Well, not really that long a story but today I found loads of tiny tiny bugs in DS's toy boxes in the living room! After much Googling I think they are booklice (yuk) that like to live in things they can eat (like wood, books, rattan perhaps as that's what the boxes were made of) so the boxes have been binned and all the toys are in the freezer to kill the bugs.
So I am now looking for a new toy box for the living room (ie so would like it to be fairly tasteful, no cartoon characters on it etc!), ideally not made of wood. I have fallen out with wooden things big time this week as we have also found damp under the stairs which had to be cleaned out and all the wooden shelves replaced with metal. Booklice also like damp places so we are now opening lots of windows to get air flowing, we never really did this before. Nightmare!
Anyhoo, if you have any ideas for nice toy storage please let me know thanks