Where can I store my daughter's toys??

[DebL]

I am so fed up with stacking plastic boxes and overflowing Ikea toy chest messing up my living room.

We don't have space for a 'play room', so would like a stylish cupboard instead to throw in all her junk at the end of the day- anyone any ideas?

I have been muttering to DP that I would like a custom-built toy box for the dining room. My ideal design means it is wooden and looks nice with perhaps DS's name in wooden letters on it. Oh and it also has to have gas struts (like car roof boxes have on them) so there is no risk of little fingers being trapped.

I'm off to Ikea as soon as I'm allowed for same reason, I WANT MY LIVING ROOM BACK.

I find toy boxes useless as they do not actually organise the toys, but rather just throw them all in together. We also have the living room as our playroom and here is what we do....
At Ikea, you can get wooden storage units in the children's section that fits plastic trays in (they come in black and white as well as colours so you can stay somewhat chic!). I actually keep like with like in the trays so at the end of the day we can actually put away all the toys easily.

Homebase do rattany natural looking ones but think would just moult all over the floor!

How about a large wooden chest? They can look stylish in a room....

Freddiecat, thought about a custom made chest, but they are quite expensive, and agree with Bloom that a chest is just a dumping ground and doesn't organise the toys.

Bloom, forgot about those wooden storage units - good idea... off to Ikea I go.

If you are reading - Linda Barker/ Anna Ryder dooh dah/ Lawrence Sue Ellen bolyn......

enought make-overs on TV surely to come up with some more ideas

Don't know if you have a Macro card, but they sell 3 wooden boxes with handle holes for £10. The biggest is about 24 inches long and 12 inches high and the others decrease in height to about 5inches so are good for things like lego where you can see everything in the box.

We bought a double doored cupboard that fits under the stairs from one of those cheapy pine shops and all the boxes fit neatly in it.

Just got to find somewhere for all the enormous plastic toys, sigh.

DebL, any luck at Ikea? We have the same question, and I'm wondering if a trip to Ikea will be worth it. Don't they have those sort of customize your own shelving units, which have baskets, shelves, drawers, etc.??

my SIL has put a range of kitchen cupboards along one wall of her lounge and has all the toys etc organised in there in wire baskets which slide in & out. It looks good & she can fit an amazing amount in there. Worth thinking about?

Debl

we got some brillant wicker basket from pound stretcher £3.00 each i think

Chuck out everything he doesn't play with - be ruthless! I bet that would make more space than buying more cupboards. In fact, I suspect that the more storage you have the more stuff you collect.

A friend of mine has an Ikea coffee table which has 6 compartments underneath it which fit wicker baskets. So when the baskets are in the table all you see is wood and basket sides. I thought that was brilliant. I've got storage tubs on bookshelves (Ikea billys) - I was thinking of getting the optional doors so that the tubs were out of sight (but the doors are about £50....).

try the effectiv office range at Ikea - we have just bought 2 wall cabinet with doors, have them on the floor in an alcove stacked on top of each other. Did the trick for us.

DebL, a really good solution is to have a monk's bench or settle like this (that's not a very nice one but u get the idea, seat lifts up and huge box inside)

If it's in your living room it then also provides occasional seating for visitors or at parties. We put a piece of old fabric on ours which I keep meaning to sew into a cushion but never get time.

excellent ideas on here...
Here's something I did that helped. I had a cupboard near my DD's bedroom that was full of towels, linen, spare duvets etc.
I bought a couple of blanket boxes to go in bedrooms for the linen/towels and freed up the cupboard. I found it easier to find suitable storage for the linen than toys...(but that was before I read this thread! )

We have a child's seat, a bit like the monk's one that we got from John Lewis. Inside are the small and bulky toys, and the teddies sit on the top, along with the sluglet, when she reads her books.

Miranda 2 I have that coffee table and it is brilliant for all the samll toys too!!

I am in a lucky position as I have something in every room for toys. The living room has the coffee table, the kitchen has a dresser which all their 'messy play' stuff goes, their bedroom has other stacking boxes - labelled - and a huge basket for big stuff.

However this was not my work, my nanny organised me and it is great, every toy has it's place which makes it so quick to tidy, and they are not allowed every box out at once. She even organised their pens/pencils/crayons into separate ice-cream cartons!!

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If you know a friendly wine seller chat them up and ask if they will sell or give you some of their empty wooden wine boxes.

5 years ago I was given about 6 of them varying in size from shoebox to small crate. They have writing stamped into their sides - not to all tastes I suppose, but I like it anyway. They are extremly strong and I like the rough wooden effect. We now have them piled on top of each other in my son's bedroom and they make a good shelving unit.

If you are using them with toddlers around, you have to watch out for splinters, though my sons have never suffered any problems with this. You could sand them down a bit anyway (the crates not my sons).