storage for toys

[tasmaniandevilchaser]

hi there, any suggestions for storage for toys?

Our lounge is overrun with plastic tat and I've had enough. I'd like small containers for pencils/crayons etc. and larger ones for soft toys. The trofast system from Ikea is a bit too much like school for me. We don't have a huge amount to spend and it's got to be free standing.

If I can't find anything, it's just all going in the bin. Maybe.

I keep pens, pencils, etc in a drawer unit like this one The dcs just pull out a drawer when they need it. It is usually me who puts it back though.

I store other toys in plastic boxes with lids or bigger plastic drawer units of the same idea as linked to above.

I use stackable plastic crates, but I'm looking for something more permanent. Thing is the dressers etc I would like aren't ideal for toys and I dont think that ikea stuff is aesthetically pleasing. Ideally I'd like a playroom which could be given over to brightly painted furniture. But as I have the one long lounge divided in 2 I'm stuck with an inadequate fusion of toy storage and my formerly nice adult living room.

We have the Expedit range in our DD's room. I'm not keen on Trofast for similar reasons to you. This is the one we've got.

To fill in the gaps we've used These brightly coloured storage boxes from Dunelm. They fit perfectly and are a bit brighter than the fabric boxes in Ikea. Each type of toy has it's own box in it's own colour - dressing up clothes in purple, dinosaurs in red etc. Dead easy to tidy up - DD is 2.1 and is doing really well with it.

Also, some cubes are used for books or larger bits of tat toys.

All her craft bits and play doh are seperate in a Plastic tray unit similar to this. This lives on top of her Expedit unit - out of reach!!

I can't stand Ikea storage in my living room too. So I have two chests, one ex large one large, made of pale grey woven wicker/rattan. They sit in the middle, between the sofas in our living room and act as coffee tables / toy storage.
One contains three big plastic Ikea boxes with three smaller boxes sitting on top, the other smaller chest just fits in a couple of big plastic Ikea boxes. My toddler helps herself to her toys in the day time and at the end of the day we tidy them away together. Then when evening come and she is in bed i whip out a couple of stylish laquered trays to place on top to use them as coffee (or should that be wine glass) tables.

They get a lot of compliments. I bought them on the web from a shop in cornwall and paid about £250 for the pair.

We've got this. It fits more than I thought and is easy for my preschoolers to use.

I should add that we don't keep the plastic boxes in our living room. They are stored in the dcs wardrobes and we operate a one out one back policy roughly.

The chests sound fantastic. When I was a child my parents had an ottoman in the lounge that had a padded bench style top. The top hinged up and our toys were put inside it just before bedtime. They still have it but my ddad stores hundreds of jumpers in it now. It would be fab as toy storage though.

i bought a few flexi tubs from tesco. They were £4 for the large ones and they work really well.

this sort of idea although theirs didn't look like this

ANother vote for Expedit from Ikea. We went for red & clear boxes from there too, the hard plastic ones - but it is in the playroom.

Friends have the same shelving but went for the dark fabric boxes as they look more 'adult' somehow & it looks fine in their kitchen/diner/lounge.

It does store a heck of a lot, well we have the 5x5 one so it should I suppose.

thanks everyone, that's all really useful. I am feeling slightly embarrassed as we already have a toy chest in the lounge - DD clearly has too many toys! Though in my defence, her room is tiny so she can't really store anything in there. The Dunelm Mill storage cubes look great, good to know they fit in the Expedit from Ikea. Thanks again.