How do you organise/store your DC's toys and books?

[oysterpots]

DS is 20mo and the mountain of crap lovely things has become a bit unmanageable. We keep toys in those big yellow trugs used for DIY and gardening, one in his room, one in the dining room.

Books are kept in an old wine crate in his room, piled up in a corner downstairs.

Ride-on type toys are parked under the piano.

Lego/Brio are kept in the boxes they came in, and getting increasingly battered.

Things have to change.

What storage solutions are there for this sort of thing? Was thinking Ikea Expedit - one of these and one of these would fit in the alcove in DS's room, might work with boxes arranged by type that could be brought downstairs when needed (and easy to tidy up).

But don't know about the dining room - DH is a bit of a design dictator and I don't think he'd suffer that sort of thing downstairs

I quite want one of those lovely cardboard playhouses downstairs, which we could chuck toys into at night and shut the door!

What do you do? What works and what doesn't? Have you seen any efficient but beautiful systems I could copy?

I have this from the cotswold company, which holds all the small bits and pieces plus playdough, some books, biggish types of toys at the bottom. The drawers aren't super easy to pull out but my ds's manage fine and I like that it suits the rest of the living room but all the crap lovely toys are hidden I think drawers are the secret for small stuff and a built in cupboard for big stuff like ride ons. I think the Ikea trofast system is fab too, we have loads of it in the dc's rooms. You can find some cotswold stuff on ebay sometimes, and they do offer 20% periodically.

Oh, and books are great in baskets, esp. toddler ones. But ds1 who's 5, still prefers them in baskets so he can flip through them quickly. Once they start accumulating, keep half the books on shelves out of his reach and then change them over - oh, wow, look new books!

in a word no...understand the problem though we have the lego etc in plastic boxes - got a lovely long, shallowish one from woolies before it closed makes it easier to see the pieces. As for everything else the small things just go in plastic crates and that does make tidying up easy and these stack or fit on shelves /in cupboards. The big problem is the big stuff - tracey island, large remote contolled things, the army island, playmobile -airport, plane, crane and ship. Anything that doesn't fit in a plastic crate with a lid!

Will pay careful attention to whether anyone has a way to solve the problem.

We have this in our living room, it can fit loads in it, all the fiddly little toys plus some big ones like a drum, xylophone, tractors etc. The big toys like baby walker etc just sit out on the floor (3 main ones out just now, walker, sit on train and rocking horse). DS has a pop up basket from Ikea in his room with some more toys plus this hanging off the wardrobe, it can hold more bits and bobs. Top of wardrobe stores megablocks etc and under cot is grown out of toys waiting for his little bro / sister! Books are stored at the bottom of a s=console table in his room, great cos he can pull out whatever ones he wants to throw about read.

we have expedit with boxes in the bottom 2 rows, only got it in Dec, wish we'd don eit years ago!

I got the trofast system from Ikea (no idea how you do the "this" link thing.) To me drawers are better than chests as you don't need to empty the whole thing to get just what you want.

Ikea trofast here too. DS's toys are labelled up with trucks & cars, role play, mega blocks, animals, abc blocks, sorters & puzzles. Tidying up is easier now.

Mind you, his books are a state. He just pulls them all out whenever I line them up nice and straight.

ikea trofast...

www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S99847410

We've got Expedit too, alternating books and baskets of toys - it's brilliant! Also a few plastic boxes with lids stacked up in a corner of the kids' room for lego/cars etc. Everything is sorted by type. It makes play tidier as well as when you put them away.

We have 3 dc and a tiny house I give thanks to Trofast daily it's saved my sanity.

I have 2 of the tall drawer ones in my kitchen for all the craft stuff. 2 in the boys bedroom for the Playmobil a diff box for each theme, the big drawers even fit the police station in. Their wooden pirate ships live on the top.

They also have an Ikea Trofsat (I think) wardrobe that is more like a toy cupboard with a shelf in. The lego boxes are in the bottom,the farm lives on the top. They also have a trofast wall shelf with tiny drawers and the steplike Trofast thing with a shelf insert for picture books and 3 drawers filled with Duplo and dinosaurs.

DD has A tidybook shelf for her huge book collection,peg rails and wall shelves(Letterbox) for a lot of her things. Her Argos Skandia wardrobe(which we painted) has drawers in the bottom for her dolly bits.

The key with a small house and loads of toys is to go up and take up as little floor space as poss. The beauty of Ikea is it's all out of view so no clutter. Choose wardrobes with shelves and drawers in as you get extra strorage with no extra furniture. The Letterbox wall shelves are fab too. Chests are fab too as can be used as furniture as well as storage.

Our coffee table is an old wooden chest with all the dressing up clothes in,dd's window seat is an Argos painted box filled with all the puzzles.

Throw in their room, shut the door.

But they are teenagers.

We have this from gltc for small things - toy cars, wooden jigsaws, 'Bob' toys, odds and sods.

Then a few big colourful trugs for bigger plastic tat. They live in the bay of a bay window so are hidden behind the curtain in the evening.

Brio stuff is in a big old hamper under the stairs.

Few books downstairs. Vast majority are upstairs in spare room (had to remove from dcs' room because ds1 kept throwing them all into ds2's cot every morning ).

Currently homeless are boxes of sticklebricks, lego and playmobil. They live on top of a dresser, but that's not ideal.

OK, I hadn't really thought of Trofast.

Trofast vs expedit? What are the pros and cons of each?

Trofast are lower down so more easily accessible for children and the drawers mean everything is tidy and out of the way. You may prefer to be able to see the toys though.

Hooray! Thanks for all your help. Trofast now fully installed and ready to go. Pics here if anyone's interested

Thanks oysterpots...need one in my boys room now!

oysterpots. Im a little confused. What items did you get to make the storage system?

I got three of these, two packets of shelves and an assortment of plastic tubs.

Now just need to think of a nice way to label the storage boxes.

Thanks oysterpots.

No suggestions on nice ways to label them though...maybe letters with pictures ie C with pic of Cat

I don't label mine as tend to swap things around - eg someone gives them more duplo whatever and then it needs to go in a bigger box, they stop playing with something so it makes way for something else... Think i'd be constantly changing the labels!! My 2 are 2 and 4 and know which colour box things go in and what goes with what (in fact my eldest is very very anal about it!!) and that seems to work well enough when tidying away....

looks fab, oyster, wish I had bought the higher ones now! Hadn't seen the shelves for books, would be ideal [plans trip to Ikea...]. I use a labelling machine for the plastic boxes, but don't bother so much now.

I have got pictures of the toys ie Bob, cars, play food etc. Backed them with brightly coloured card and stuck those on.