How/where do you store your kids' toys?

[lalalahahaha]

I live in a three bed semi which feels like it's bursting at the seams. My two DDs (3 and 1) currently share the box room, so no room for toys in there. At the moment, their toys are all stuffed into spare corners of the living room but it's so messy and as they accumulate more stuff it's getting worse. We're planning to move them into one of the bigger bedrooms so what I am asking is:

Do I move all their toys up there and get our sitting room back? What do other people do? If their toys are upstairs, will they play upstairs all the time? Or do people bring toys down and then take them back at the end of the day? Also, what do you keep them in?

Now that I've written it down, it seems like a minor point to dwell on but our shortage of storage is doing my head in! And with Christmas coming, there's going to be no room for any new things at all.

First have a major pre Christmas clear out

Then buy half decent storage boxes for what is left. I like lidded ones that slide under the bed. I also like Billy bookcases to store everything else on. We have stuff in draw string bags hung on hooks behind the bedroom door

I have always preferred to keep toys in bedrooms and organise clearing away at the end of the day

I have a wall full of open shelves - about 8ft wide and 6ft high. Allthe boxed games and books and toy sets ( in big plastic lidded storage boxes) go on it.
The non- major messy stuff in theory goes in boxes under the bed, as well as in the set of drawers with one drawer missing to allow me to chuck things in easily. In practice, the stuff not on the shelves sits in piles in various corners until I turn into a madwoman and put it away. the kids do keep on top of the shelved stuff though. The rest is teddys and hobby horses and other weird-shaped stuff. I find culling often helps, but not enough.

Looking to this for ideas......

something like ikea expedit is good if you have space in your living room, if you get the more grown up looking baskets rather than the colourful boxes then it will fit in for the living room and once the toys are shut away in there of an evening, then noone can even see whats in there and it wont look like children have taken over the whole place. i would put storage in the big bedroom for them too but i dont think age 3 and 1 will play upstairs that much unless you go up with them, i have the same age and they always prefer to follow me around so unless yours are really good with that i doubt they would

we have two expedits downstairs. One has 8 spaces/slots and I use the boxes from dunelm mill that fit (they are fabric ones in green and purple and I think they look rather nice and brighten up our dining room). The other is single width and higher so has 5 slots. It sort of matches the furtnirue, but is neater than boxes on the floor (upstairs I have boxes underneath beds) I also pile stuff on top of the expedits!
I wouldnt let the kids upstairs - they are 4 and 2 and whilst I vaguely trust the 4 year old, the 2 year old needs to stay down here with me, and he'd want to follow his brother so it wouldnt work.

I cleared out a couple of cupboards in the living/dining room for some of my daughters' books and toys, and have a toy basket in one corner of the room. Also bought some big compartmentalised storage boxes for arty/crafty stuff and for all the teeny tiny toys (from magazines, party bags etc) that get everywhere. Also have a seat with a storage box underneath for Lego and building blocks.

DD1 (3.3) also has a little table and chairs which has a few bits and bobs on, a toy kitchen and a wheeled toy box/trolley thing that floats around too. Sounds like a lot but our kitchen/living room/dining room are all open plan so the toys are spread across three rooms.

Would be lovely if DD1 would play in her room more often but it's up two flights of stairs at the top of the house so she usually prefers to be down where the action is. DD2 is 10 months and just starting to get interested in toys, so we have a few years to wait before we can reclaim the living room! We do insist that DD1's special books or very tiny toys (dolls furniture, etc) are kept up in her room though.

As much as possible in own room.
Else in Cardboard boxes, mostly.

I spent 4 hours sorting toys today (followed by glazed over look & lots of ).

I use the pop up laundry type baskets. I got some bright lady bird ones from The Range for their bedroom and then some neutral beige ones from same place for living room which I get them to tidy everything into before bedtime except books and games which are on a bookcase. My friend has a lovely massive wicker box with lid that looks nice in her living room and you wouldn't know it was full of toys

We have a wicker basket in the living room (without a lid as DS would climb on it ) with larger toys in, a bookcase with the bottom three shelves for books and a few 'nice' toys displayed and then a few of these which are a good size and look fairly attractive and are a reasonable price. We have the lids for them too. We also have a few of them upstairs in his bedroom, they fit perfectly under his bed :)
He is only nearly 2 though and we have a new DD, so who knows where we're going to be putting stuff in a few years time

Cruel mummy here!

I guess I'm lucky as we have a playroom/smaller lounge. Still, I'm ruthless when it comes to toys. DS has a huge tub of lego, a wicker box in the playroom with about 10 toys in, a canvas box in his bedroom with the same, and board games and books are stored on shelves in the playroom. He can bring toys into the lounge or other rooms but he has to put them away when he's finished with them.

I have three huge plastic crates in the attic full of yet more toys and tend to rotate them with the toys downstairs every few months, getting rid of anything that DS hasn't bothered with recently. I have a huge clear-out before birthdays and Christmas.

I find that if DS has too many toys out its almost as if he's overwhelmed with the choice so doesn't play with any of them.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Some good ideas and definitely time for a pre-Christmas cull! Can't believe I used to think that all toys would fit in one toy box which would sit nicely in the corner of the living room...