AIBU - Asking to see your toy storage?

[Emerald92]

Afternoon all!

I have a DD 16mo and with Christmas coming, I know she's going to getting lots of toys. She has a fair few from us and I'm sure she'll be getting some from family. So now I'm trying to prepare a space to store them!

Can I ask to see how you store your DC's toys? I want DC to have a space in the lounge for her toys but I dont want it to look like a bombsite 🙈

IKEA Kallax is what I and most of my friends go for. They come in different configurations and then different boxes, doors or drawers go in the squares. They don't look too childish if it's a shared space (not garish primary colours) and you can shut the doors on them at night so you're not constantly staring at Peppa Pig.

My big tip whatever furniture you actually choose is to have different boxes for different things, eg building blocks in one, farm animals in another, sorting puzzles in another, etc. It means that when they want to play with a particular thing they don't have to empty the entire contents of a big toy box to find that thing.

Seconding the Ikea Kallax. I have a 2X2 for the living room, in neutral colours so it all goes and toys can be hidden away. We do the same in terms of themes-one box is paw patrol, another is toy story, etc. In the kids room I have a 2x4-I use some shelves for books and the rest for their other toys, crafts, tracks etc. Best storage ever!

Here’s my Ikea Kallax!

I use my grandads old dresser, its gone from housing his best china to hiding the ds's toys, they also hide in it 😂

Actually mines a Trofast

I'm not at home so can't take photos, but ours is a mix of Ikea Kallax (drawers are good for little things like happyland people), plastic crates for duplo, bookshelves (books and boxed games/puzzles) and a big fabric 'bucket' for all the dolls and accessories. The key is making it easy for the kids to tidy stuff away. Allow some places to be 'chuck it in and shut the door/drawer'. Books and boxes are fairly easy to keep neat on a bookshelf. Craft stuff is in a cupboard with a child lock they can both now open.

Ah fab that looks ideal! I've only ever been to IKEA once, I think another visit is well overdue

The key is making it easy for the kids to tidy stuff away

Oh my goodness yes! Easy for them to find things, easy for them to put away.

Ikea trofasts here too!

another vote for the kallax (was still 'expedit' when i got mine!) we have a whole wall of them and they are brilliant.

Trofast

We have GLTC storage. I had argos cube storage before but they didn’t last or look as nice. I love it and will be buying more.

Ikea trofast. It's brilliant, you have 3 different sizes of tubs and you can choose any combination. Our boxes are labelled, tidying up is simple. We first bought trofast 5 years ago and it is going string. We have added for trofast frames. You can also choose to put a shelf in for board games and puzzles.
The advantage it has over kallax is that I find the kallax less flexible in terms of size.

The disadvantage is that it looks like toy storage as opposed to living room storage.

If you decide to go to Ikea for Kallax, I'd recommend getting a good idea what you want first and noting down all the locations (you can get these on their website, so on my link you click under the "add to basket" button to choose your store and then it says to pick up the bits on aisle 9 location 7). You can look at them in real life in the showroom bit, but you've already measured up at home so you know that you can't fit a 4x2 because of the chimney breast, and you've already decided to get two doors and two lots of shallow drawers and two baskets but you aren't sure what colour until you look, etc etc.

The advantage [trofast] has over kallax is that I find the kallax less flexible in terms of size.
The disadvantage is that it looks like toy storage as opposed to living room storage.

I agree completely. I tend to see Trofast in children's bedrooms and playrooms, and Kallax (or old Expedit) in living rooms and dining rooms.

My ds's toys just go on the floor in the front room. Along the wall and in the bay window. I don't like the idea of boxes with them in. I like him to be able to take and play with whatever he wants.

I don't think a child's toys make the place look like a bomb site. I think that's a terrible way to think

The basket's cost a fortune, but wanted something to fit in the alcove neatly!

Itchy that's beautiful! No wonder it was costly.

My ds's toys just go on the floor in the front room. Along the wall and in the bay window. I don't like the idea of boxes with them in

Do they not get dusty? I'm assuming he's quite little: that's not a very practical solution for eg Lego.

That's lovely, Itchy!

We have good old trofast, too. We have it in the playroom and all kids' bedrooms.

We did have a second Kallax unit, but as my DD is now older and doesn’t have as many toys we managed to downsize the storage. Will probably regret it though after Christmas! The Lego tubs fit nice and neatly in the gap to the side and still looks tidy yet accessible.

We have Trofast too and tbh I'm disappointed with the strength of the runners that boxes/trays slide on; they just aren't strong enough to support the weight of the contents and pull the runners out of the sides. For the heaviest ones, I now leave the tubs sitting on the bottom part, instead of suspended from the runners.

They are good aside from that, we have got loads of things sorted away and it's relatively easy to find particularly items, especially if you tend to overorganise yourself and label the tubs on the fronts like these bit pedantic

They are obviously toy storage rather than just storage though.