This week is all about your toys, hobbies, and passions.
Oh boy! This is a BIG week.
OK, let’s talk about ALL your toys, hobbies, and passions. First I want you to list your top 3. If you were going away for a month and could only take 3 things to play with or do, what would they be?
After you find spaces for those 3 {maybe 4} categories of things, we have to tackle the rest… do you want them at all? Do you want them only a few times a year? Are they memories you want to save?
Listen to the podcast to hear all about how to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I go through a lot of examples and guide you through how to make the decisions.
In this post, I am going to show you ideas for how to store what you’ve kept.
Find a container to fit your item.
It doesn’t matter what it is. Get it ALL together and then decide what the BEST container is to hold the WHOLE thing. Here are examples:
Rainbow Loom Organization.
Whenever my kiddos start a new hobby or collect a new toy, I immediately set out to “organize it.”
And I knew the Rainbow Looms would need organization!
I had on hand a craft box from a decade ago that I gave Abby to sort her looms in.
However, when tipped, the looms do mingle. And since the trend is to take the loom maker to school, I needed a better solution.
A weekly pill container is perfect for looming on the bus or at school. Only one compartment is open at a time, so if they spill you have less to clean up. And since pill containers come in SO many sizes, you can decide how many looms in your collection need to be portable.
And as a bonus, the looms fit easily in a backpack or mom’s purse.
Littlest Pet Shop, Polly Pockets, and Other Little Toys
These Littlest Pet Shops are in a makeup bag. While decluttering your linen closet, you will often find small travel bags that are perfect for storing collections of toys. Or go to the beauty area at Walmart for the best selection and prices.
I like this bag because you can see what toys are in each compartment without opening them all. Also, this bag lies nicely on a child’s lap in the car or on an airplane.
Our son loves Legos. And, yes, I used to sort them. Talk about an effort in futility! Last Christmas, we bought him a Lego nightstand with 6 of these containers as drawers.
MISSING IMAGE OF LEGO NIGHTSTAND?
Honestly, Legos were everywhere in our house for years. Now that our son is a teenager, the majority of the Legos are put away and just a few bins remain in his room.
Store toys in old bags or backpacks.
Many boys these days have action figures that go with their video game of choice. We bought a little black backpack to tote his figures to his friends’ houses.
Store things in bins.
Storing things in different bins on bookshelves is my favorite way to organize toys, hobbies, and passions in a child’s bedroom. The thin Billy bookshelf from IKEA on the right is the perfect size to hold books and keep them standing UP.
The deeper Kallax bookshelf by IKEA on the left is big enough for a few animal habitats!
I put the same Kallax Unit from IKEA on its side to go under the windows making a “couch” in my daughter’s room. Each bin has a different item in it. This makes it easier for her to play and to pick up when she is done.
Here are the same units a few years later. See how things inside have changed?
Here are more toy storage ideas for other areas in your house.
Finding a good place to store toys is a challenge. The goal is to find a place that is accessible enough for your kiddos to retrieve and return toys. It also has to be large enough to hold ALL the toys and be out of the way of foot traffic.
Honestly, I just try to see the toy years as a lost decade and work around it, but if you are in the thick of Toyville, that’s not going to work for you!
Whatever space you have, think about the toys you want to store, the ages of your kiddos, and their interests. This client had an awesome toy closet that was located right under the stairs.
As you can see, the space was overrun by toys. There was no toy-specific storage and many toys just needed to be decluttered.
After decluttering the toy closet and seeing what was left, I used this over-the-door pocket system by Simply Stashed to hold all the smaller toy items. I put it in with command hooks so the door frame wouldn’t get ruined.
Next, I added my favorite shoe organizers as extra shelves in the closet. I LOVE these shoe organizers and use them everywhere! They come in white, natural, and black. They also come in 24-inch and 31-inch lengths, so measure before you buy.
By adding those 2 shoe organizers, I was able to separate TONS of toys and utilize the depth of the closet. It is so nice to have a little shelf there to set things on as you are getting out or putting away toys.
This toy closet was for a boy between the ages of 8 and 10. You want to think about the age your child is and the NEXT stage they are going into when organizing their toys. Many children don’t want to play with old toys, but they also do not play with them.
TRY to keep only their favorite toys in the area you are organizing. I would often box up toys and put them in storage. They were available if the kids asked for them, but not causing visual clutter.
You can see how nicely shoe boxes and other plastic containers work to separate toys and act as removable drawers. This is an easy way for kids to take out a toy with multiple parts and have all those components together.
Ideally, it makes it easy to put away, too…
There are so many ways to organize toys! But remember, the LESS you have, the easier it is to organize!
