You've tried it all - Rotating the toys, putting them in colorful baskets, organizing then into seal top containers - There are still toys all over the living room, lurking in corners of the kitchen, cluttering the bathroom, and filling every other available
space in your home.
Post-holiday the problem seems even worse as old favorites and new delights vie for space in an already overcrowded environment. It is possible to share a living space with children and their many belongings,if you are prepared to re-organize. The following solutions are low cost,easy to use, and easy to maintain and best of all they are designed with children in mind.
Little bits and pieces: Legos, Barbie shoes, small cars, trucks, people, dishes - whatever the age or gender of the child,there is a favorite toy which refuses to be contained. Here are two simple ideas to help keep the pieces together.
The essential problem with storing children's toys in bins and baskets is that the contents are easily spilled. Once the contents have been tipped over the living room floor, there is only one person who is going to return them to their proper container
- you. Cajole, bribe, beg, scream or threaten you may, but your little
helper is just going to look at you and say, "But the mess is too big!"
There is a simple, inexpensive solution to keeping all those toys confined - see-through storage drawers. These drawers are available at discount retailers such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart. You can pick up a set for around $20. Once you have your drawers, organizing is easy. Label each drawer with a picture of the contents and its name, for example a picture of a car, with the word "cars" underneath. If your car drawing resembles a lump with wheels, you can cut pictures from magazines.
The drawers are the perfect size for action figures, doll clothes, small blocks, or card games. For safety, place the heaviest toys in the bottom drawer, so the unit will be less likely to tip over. The bottom drawer
on most units is large enough to accommodate cars or blocks.
Place smaller
accessories in the upper drawers. Clean up time will not instantly become easier - it will take repetition to get your children to remember to put the toys away. The main advantage of the drawers is that they are hard to pull out. They are not easy to spill, so the mess is minimized.
Children's best loved friends: Teddy bears, dolls, plush animals can be a storage nightmare. If you put teddy in a plastic bg he will suffocate, and if you put him in the attic he will be scared. Teddy's favorite place seems to be underfoot.
There
are several ways to to keep Teddy and friends comfortably out of harm's way. The plastic toy hanging chains that are sold in many toy and department stores are an effective and inexpensive solution - if your child is old enough to hang up the animals (over age five). Otherwise they are a frustrating solution. A large plastic container or toy box works well for stuffed animals - they don't break, and there are no small pieces to be lost. If the container is tipped out, it is a simple matter to shovel the toys back in.
Home Sweet Home: Or fort or pirate ship. The little people houses that we played with as children seemed to have tripled in size, and number, until you feel you have become Mayor of Tiny Town. The best solution for large bulky toys are low shelves. Remember we are talking storage not decorative furniture - melamine storage shelves - sold in the storage area of most department stores - are less than twenty dollars. They are designed to fit in closets and organize shoes or sweaters. There are also stackable plastic shelves, or metal utility shelves. You are looking for long, low storage, not height.
Tall shelves can be a safety hazard for small children, as the shelves tend to topple when climbed. If
you want to incorporate these items into your decor the shelves can be covered with self adhesive shelf paper, or decorated with stickers and covered with clear self-adhesive vinyl. The people and other pieces that go with the trucks and houses can be stored in small snap top containers - look for the type with hinged lids too keep the lids from being lost. For a less expensive option for older children, use resealable bags.
Collections: Overwhelmed with Pez dispensers,key chains, or small bean bag animals? An over the door shoe organizer works perfectly to display these items.
