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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Please talk to me about toy storage that actually WORKS

21 replies

WilyWombat · 30/03/2009 14:08

This is for a very untidy 6 year old boy, so tons of cars, action, figures, lego.

Plus he has a garage etc

He wont get rid of anything

OP posts:

cornsilk · 30/03/2009 14:09

You get rid of stuff by gradually putting it away in a cupboard out of sight. After a few months get rid.

misdee · 30/03/2009 14:10

you dont ask him. you ust get rid of it. just go through and remove the stuff he doesnt play with.

toy storage only works if kids uise it IME lol

Original poster

WilyWombat · 30/03/2009 14:12

Yeah im going to take the devious route and sneak the less popular stuff out but to be fair with him he pretty much plays with most of it!

OP posts:

misdee · 30/03/2009 14:12

the trofast from ikea

CarGirl · 30/03/2009 14:14

At about the age of 6 if it's mainly smaller items like cars & action figures I actually rate those clear plastic drawer sets like you can get from Argo. I think we will be selling some of our Trofast and getting more clear drawers.

andiem · 30/03/2009 14:15

I have these and I lurvve them

TheDevilWearsPrimark · 30/03/2009 14:19

I built shelves into the alcoves either side of the chimney breast and painted them in white gloss.

The bottom two either side have clear storage boxes for larger toys, dressing up etc then the really big toys sit on the shelf above that, then books, then on top I have boxes for lego, playmobil, knex etc which only come down one at a time and have to be put away before another one is brought out.

Original poster

WilyWombat · 30/03/2009 14:20

LOL they are small things like cars and action figures but tons of them

Just looked and Ikea want to charge £40 for delivery - pmsl - in their dreams! Still I guess hubby would want to look at them first anyway.

OP posts:

paddingtonbear1 · 30/03/2009 14:21

I got a couple of the trofast thingies from ikea, they have been great!

Original poster

WilyWombat · 30/03/2009 14:22

Is it better to get the smaller ones or the deeper bins for it?

OP posts:

CarGirl · 30/03/2009 14:24

Downside of Trofast is that they're not clear and if the large ones are full of little bits they are heavy!!!

Clear is the way to go IME!!! Have a look at Argos and see how big the largest ones are, I also found that you can join 2 together etc, or have one of all large drawers and one of all small drawers (if you buy 2 sets with each having a mix IYSWIM)

Original poster

WilyWombat · 30/03/2009 14:30

I was just taking to hubby about this..I suspect if he can see whats in the crate he wouldnt really need to pull everything out in his search.

OP posts:

CarGirl · 30/03/2009 14:36

sometimes that is why I think smaller is better, less to tip out at a time and just put it into more categories!

MrsMattie · 30/03/2009 14:42

Ah, the quest for the perfect toy storage continues...

We have two of these, and it's the best option we've come up with so far for storing small toys - cars, action figures etc. We have gone a step further and labelled the boxes clearly so DS can read what's in them as well as see. Helps reinforce the whole 'tidy' thing .

It's larger toys I haven't got a scooby what to do with. We have two large seagrass chests full of crap at the moment, but I'd love to find a better way to organise them.

paddingtonbear1 · 01/04/2009 13:15

what did you decide to go for?
I like the GLTC one too.
For our Trofast I got 3 deeper bins, and 3 shallow ones. The bigger ones can get a bit heavy, but I put a load of dolls clothes in one (which my dad found in his loft from when I was a child), some polly stuff in another and the bits from a dolls house in the 3rd. They are like drawers, dd doesn't pull the whole lot out. The shallower drawers are good for paper, pens etc.

Tinkjon · 01/04/2009 23:11

We just got Trofast and I love it. I ordered the white trays, not the coloured ones and then printed out a sticker for the box, so that DD (6) can easily read the contents - it has really made a difference to our cutting down on our mess - though I suppose you do need a child that can read well with this method!

Tinkjon · 01/04/2009 23:13

Actually, you could easily print out a picture of said toy to stick on the box if your dc isn't a confident reader.

As for deep versus shallow, I find that shallow is better for lots of different small bits (cars, Lego etc.) as you can get more categories out of it and it's easier to keep the contents of each box to one type of toy - but you will need deeper boxes if you have some big stuff.

terramum · 01/04/2009 23:22

We have a HUGE floor the ceiling shelving unit from ikea in the lounge that houses most of DS' toys in baskets, plastic boxes etc with the bigger items just put directly on the shelves. The top two shelves that he can't reach hold stuff that he is too young for just yet and jigsaws & games that I get down for him (because otherwise he would just empty them all on the floor in one big pile!). The rest of the shelves get periodically pruned or rearranged so he plays with different stuff.

MrsPurple · 01/04/2009 23:22

We've got Trofast and got a conbinastion of small, medium and deep crates. We also bought the changing table (wihtout the top changer), which you can use as drawers ofr cupboards or combination. We chose Cupboards and bought the shelf pack to store the larger toys in, which don't fit in the crates.

The crate unit is the stepped one so we have abasket with all colouring books etc on the step. Very pleased with the lot and it's very sturdy.

ThingOne · 01/04/2009 23:23

We have trofast. We got the first bits about a year ago and have gradually got more as we've seen how well it works. We got a variety of colours and sizes of boxes. I was going to put photos on but the first few got pulled off so I gave up. My boys (5.3 and 2.10) know where everything is even within days of a move around, so no problems there. I have large or heavy boxes at the bottom such as cars, train track and lego. The deep boxes are great for big stuff, even if it's just to put in the cupboard in a tidy way. I really like the way my boys can help themselves to their toys.

I joined two bits together with a hanging rail (not the trofast one as it's for inside) and hang the dressing up clothes between them, with a box underneath for hats/belts/doctor's kit/bat-a-rangs and the like.

I store the garage on top of on bit of trofast and some other things which don't fit in easily on top of the steps of the stepped one.

Fizzylemonade · 03/04/2009 10:32

I have trofast, they are labelled (yes seriously) ds1 is almost 6 and can read, ds2 is almost 3 but knows where stuff goes.

I have the small, medium and large tubs, they are multi-coloured.

The large ones are for "transport" so anything car/plane/digger etc etc, "dinosaurs" etc

The medium ones hold train track, musical instruments, jigsaws without boxes (destroyed by ds2 )

The small ones are for paper, pens, glue (high up and out of reach of ds2)

My playroom looks like Anthea Turner organised it but it works. I am very anal organised as I want to be able to find everything without searching the entire house.

I too store the large stuff like garages on the top because it isn't very high so they use it like a table top.

I did have the argos ones but all the boxes are the same size and I have had another storage system from GLTC but that didn't work so well. Trofast is fantastic.

Maybe you could have a day trip to ikea mine is 5 miles away is there an emoticon for spending?

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