Nice looking storage that doesn't cost a lot

[Alicetheinvisible]

Does it exist?

We live in a 2 bed terrace house and space is becoming a bit of an issue. DD is 2.3 and makes a lot of mess (big fan of getting all the pens out, and all of the puzzles) and tidying up seems to take forever, mostly because no where has a proper home.

We have now made our dining room into a play room (still a bit sad at losing the dining room) but i need some decent, inexpensive storage solutions for in there, so we can still use the dining room occasionally. I don't want plastic, i want grown up!

expedit drawer insert.

Expedit is good - not too expensive, sturdy for children and their tendency to break things, yet if you choose the right inners for the holes it looks like adult storage.

You can get boxes and cubes for larger storage - these come in bright colours, or see through plastic that look better, and you can get drawers that split one shelf into 2, cupboards. It can be used to divide a room and holds books and puzzles well.

I worried that the individual shelves would not be big enough, it is hard to tell on the website but it's bigger iRL.

I am very pleased with ours, we have put blue boxesin it for DS's room but when he has outgrown it we can change the insides for a more grown up look.

Expedit. Definitely. You can put all kinds of boxes in it- wicker/clear/coloured/plastic/suede and get drawers etc too. I am currently saving up for it though it is not expensive- I want 2 of the 5x5 ones which are about £125 each plus all the boxes. It makes me feel calmer just imagining them in my house filled with all our junk ahem, useful stuff

What about a nice toybox. Not done a proper search but here are the ones from John Lewis you can probably find some cheaper ones somewhere.

HMHB they are beautiful.

I think i like the look of a 'blanket' box but really, the individual boxes/trays are a better system aren't they?

My Grandad is a carpenter so may get him to make a wooden toybox for downstairs but get some Trofast for upstairs to store everything else.....needs a lot of thought

Toyboxes or blanket boxes are good for the big stuff that you can't organise but don't want out all the time (train set, firemans helmet etc.).

I also have a pop up laundry basket for all the soft toys (where do they come from, we don't buy them???). DS has trofast drawers in various sizes for small cars, farm animals, wooden jigsaws etc.

A friend of mine has clear, labelled boxes under her kids beds with all the bits in, but DD doesn't spend much time in her room, so that wasn't going to work.

Another vote here for the expedit.

We have a 2x4 in the dining room with 'frosted' boxes in the top four slots for vids/dvds/larger bits, and four £1 black Tesco boxes underneath for odds and ends.

Expediiiiiiiit! we have a 5x5 and it's really amazing how much it holds.

I asked a similar q a few weeks ago. We now have Ikea Trofast. It is fab. We have one combined reception/play/living/dining room, so it is very much one show. It is fine, and very versatile. And not very £.

OK you can all shout at me but we found for £10 a 1m high chest of drawers at an auction that originally came from a bank, with a bit of love and attention, these are known as the doodle drawers and hold all the glueing and sticking, glitter etc. in the divided cash drawers and paper and colouring books in the bottom.

A massive hamper (from Ikea ) is our coffee table/extra seat for visitors and holds dressing up stuff/blankets/small children hiding.

Trains/the farm/play food all have plastic really useful containers that we hide rotate from behind the sofa.

Set of oak book shelves my dp made has other toys on and actually looks ok, you can't hide everything and there's something sad at houses with no trace of children.

Why not get a sideboard/chest of drawers which you can use for toys and then reclaim later?

Go bold, buy big stuff rather then lots of little bits & think could we use this in 5 years time for something else.