Organize Those Toys!

Doesn't that sound like the impossible task?!

Well, it is a challenge and it does take some time. Especially with four kids who have had a collective 55 birthdays and Christmases (not to mention friend birthday parties!) - we have a lot of toys!
But, I think we do a good job keeping the toys under control, and this is how we do it:


Both my husband and I hate it when we feel like we are living in romper room. I am more understanding about the fact that the kids need to have space and opportunity to play, but I also need some serenity around the house for myself.


After much trial and error, we decided to give up our den, move our computer into our family room and have a toy room for the toys.

Now, I know not everyone can dedicate a room to the toys, but our strategies in this room can work anywhere in your house, too.


First, this room is off of our kitchen area, so it is nice to have it looking uncluttered from the doorway. That is why we lined two of the walls with shelving, but left the main two walls free to showcase the window and pine walls. We purchased an inexpensive table and benches at IKEA (less than $60 for the whole deal), so the kids can play at the table or do arts and crafts. When we have a crowd over, it is a great kids' table for dinner. For the our last party, I covered the table in paper, placed stickers and crayons into containers and the kids had tons of fun decorating the table while they waited for the adults to finish eating.



Across from the table, we have the play kitchen area. There are also two rolling carts - one holds Legos and one holds Barbies and accessories. It is nice to have those accessible, but tucked away so that the little ones don't get into the small pieces without supervision.


The other two walls hold shelving that goes nearly to the ceiling.




One these shelves, I put the toys for younger kids on the bottom shelves, so Will can entertain himself on occasion. Next, I tried to group like items: games, puzzles, baby doll items, doctor kits, puppets, kitchen accessories, etc. Whenever possible, I put like items into bins and labeled them. I also put items up high that are labeled, so that the kids can easily see what is up there and ask for us to get it down. We can rotate the items, as well.


It is important to note that not all of the toys fit in the toy room. Alex has some toys in her room, Max has a table in his room that has baskets under it with some toys in them and Will has some baby toys in his room that he stills plays with at times.


We also have some baskets under a window seat that we made in our family room. Those six baskets hold tons of toys - we have one with dinosaurs, one with trucks, one with Lego vehicles, one with Little People vehicles and two that hold misc. toys.


I store some of the Little People, smaller cars and such in canvas boxes on our bookshelves in the family room and we gave a train table with trains and cars in drawers underneath it.

We also gave up our front closet for Little People play set storage and Duplo storage. Someday when people come over I will be able to hang their coats in the closet, but until then, at least I don't have toys all over the living room.



There are a few toy spots around the family room for Will, too.
In order to give the kids some place to play near us, we leave part of our family room clear. This gives the kids room to toss down some car mats or drag out the Little People stuff and play for the day.



But, before bed, it all gets tucked away into its spot and we enjoy an organized, clean space before bed each night.



Not quite peace on Earth, but almost.

For more great ideas on organizing toys, check out this post at Handprints On The Wall!