How do you store your playmobil?

[TheSweetestHalleluja]

My dd has an ever-growing collection of playmobil and I am wondering how best to organise it all. She currently has the big sets constantly set up and then a couple of canvas storage boxes where all the little bits are currently chucked in stored

I'm picturing it all organised more neatly, a box for people, another box for animals etc. but I don't know what would work best.

What do you do?

@SoMuchToBits is the person you need! 🙂

We have 1 big box for it all at the moment!

You definitely need @SoMuchToBits (but I know she’s at work today so won’t be able to answer until much later!). She has a very organised system!

Following with interest. until now we have 2 Kallax boxes with Playmobil in but now we have a set that won’t fit. It can’t live on the dining room table forever

My daughters have got this for Lego, it might be too small for Playmobil though.

Very interested to hear @SoMuchTooBits has a proper system. My DS has loads and acquired lots more over Christmas - currently I have a system of plastic boxes vaguely themed - animals, pirates, space etc, which go in a big hol box from IKEA with the big vehicles on the window sill in our dining room, but my toddler keeps grabbing them now she can reach, so was thinking of some shelves in DS's room? The downside of the boxes is only I seem to put things back properly, DS and DH just throw it in anywhere then it takes ages to sort out. If there is a better system I'd love to know!

Im interested in this too..

I'm thinking of getting something like French posted above but with deeper drawers, people and animals then can go in a basket on top, and other teeny tiny bits like phones, guns, hoses in another.

Hello! First of all, please bear in mind that my storage system has evolved during the time my ds has grown up. When he was still a child, we used to leave the large buildings assembled in his playroom. Now he is 20 (but I still use his Playmo for scenes) the buildings are disassembled and stored each in a large plastic box (in my summer house).

When ds was younger we would store each "theme" (excluding large buildings) in a large plastic box. We would put the larger items (e.g. vehicles etc) in first, then put in all the accessories, figures etc. But this meant every time you wanted to use it, the small pieces had sunk to the bottom of the box.

What we do now is put all the larger pieces for each theme in the plastic box, then have a polythene bag for all the figures for that theme, and another polythene bag for all the small accessories. The two poly bags get put in the box, but it is then easy to retrieve the figures/small accessories.

Sometimes for a large theme I will bag up sets separately. For example, we have a lot of City Life, including several different shops, and I have bagged up each shop separately.

I hope this helps. It means I can get my hands on exactly what i need for a theme quite quickly, and the small parts don't all get mixed or sink to the bottom of a box.

We find takeaway boxes quite handy for little bits too although sadly ours are far from thematically sorted

We are overrun with playmobil, and got even more for Christmas! We have a unit from Ikea (the one with plastic drawers, I forget it’s name) which small pieces are stored in. Buildings are stored on top of this, vehicle sit in front of it, people are in a lidded box. I have no idea where the vast quantity of dinosaur playmobil my son got for Christmas is going to live!

You've given me some ideas to think about here, thank you.

@SoMuchToBits the bags are a genius idea thank you! I was going to put the people and small bits in small baskets, but the bags would be such a space saver.

I agree, bags are a great idea, at the moment boxes just get emptied out looking for some tiny essential bit - so bags would save a lot of mess! Thank you!

Here are some examples of my boxes. This is city road building construction. Large pieces, vehicles etc at the bottom, then two plastic bags, one with small accessories, one with people.

This one is Christmas/winter. The partially deconstructed ski lodge and other large pieces at the bottom. A bag of people. Several bags of accessories, as we have a lot. One bag for all the ski lodge/snow activities accessories. One bag for Christmas market accessories. One each for advent calendars (we have several, collected over the years).

Airport. Deconstructed air terminal and large pieces at the bottom, then bags for people and accessories. We also have another large aeroplane stored separately (too big to fit the box!)

Farm. Deconstructed farm building, farmhouse and large pieces such as grain silo, tractor and trailer at the bottom. One bag for general farm accessories, one for farmhouse accessories, bag for people. If you wanted to leave the farm building and farmhouse constructed, you could use a smaller box and just put in the other larger items and then bags for the accessories/people.

Looks really good @SoMuchToBits

Thank you! Hope it's been some help.

I got some drawstring bags from Ebay (reusable fruit and veg bags) and keep all the small sets together in those. Ziplock bags might be easier for small hands to open and close though.

I recently got some of the ikea kuggis boxes and they are working well. A big one for bigger parts with a tray that sits in the top of that and surprisingly holds loads of bits but still easy to see. Then some smaller boxes for people etc. Should say all our playmobil vehicles are parked up elsewhere! www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/kuggis-insert-with-8-compartments-white-00280208/

In the pic not very full as lots all over the dining table at the moment!

Following - ours also just in canvas storage basket

@SoMuchToBits

Popped back on to say that I have adopted your system using Really Useful Storage boxes and ziplock freezer bags for our mountain of playmobil, and it has been sooo helpful! We've filled 9 boxes

They've stacked up really nicely and makes playing with it all a lot easier for dd now.

The only thing I am now struggling with is finding boxes big enough to accommodate the hospital fully set up, and also the cruise ship. Do you have either of those in boxes?

Looking at a house move soon, so we are really grateful for the storage idea as it will make moving it all a lot easier!

Hi, I'm so pleased my ideas were helpful.

We do have a hospital (probably the older one), but that is stored dismantled in a box, and I assemble it if I need it for scenes. I've done the same for most of our large buildings, as now ds is grown up it's only me getting sets out for scenes. All the boxes live in our summer house.

I do have the cruise ship, and struggled to find a box big enough, so that is stored on a shelf in the summer house. The other accessories and sets which go with it are in a box though.

Happy Playmobiling!

It's been so nice being ultra organised, I even did the same for the Lego, all colour coordinated in bags, lockdown clearly giving me time on my hands