I am shopping online for Christmas toys and all I keep thinking is .... that has a lot of pieces that're gonna be hard to keep up with. When dad cleans house he is quick to throw things away, so, we end up with useless pieces of junk, because the other piece was thrown away! This year my 4 yr old boy is asking for a whole Hotwheels set. My 3 yr old girl is asking for a big Polly Pocket set. So, under my current storage system, those would be a waste of money! They would play with it once or twice, then leave it on the floor and dad will throw most of the pieces out. SO, I have 2 issues. 1) toy storage 2) I need to train my kids to use the toy storage properly. Currently, I have several of those big colorful plastic round totes with rope handles they sell at WalMart. The kids just dump everything in them. I tried to color coordinate by getting her pink ones and him primary colors, but that went to pot. They just dump everything in. It's been ok, because they were little kids with big, one piece toys. It's no big deal to throw baby dolls and tonka trucks into a bin. But now, they're getting into the sets with little pieces. Those things rarely come with a container. I have no problem keeping Lincoln Logs together. They're kind enough to come with storage. But what do yall do with small stuff or sets you want to keep together? I'm thinking of - Giant Zip Locs? Plastic Shoe Boxes with snap on lids? An over the door shoe organizer? I don't know. But I don't want to blow $ on toys that are going to end up under foot and in the trash. Help me out brothers and sisters.
I knew I could count on yall for some good ideas. I'm still checking for new respones, but so far, I'm going to get some under bed storage bins for the bigger things. I'm going to look for a wrapping paper organizer. I can think of a lot of things that could go in there. I put a long shelf all the way across one side of the room and I'm going to get bins with lids and plastic shopeboxes to go across it. I'm going to tape a picture and word to each - great idea. I'm going to use the big Ziplocs for little pieces and put those in bins. I've also got one of those hanging deals from ikea that I might use for a hanging bookshelf and fill with babydolls and stuffed animals.. I'm thinking I might also try to glue small trains tracks, hot wheel tracks and things together and glue them to a board. Can't lose pieces if they're all glued together. I am absolutely going to start doing the check-out thing some of you mentioned. I've done a loose version of that, but I'm going to really enforce it. Thanks for the suggestions to tweak my man, but I can't do anything about dad. I'm so grateful for his help. If I start to micromange how he does it, he might stop! Or think I'm nagging. What he does is have the kids put stuff in thier bins and then he goes behind and sweeps up. Anything that gets under his broom is a gonner. He thinks they have too much crap anyway and he is never going to sift through a pile of dirt. While I find that annoying, I'm still grateful for the help. SO, it's on me to make sure nothing ends up under his broom. Thanks for the ideas. Keep em coming.
I'm a big believer in "any port in a storm"! Ziplock bags are great (all sizes) and I try to keep everything in it's original box if possible, because once it "hits a bin" it's toast!
I TRY to allow only one thing out at a time. Then when she wants to switch gears, I make her clean up before we move on to the next mess.
Step 1: Train your husband to STOP throwing away things. Sure, have a place they can be put on "timeout" for x period of time (days, weeks, whatever... with the added bene of being able to say "SEE? Your _______ is right here on timeout. You can't play with it for x more days because you left it out. NEXT time what will you do?")... but he needs to stop throwing other people's things away! That's not teaching them anything. Out of sight, out of mind, new toy to replace the one dad tossed. Tossing stuff can work when they're older, but as toddlers... it's futile. Their memories just aren't that good yet. Even as older kids (or adults) which is more frustrating? Being able to SEE the thing you can't have, or just not having it at all?
Storage-wise, however, we used an IKEA 5x5 cubby system for several years (until we moved into a house that has sloped/dormered ceilings in kiddo's room), and then PBK produce bin cubbies. The concept for both is the same. Different types of toys in each cubby. Leggos in one, RC in another, blocks in a 3rd, sciency in a 4th, action figures in a 5th, etc.
when I was little my dad built shelves from one end of the room to the other, and we had sterilit plastic bins on them for all our toys. I like the ones with drawers. my son is little (15 mnths) so he just has a laundry basket (and I have a small decorative chest in the living room in which he stores some toys) your husband needs to stop throwing out toy pieces, even if he is trying to clean up that is being wasteful. my mom would always threaten that if we didnt pick up our toys she would "mama clean" which ment she would spend the day going through our toys and cleaning and she got rid of what ever she thought we didn't play with that often. we didn't want to see any of our toys disapear so we would pick up
Actually, if you don't buy new when your husband throws away, then your kids will learn to put things away or live without them. So even though it is a tad annoying it's an early lesson in cleaning up your own messes or suffer the consequences.
We had an old fashioned toy box that everything not picked up and put in their proper place could be thrown in......for sorting later. You have gotten lots of storage ideas that are great. This is my only other suggestion....... a fall back box for when in a hurry and feeling overwhelmed...... just so Dad won't find it on the floor and toss it.
We have the "toy check out" system for the toys like that.
We got the "shoe box" size storage boxes and in them are the accessories to the toy sets and are labeled in your case "polly pocket" but all other toys have to be put up to get the "polly pocket" bin kind of like you do at any rental place.
In the room are the big bins with the "solo" toys they can play with whenever in our closet at the top are the bins of smaller parts that get checked out and they can not check anything else out until it is checked back in. we have hardly had missing accessories to toys since this has been implimented. A little more time spent on your part but really if you are going to spend the money on the toys you may as well take the extra time out to ensure they do not get lost constantly.
And we do use a simmilar system to Reily J and have a "toy catch all" box but the toy has to be earned back ie one day of no whining gets one item of thier choice out.
I use wide and low Rubbermaid style tubs with lids. My daughter has a twin day bed that is height adjustable to add a trundle. We skipped the trundle and use the under bed space for her toy tubs. We have a tub for barbie stuff, baby doll stuff, polly pockets, Playmobil, etc, each a different color. We write on the end of the tub what is inside. She is only allowed to take out one tub at a time and can't open another one until she puts everything away and tucks the first tub under her bed. We can fit 8 toy tubs under there!
We also have a large woven basket next to her bed where all her baby dolls and stuffed animals "live". Oh & we got her a play table and put a pretty tablecloth over that...2 more small tubs are under there. To look at her room, you would think she had no toys and it's usually neat as a pin!
If your children's beds aren't high enough to fit tubs under them, there are inexpensive risers that can be purchased to raise them up (Bed, Bath & Beyond & Target both have them). This system has worked GREAT for us and my daughter's room is quite small.
We found a huge toy shelf that we used until we moved into a house where it wouldn't fit. It had several cubbyholes that worked for separating books, toys, dolls, etc.
Also we labeled every storage box (as well as dresser drawers) with words as well as pictures, so the girls started connecting words to objects.
I was able to keep the original boxes for most games & puzzles since my girls did replace them on our big toy shelf -- however, we had some friends' kids who didn't pay attention or care and sat/stepped on the boxes all the time.
Get the plastic shoe boxes with the nap on lids. Take a picture of the toy and then stick it to the box with clear contact paper. Allow them to get out one of the boxes at a time and then put it away before they are done. if they don't put it up the it goes in toy timeout for a week.
Another good way is to keep the toys available to them to maybe a third of what they own and then put the rest up. Rotate them out every month or so. As you are sorting them and deciding what stays down and what goes up, take a picture of each toy and stick it in a photo album. It will be like their own toy catalogue. When they are bored or it is time to switch them out let the "shop" through the catalogue and pick a few each that they would specifically like to have down for the next couple of months. If they are shopping because they are bored then they have to pick which toys they want to trade out and put up to get the new ones down.
We got a little tackle box (for fishing) for our sons little Star wars figures. We put Star wars stickers on it to dress it up. They have a ton of little parts that fit in the little compartments. My SIL said she used one for my niece's Polly Pocket stuff. My DD's just got a bunch of Littlest pet shop toys and I am going to get one for that stuff.
I used the following for toy storage....
recycle wipe containers - tape or glue a picture on the outside
clear plastic shoe box sized containers with snap on lids
empty large plastic jars that were from the snacks we purchased at the wholesale clubs
I work in an office and would take the sturdy card board boxes that the envelopes came in - the kids could decorate them
With all the board games, all the pieces go into a zip lock bag
the over the door shoe storage worked well
I haven't seen them in stores lately, the storage things made of mesh type material that hang, sold at IKEA - we used for dolls and doll cloths
small kid sized back packs - we had hooks on the wall to hang them
We use anything we can! Ziploc bags for Polly Pocket, those plastic wipey boxes for Barbie shoes, etc.
When SD was 6 she would leave Barbie shoes out and I'd step on them and end up with a Barbie heel embedded in my foot! Or they'd get stuck in the vacuum. I learned to put the bins up high where she had to ask to get them down. Then it was one at a time, and everything had to be put away before another one was taken out. That helped.
Now she's pretty good about at least getting the toys in some kind of bin. They aren't in the RIGHT bins, but at least the toys aren't embedded in my foot!
Well, I built the kids a huge walkin closet for toy storage with tons of shelving for all size toys and bins. STILL the toys are a disorganized mess! I have given up the battle in defeat. They really don't play with many toys now actually and believe it or not I am a little sad for the days of Thomas or StarWars characters lying everywhere!
we do the plastic storage boxes with lids of many different sizes...When my oldest was 26 months (now 3.5) i printed up labels with pictures of things to categorize them...I have another boy 18 months younger who is now almost 2 and they are so great at picking up toys. for example: one box has a clip art pic of a race car...with "cars" underneath it; all the cars go in there. We have one for all sorts of stuff: trains, blocks, abc's, puzzles, books,etc. Now each box is a mess, but they are all in there and THEY pick them up! I also have an open box from those shelving things that has "Luke's Stuff" on it for things that he just can't put in a box or wants to keep accessible. It has worked great for us. We do have one big wicker basket in the main room that all the toys go in (the boxes are in cabinets and closets). They have gotten really good at "when you are done with the cars, put them in the car bucket, then you can get out the legos bucket"...to the point where they now do it on their own...took about 3 months of repetition and harping to get the older one to do it...BUT the younger one does it now b/c of watching the older one!! I will say the BIGGEST difference was when we got the toys out of the way, the little one was less stimulated and much more happy! I was shocked at how much the chaos knocked him out of whack!
Right now I have a 4yr old son and 8 mo old daughter. My son has those colored rectangular boxes- they came with a shelving unit but we now have built-ins and don't need the shelves. Each box is labeled: hot wheels, tractors, trucks, farm, food, dress up, tools, people, balls. We then have seperate boxes for baby only stuff and a box with a lid for small pieces, legos, and his train set. Those are all in his room and knows not to take them out- sister could eat/ ruin them and choke. He knows that toys go in correct bin so u can find it easier tomorrow/ next time. It's also easy to go through and donate toys he doesn't use or things he has TOO much of. We've used the same boxes and labels since he was two so it's been fairly easy. Now with baby number two, a girl, I'm getting very anxious about December!!! Lol.
I would suggest labeled buckets for each kid!!! Have fun sorting and getting organized!
I just got each of my boys one of those plastic dresser things with 3 drawers. My younger son can use one for his train tracks, one for his littlest pet shop stuff, and one for his kitchen supplies, while my older son has a place for his legos, his trick tracks, and hotwheels tracks. We are still working on using them always, I just have to stay on them about it, and I told them that unless they can prove to me that they can stay organized they will not get anything with pieces for Yule this year.
I use baggies in each board game to separate game playing pieces from the cards and to keep the cards in some kind of order. I have a 3 tier multi-bin thing in each kid's room for the loose stuff like legos, army men, action figures, spy gear etc. There are drawer bins in their closets for hot wheels tracks, train tracks, Mr. Potato heads etc. The giant wooden toy box is for remote control items. I have a tall Christmas wrap bin for things like swords, light sabers, baseball bats, kites.
I have a cloth bin for all 'lost' pieces - this is where I put all those pieces/cards/scene it dvd's I find when I am vacuuming and cleaning up. Every so often I have them go through the bin and return the lost pieces to their rightful place.
Even with all of the organizational tools I give them AND me for their toys - they all still end up all over the house! Ugh...
Keep the big buckets for the large one-piece items, then get some plastic storage boxes with lids for the small pieces. Label them, and keep them up on a shelf where the kiddos have to ask for them... only one per child at a time. When they are done, they must get picked up and returned to the shelf before anything else can be taken out. Otherwise they dump all the pieces from all the different sets together and its a disaster!
First, I'd shop wisely--- if you already know these toys are gonna be a waste of time why bother? Yeah, I know, that's unrealistic, you are gonna get what the kids want regardless of how cuckoo the idea is! Been there.
Hub needs to learn to toss small parts into "the odds and ends basket" when he finds stuff or almost vacuums it up.... so it can be retreived later.
First, you need to solve the problem of your children not cleaning up after themselves and the problem of your hubby throwing away others belongings. Insist the kids pick up their toys at the end of the day. Schedule a cleanup time before or after dinner and pitch in for a while to teach them where everything goes. Your hubby should, also, help so that if he finds a piece that got left out during cleanup, he'll know right where it should go. Large plastic ziplocks are great for toys with small and very large pieces(race track set) and you can label what goes inside with a marker. For small toy sets the plastic shoe boxes sound like a good idea. I use medium sized Ziplocks for floor puzzles and that works great. Lastly, when it is time for hubby to clean the house,purchase him a small laundry basket(the round kind) and ask him to throw anything in there that he doesn't know where it goes or doesn't want to put away himself. The kids then get to put this stuff away in it's proper place. Empty basket equals a visit to the icecream shop!
