Need to Find a Way to Organize Play Area

For my daycare I use clear totes so you can see what is in them and then I put up those white wire shelves (that you see at home depot and menards) up high around the perimeter of the room. I put play tools, blocks, play food, play dishes, train set and everything else that has a lot of peices in the totes and then they go up on the shelf. I probably put up more than you would want because I don't want to have such a mess. And the rule is that they can't get another tote down until the first one is picked up. It is relatively easy and inexpensive.

The best thing we ever did was making a big wall of shelving and sort all of the toys out into buckets and ziplock bags and put them up. Now there are some that are lower down but it they want something that isn't down low they have to ask for it and when they are done it's put back in the little bucket or bag and put back up. Most of the time they had been just dumping out the toy boxes just to find one little toy and then the rest was everywhere. Now it's so nice to be able to see the floor.
Good luck organizing,
J.
Mom to 4 kids ages 5,4,3 and 1 and adopting a 6 year old. The 3 and 6 year olds have Angelman Syndrome www.angelman.org

Amy's got the right idea. The clear totes....

My daughter(6) has totes in her room the huge ones that you would store like winter clothes in or whatever. And each storage tote is labeled Barbies, Polly's, My little Pony's, BabyDolls, Bratz and so on. My daughter can only have one out at a time too and clean up is a cinch. This also keeps the toys from mix matching because if they mix all their toys in one toybox they start to miss pieces and then really don't play with the toys at all. If your trying to make this look pretty you could always decorate the totes, paint them or something.

As far as art/crafts I'm doing this as my daughter's xmas present. I bought a utility banquent style table from Menards, then went to walmart and bought those storage carts on wheels that have several drawers. And I went nuts with art supplies that's my daughter's "Art Center" She is gonna love it, she likes to art stuff more than anything and it's all going to be done at her table all organized every crayon, marker will have a home etc. That was my idea to get her stuff off our kitchen table.

With books we have thousands, I did try the whole book shelf idea for awhile but then it got messed up all the time or it looked so nice and neat she wouldn't go grab a book to read and because we have so many books I finally just threw them all in laundry baskets on the floor. I have them seperated right now in a basket she can read by herself and harder books into another basket I have to read to her or she will grow into. It's all completely accessable to her and she can't make a mess.

Hi M.,
The first thing I would do is divide everything you have into five groups containing some toys, games, books, arts & crafts materials. & anything else you have. Put away four of the groups, & only have one group of materials out at a time.
That should take care of the clutter factor, plus it will make the toys in each group seem like new each time you bring them out. Rotate the toys about every 2 wks. or whatever length of time you find works for your kids before your 6 yrs old gets bored with a group of toys.
He may be getting over-stimulated by so many choices of items.
We have 6 chidren, ages 10-22, so the type of clutter I deal with now has changed from the type you're dealing with. But, when they were younger, this was the technique my husband & I used, & it worked very well. It was passed on to us by several more-experienced parents. You'll find what works best for your family, M.!

So many great ideas here! A couple other things I'd suggest:
With the age range of your kids, I'm sure there are things your 6 year-old plays with that you'd rather not have your baby get into (like Legos, etc.)A table--something simple like a card table, or even a taller train table, would be nice for things like that. They are also great for things "in progress" like puzzles or crafts, so you can leave them overnight or during dinner without leaving them on the floor. Another thing I'd recommend is labeling the totes with either pics or stickers of what's inside. You can do this as cheaply as taking digital pics, then printing them out in reduced size on regular paper & taping to the tote. This way your little one can help clean just by matching the like items. It actually becomes a game to them. It's amazing how the clutter multiplies, isn't it?!

A few suggestions...
Books:instead of books lined up on a book shelf with only the spines within view put them in a bin and have the fronts facing forwards so your kids can "flip" thru them much like a card catalog at the library. This way they can easily see the fronts of the books they want instead of having to pull down several to get hat they want as its hard to tell at that see what a book is just from its spine.
Toys: I am still working on this at our house but here are a few things I have come up with...I actually put away about half of my toys at once in to bins that are not accessible to my kids. This solves two things...one it hides a multiple of toys at any given time b.c they are away and at the age my kids are at (2 and 3) if I pull out a bin of toys that hasn't been seen in awhile they think its all new so the boredom factor is somewhat alleviated. So every couple of weeks or so I pull out the "new" bin and put away the "old" toys which will magically become like new after their out of sight for a couple of weeks.
I have an armoir from Ikea (the tall one with doors that open, not drawers) and I put a lot of stuff in there, I have a hanging fabric shelf I also bought at ikea where I put clear plastic shoe boxes of stuff like puzzles, playdo accessories, etc, the other side is for bigger bins like for my duplo and wooden blocks. My bins aren't clear but Target would have clear plastic bins that would fit in it and stack so the kids can see what's inside.
I am not too keen on the whole toy box idea as I just end up with a giant pile of toys no toddler could ever manage to reef thru to find what he/she wants and all the small pieces float to the bottom never to be seen again, or at least til you take the time to clean it out yourself:) SO I have a couple of shallower bins that they can more easily manage.
I also have one of those wooden bin holders and it works well b.c things are divided (like that lasts too long with toddlers but its a start) and things are easily seen but it certainly wouldn't do for ALL my toys so I have just gone to "hiding" stuff in bigger bins then rotating every thing so we have the kitchen stuff out one day, the puzzles the next, wooden trains and blocks a couple of days after that, and so on.
I would certainly like more ideas on how to manage toys wo will read your responses, hope you get a few ideas.
K. H