Need your very best (specific) storage tips for...

[Monkeybird]

I know some of you are proper Martha Stewarts (without the prison sentence of course) so I'm hoping you're more organized than me and can give me some brilliant tips to solve my 'stuff' problems in my new house...

So how do you store:

• lego

• jigsaws (boxes always get squashed/broken within minutes in our house)

• big format kids books

• art and craft stuff

• kids own drawings/paintings etc

• your recycling stuff before it gets put out on the kerb (that one drives me mad as I don't want to throw it away but I hate bottles all over the place, I hate the stupid blue box and bag that we get and I also hate having to transfer stuff from one container to another. Oh I know, I'm just lazy...)

• and what is the answer to NOT having laundry - both clean and dirty - strewn ALL over my house? What system do I need to get on top of it?

All help gratefully received...!

Watching with interest

Tesco used to do tuperware type tubs that I use for dd's puzzles, small Bob The Builder machines etc. They ranged from 2 - 5 pound each. This was 2 years ago, should still do someting similar.

She has something like this for her lego as she has heaps (was her dad's & his sisters). Same for paint & playdough.

She also has something similar, but flatter for her craft stuff. The flatter boxes slide under her bed. Inside her craft box she has little pots (pound shop efforts) for smaller pieces.

for bigger things, like books & pens etc

Can't help with recycling, we have huge bins here.

Laundry...I just get it in & throw it in my room in the basket til I get time to sort it. Dirty, just throw it straight in basket, but dd only 4, so is still easy to get her to do it.

Drawing etc, also in a big box same as lego. But we do have outside storage, which helps.

We (dh, 4dd's and 2 ddogs) live in a tiny flat with only 5 rooms in total. Most of our belongings are in storage, but we've lived here for 2 years - we're going through self-build torture. Anyway, the key to my sanity is plastic boxes and many shelves. Every spare bit of wall has the cheapest shelves money can buy, each shelf is crammed with plastic boxes, each with a purpose. It's not pretty, but it's bearable. I too recycle, and when it gets too much I bypass the collection and take it myself.

Sometimes I can barely drag my sorry self out of bed for the misery of falling over each other and everything, but it will be worth it in the end!

Once you're organised and everyone is trained it's not so bad. Though my youngest is 4 and that makes things a lot easier than when we first moved here!

Hope this helps!

Laundry, got a three compartment thing and it comes out of the tumble dryer and into the drawers. All school uniform lives in one wardrobe which makes it easier. Drawings go in underbed storage bags. Puzzles aren't welcome! Hamma beads in a tool box. And every door has those over door hooks. It hurts when you storm through a door and it bounces off the 6 coats back in your face!

sandcastles, those are good ideas, especially the under the bed box for craft stuff (why don't I have the part of the brain that can solve these problems for myself ?)

I REALLY wish the council would cut to the chase and just give us different wheelie bins instead of stupid box/bag combo. They';re reviewing their recycling policy at the mo but I don't think it will come up with anything remotely sane...

Those recycling bins look good for recycling and toy storage actually... thanks

And while I'm on, what solutions do people have for random hallway kid-crap - their 8 million shoes, bags, coats, wellies, toys that have strayed, PE kits blah blah blah...?

VERY grateful in advance...

Large boxes of assorted shapes & colours. Any supermarket will have quite cheap ones, as do IKEA.

I got one huge big one for an art chest & bought several smaller ones for pencils scissors/stickers etc.

try here for ideas & cheao bargains

Laundry buy 2 linen bins/bags & get the family trained to put darks in one & lights in another -cuts down on sorting & halves the pile of dirties to a manageable heap which is less daunting! Also get several laundry baskets so clean stuff can be piled in from the washer/dryer & ironed stuff goes in another basket.

Believe me I'm no domestic godess but storage is the answer I'm finding!!(& being ruthless about chucking out!)

RS, you have spoken the truth there on the puzzles - i'm glad it's not just me. My kids love jigsaws but they're so bloody difficult to store. Even when the boxes are intact, you still have to find something flat and wide to stack em on. And like all boxed games, they all get tipped over when they pull the bottom one out! Guess I need some kind of map shelf solution? Or lots of flat trays like in a primary school...

...Come to think of it, I also find storing boxed games in general pretty difficult.

Hmm, the more I write the more I realise they have too much stuff...

Oh forgot to add smaller sandwich boxes for jigsaws. Cut the title & picture off the battered box & stick on lid for identiification. Use up those old large biscuit/choccy tins from christmas for floor puzzles wih big pieces. I know Tesco & ASDA do a "smart price" range o tupperware boxes for under a pound

That's why the tesco tubs I use are ideal, you can fit a huge puzzle into quite a small box...just tear off the picture.

You can also store them in a bigger box, like the lego one.

Hall stuff, just make sure they take it to their rooms, or hooks on the walls?

for random hall stuff?

We store jigsaws in their original boxes, in a drawer. You can always reinforce the corners with tape if the boxes seem a bit fragile but I must admit, ours have been fine.

Art stuff has a cupboard downstairs with 2 shelves on. Everything is organised into box files or cracker tubs and labelled - we'll see how long it lasts!

Lego is all in a big lidded bucket - but this is far from ideal, as it means all the sets are mixed up. We don't have much though.

Recycling - along with the ironing pile it takes up all of the utility room and is not a pretty site. Agree that until councils sort their acts out and get proper wheelybin systems going, it is a bit of a problem.

so has anyone devised an ingenious homemade solution for large format kids books, instead of buying one of those horribly expensive library/school style bookshelves you can buy on the internet...

See now this type of bookcase is ideal but the amount of big books we have, we'd need about 4 of these and it's rather a lot to pay...

So I need a cheap solution that doesn't involve a. putting them in a bookcase so they all can't be seen properly so junior pulls them all onto the floor or b. they're just stored in a pile. On the floor....

recent thread on lego storage and another on book storage with a couple of ides of cheaply making your own tidy bookcase.

We use the Trofast from Ikea. You could store the big books in one of the large storage tubs that slides into those. Not sure about all ikeas, but the bones of the trofasts are reduced to a fiver each in my ikea.

lots of good ideas - some of which i will steal for myself

just regarding jigsaws - i use clear sandwich bags - the type with the press together top edge - just cut the picture out and stick it to the inside of the bag and put the pieces in - then store all the bags in a basket - i have lots of wicker baskets that sit on book shelves HTH

for large books by the way i just use a large wicker basket and store them standing up so they just flick through them - like in the library boxes? even those tidy bookcases you end up with some books behind others so a large basket works well i find!

How about these options from GLTC for big books
www.gltc.co.uk/fcp/product/-/bedroom%20essentials/Sling-Bookcase/2139
and
www.gltc.co.uk/fcp/product/-/bookshelves%20&%20toy%20storage/Sling-Bookcase-with-Toy-Trays/526

I have a little wicker basket on teh kitchen worktop for recycling which I empty nightly

for washing I have two of those garden buckets in the bathroom one lights, one darks

kids paintings go on wall and then usually in the recycling, unless they are superamazing and then they go in a box in the basement but I save very very few

art and craft stuff is in a bookcase with doors

toys and lego in one of those plastic draw storage system from ikea

And these tubs from Argos are great for recycling and coudl also be used for toy storage as you can see easily wahts inside
www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&langId=-1&q=RECYCLE&pp=20&c_1=1|categ ory_root|Furniture%20and%20furnishings|8961826

lego ikea trofast and a blanket to tip it out onto/tip it back in from.

• jigsaws (boxes always get squashed/broken within minutes in our house) do them on table to avoid squasherage. Failing that, plastic boxes plus cut out the picture.

• big format kids books laid flat on one of the bookshelves

• art and craft stuff in plastic boxes

• kids own drawings/paintings etc in a drawer

• your recycling stuff before it gets put out on the kerb we have bins now, but keep the old box in the laundry room to toss the recycling into, as before.

• and what is the answer to NOT having laundry - both clean and dirty - strewn ALL over my house? What system do I need to get on top of it? Two laundry bins for dark & light. [[http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/rooms/bedroom/11468/ ikea antonius wire drwaers to sort the clean washing into, one drawer per person.

And my house is still a tip LOL

If you do decide to keep jigsaws in their original boxes and stack them on top of each other, you can put an elastic band round the box so that it at least stays together when someone pulls a box out of the pile and upsets the stack.

Ditto games.

I use the ikea trofast CM linked to for arts and craft in the shallowest boxes and bigger toys in the deeper boxes. You can mix and match how many shallow and deep boxes you want.

And while I'm on, what solutions do people have for random hallway kid-crap - their 8 million shoes, bags, coats, wellies, toys that have strayed, PE kits blah blah blah...?

I have large clear toy boxes (Wilkies £2.99?) with my kids name on them for all their pe kits, school bags and assorted stuff. Plastic magazine rack (wilkies again) for storing school books, school papers etc.

These boxes are called their "cubbies" and are stored in the cupboard under the stairs. In theory each kid puts their bags/stuff in the cubbie and their school books in the racks, giving me any letters/notes that come home.

In our house, wellies, go straight to the garage, coats on the coat hooks in the hall, shoes in the cupboard under the stairs.

It doesn't always work, as in I end up putting everything away, but at least when it comes to finding stuff it's not too much of a hassle.