Where do people store all the toys!

[newmums2016]

So my dd is 15 months old, too young to play in her room so all her toys are in the lounge. I currently have no where to store them so every night I just 'tidy' them into a line around the lounge. Just wondering if everyone else packs the toys away or leaves them out.

And if they are put away did you buy storage specifically for this?

We use big plastic tubs with lids in the living room, two which stack on top of each other. They have builder buckets in their rooms (older kids) with toys in too.

Ikea sell some good kids’ toys storage solutions, including toy boxes. We had some shelves for toys at one point, but now fully converted to a cupboard with doors that close and therefore hide all the mess! You can fling them in the cupboard and close the doors on it all. We bought a huge old Victorian school cupboard for this purpose, in pitch pine, from a cheap second hand furniture shop.

Kallax from Ikea or similar if you need large furniture is really good.

Or I had a massive toy bag that I just chucked them all in each night (hop skip do them or gltc)

On the floordrobe with the clothes. .

Have a look at Ikea's Trofast range.

Something similar to this:

Looks like I'm having another evening at Ikea. Thanks everyone

I have a "pretty" toy bag in the lounge for each kid from MyFirstYears (pic attached), then an Ikea Kallax unit in the dining room with drawers in that has loads of other crap in (playdoh/paints/puzzles etc)

Every toy goes into a built in cupboard designed to look like a wall, it's floor to ceiling . No handles, you press the wall and it opens. I'm Not a fan of sitting rooms Full of toys. We did have a playroom but when we moved a different solution has to be found. It is hard when they are young and toys are massive!

We have all of the attached in our living room. The cube storage we use landscape and have storage boxes

I have a few different things. Have one of those big bags that can open out into a mat so you chuck all the toys on it and then it has drawstrings around the side so just pull them up. That means I can take it upstairs a bit more easily. It mostly lives in the corner of the living room though, but some of them are nice designs. I also have a big woven basket with a lid, a bit like a laundry basket but nicer looking. I like the fact that it is tall and rigid and has a lid. That was from homesense and probably can be used as a laundry basket when he’s old enough to not keep toys in it. My next two steps are building cupboards/shelving units in the alcoves in our living room which will take loads of stuff as well as toys. We have a conservatory off our living room so big toys are kept in there. It is used as a bit of a playroom, so in winter or summer when it is too hot or cold, they just live in there and get brought in to play, then go back out. I can still see them but at least they’re gone when I close the curtains in the evening. I’m about to build a large built in bench with lids which flip up so there is storage inside and cushions along the top to sit on. Most of my living room toy stash will then get chucked back in there. Have a look on Pinterest, there are lots of different ideas and you’ll be able to see what will work best in your house for the space and rooms you have.

A large fortnum and mason wicker hamper that buckles shut (DH managed to snag the empty hamper that his office had been given one christmas - nice!) stores toys to be bought out on rotation.

Then we have a solid 3 tier bookcase with 3 large baskets that fit on the shelves for cars, brio and lego, books and knicknaks.

Even if toys don't get properly put away into the baskets every evening they end up around the shelf 'area' which is good enough for me, at the moment!

@TheBrilloPad this is lovely! Been looking at sorting the toys and so worried about it looking like a toy shop rather then our home and this the kalax pics are a beautiful compromise! X

Personally I hate the idea of toys in boxes. I much prefer my ds to have his toys out in the living room, so he can reach them easily. I hate the idea of children playing in their bedrooms as well. My ds only plays downstairs.

We recently bought this to help with the toy situation in the lounge. I love it as it's given us a window seat too and it looks 'grown up' as when the dc are in bed I like to reclaim downstairs for myself.

We have a kind of recess in the lounge where we store all the toys - using a combination of different sized Trofast units, and a Kallax unit with some boxes and some open shelves for books and puzzles. It works really well. As long as you don't use the really big Trofast trays the kids have no problem getting to their toys, and the best thing is that everything has a place, so the kids can also tidy up - it doesn't always have to be us!

We have a couple of IKEA Hol table/cube things for stuff that doesn't come out every day, as these can double up as coffee tables.

Then we have a couple of wicker baskets for toys, and a couple of small wicker baskets on a bookshelf for things like Duplo. At the moment, cars are his thing (he's 2) so there's normally a selection of those lined up by the fireplace of an evening. But the baskets keep the clutter down.

DS always plays downstairs unless he's playing with a couple of cars on the landing while I fold laundry. His bedroom is tiny so the only toys in there are soft toys.

We have a small understairs storage cupboard in the lounge which is stacked with ikea vessla boxes, and a massive bag of dressing up. We have a small bookcase behind one chair with the most used toys on it, and a small toy kitchen with all the play food in it. We also have some boxes of duplo, Playmobil and favourite books on another bookcase. Boardgames and yet more picture books in cabinets. Trofast full of wooden railway on the landing.

I like to get DCs into a collecting things early, and then you add to the collection in the storage you already have iyswim. Eg - duplo, Playmobil, play food etc.

Personally I hate the idea of toys in boxes. I much prefer my ds to have his toys out in the living room, so he can reach them easily. I hate the idea of children playing in their bedrooms as well. My ds only plays downstairs.

What toys does he play with? Between the umpteen bits of train track / engines, duplo, play food etc boxes are very necessary. If we didn’t have boxes we’d have a sea of toys rather than a carpet.

Don't have too many toys would be my first comment, most children have far too many toys and get over whelmed with what to choose to play with.

We were very fortunate in that we had a built in cupboard in an 'extra' room between the kitchen and living room - it varied as a playroom/study/tv den - personally I can't stand the sight of toys all over the living room.