toys now, but TBH it looks much messier and is way less efficient, and wouldn't have worked at our last house. Trofast is a compromise between the 2 really. I like the shallow boxes as DC can see everything in them, and they are a good size for small collections of things. But the stepped trofast unit is quite inefficient in floor space use. Think about whether to go for the side-on or end-on box arrangements. End on gets more efficient use of your wall, but side on are really quite narrow front to back, and might tuck into corners in DC's bedrooms where you wouldn't have thought you had space for a unit. We have one behind a door.

[mmmmmchocolate]

Is there any space under the DC's beds? I measured the space underneath the lower bunk of my DC's beds and found some crates that fit there. So now they have a crate for barbies, one for play food etc. I think the ones that fitted perfectly were about £2.75 from wilkos.

[BlackbirdOnTheWire]

The stepped Trofast unit is really efficient in loft conversions though :-)

We have Expedit and Trofast. The Expedit isn't as useful as I'd hoped - many toys are slightly too wide. However, it does take a good mix of books and drawers/baskets, and looks nicer than Trofast.