If you have young children, you are aware that their toys have the tendency to get everywhere in your home. With Christmas right around the corner, there will be even more toys for your kids to play with. There are a few simple storage ideas you should start using this holiday season to keep the toys in check inside and outside your house. Properly stored toys will not only eliminate the amount of mess to clean up, but you can also help your children learn some responsibility by having them put all their toys away once they’re done playing with them.
Keep It Easy
The type of storage that is most convenient for children to utilize is open bins or baskets. This way, they won’t have to worry about prying open lids to retrieve and put away their toys. Simply line the baskets up in one corner of the room or buy a low-height shelving unit to slide the baskets into. To organize further, use masking tape or address labels to label each bin with the type of toy that goes in it, like “Barbies,” “Stuffed Animals,” and “Action Figures.”
Use the Space You Have
The most cost effective method of toy storage involves buying almost nothing at all! Clean out your hall or spare closet and remove any clothes-hanging bars. If you already have shelves in the closet, that’s perfect. If not, you can always buy some cheap shelves or spare slabs of particle board from your local hardware store. You will probably still need to purchase a couple small baskets for smaller toys, but for the rest, you can simply stack them on the shelves.
Save Space in the Playroom
Playrooms are great because they have such a variety of storage options. An easy, relatively inexpensive idea is to buy some plastic drawer units. These are made to stack on top of one another, so they don’t even need to consume very much floor space. Another idea is to purchase an open storage unit that has cube-shaped modules. Then, you can stick some fabric or plastic bins in each of the modules to keep the toys somewhat out of sight, but also easy to access.
Protect Outdoor Toys
The best place to store outdoor toys, such as chalk and sports equipment, is the garage. You probably do not want to store these things outside since they will eventually get rained on and possibly ruined. In the garage, you can hang some hooks from one of the walls and attach small, plastic baskets to them. For larger items that do not fit, like tennis rackets, simply hang these items on their own individual hooks.
