I know this is only loosely Christmas themed but after some advice. DS is 2 and I admit that I spoil him quite a lot when it comes to toys I think he will like. I recently bought a large ottoman for the living room that is overflowing - I know I need to do a cull soon for the charity shop. He also has two bookcase slings in the living room that are full.
My mum has bought him a train table for his birthday just before Christmas, that he will love but will have to be used as a coffee table when not in use (otherwise we just don't have room for it- my grandad is going to make a "lid" for it). It will at least take care of the storage problem for his wooden train tracks.
I think I can just about make room for everything he has for his birthday and Christmas (been super organised and finished his shopping already because the next few months are going to be a bit financially tight so wanted to make sure this was sorted before having to cut back).
But I was wondering what people do about sets of toys that come with various parts and keeping it all together? For example he will have a couple of Happyland sets. I could keep them in their boxes but they will quickly get damaged. If they get put in the Toy box, the various parts all get separated and then won't get played with. I could buy plastic storage boxes for each set of toys that needs to stay together but it just seems so wasteful.
Has anyone else managed any great solutions to keeping everything together? Is there something really obvious that I'm missing? We have a reasonably large living room but all the wall space is now taken up and I don't really want stacks of toys in the middle of the room. I'm also a minimalist which goes against my urges to buy DS everything- which means everything has to be put back in the evening so DH and I have a clear tidy space to relax in.