What really works? If your kids have over-indulgent grandparents like mine did...put half of what they've got in mice-proof boxes in the attic. Rotate the toys every few weeks. Keeps the toy-clutter down to a minimum and the kids love it.

MANY years ago -- my sister used plastic bins -- (labelled with pictures and with words) to corral small toys and bits and pieces. She also used small plastic baskets in bright happy colors for the very small items.

She placed these baskets on basic white shelving in all of the kids' rooms -- and in their basement. Worked great!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

I did exactly what Jan has just described. And, as they had a lot of books, I kept them stacked upright in plastic shoe boxes on the shelves, too. This kept them in some sort of cohesive order and made it easier for the kids to find the books they wanted without pulling down all the books in their search.
Lynn

I love Land of Nod(CB kids store) StoragePalooza bins. They come in 2 bin and 3 bin sizes. I have 6 of them (3 sets of 2 stacked on each other) in antique white. They match my kitchen cabinets. The bins are large enough for baskets or other storage containers and hold a lot. Cons: They are a bit expensive and your have to put them together(previously you didn't have to).

Looks like they have one with a bookshelf now as well.

Company Kids has a similar one for less

http://www.thecompanystore.com/Stackable-Storage-Collection/70009x,default,pd.html?start=12&cgid=ck-playroom-furniture-storage-organization

Here is a link that might be useful: Storagepalooza

I never found a solution so I waited until the problem solved itself - my sons became too old for the toys. Now I am wondering where to store all these hoodies.

I also used the plastic bins for awhile, but thought they looked "cheap". This may not matter in a basement or kid's room, but some of my daughter's toys are stored in our LR where she plays with them. I purchased the fabric bins with handles sewn onto the front, which then sit on a bookshelf. The bins come in different sizes&colors which is nice. The handles make them easy to pull out, and you don't "see" the mess of toys inside! To me, it looks so much cleaner & prettier than plastic. I got mine at Target.

Depends on the age of the child. The toys I had the biggest problem with when my kids were little were the multi-pieced ones like Legos, Kinex, constructs Barbie. Those I bought inexpensive suit cases at garage sales. Put a pic of the toys that belong in them on the side and slide them under the beds at night or stacked them in a corner.

My DIL's both use bookcases fastened to the wall for the toddlers big toys. With pics taped to the back of the shelves so the kids can put the toys back when they are done.

My DIL does the same with the big toys on bookshelves nailed to the wall.

Baskets are the best for little to mid-size toys. Easy clean-up, and easy find for the child, and decorative also, whether in the bedroom or living room.

Storing half the toys is another great idea. My DIL does that also, and when a "new" toy comes out, it's like Christmas all over again!

If you have space, Ikea has bookshelves with open boxes that come in 8, 16 or 24 openings. We bought the 16 opening case and the blue bins that Ikea also sells and labeled them with different colored decocolor pens (pens for writing on plastic that is permanent). You can get bins anywhere to fit in the spaces I was just lazy at the time. while my kids are now a little older (I did this when I was pregnant with my 5 year old and had a 2 year old as well) they just kind of throw everything into the cubbies but it keeps stuff sort of organized.

It's a little messy right now but gives you a good idea..

Ikea also sells doors for those units so you could close stuff inside too. Wish I had seen them when I first bought it!

and FYI- target used to sell an 8 opening unit but not all the shelves are open in the back as well and the boxes are a little narrower..
HOpe this helps!

I am now in love with storage palooza.

thank you very much lishaana. Sort of. :)

I have been looking for toy storage and shelves for our cable box, DVD player, Tivo etc since we are going to finally retire out GIANT 10-12 year old projection screen TV to the basement.

I think this just might work. Not sure the shelves will be high enough though. Have to think about this!

We have 3 kids close in age. When we just had the one, toys were containable. When all 3 were young, we got tired of toys everywhere throughout the house. Against my husband's initial desires, we took our living room and made it a play room. We had a tv in there, all their toys in different stacking units with plastic bins. Comfy couch that we didn't really care as much about, rug that was easily cleaned. Ikea used to have lots of choices for storage units; kids are older so I haven't look for toy storage in some time. Ikea units that we had were awesome; inexpensive, kids could crawl on them, very sturdy, held up to years of abuse and were not all that pricey. The units we had were lower to the ground and wide.

Although hubby was not keen on the idea, it did work very well for us. It gave them their own space, because we left it alone as 'their' room, they tended to keep all their things in that room and not drag them all over. We even had the kids own Crhistmas tree in their room; they made decorations and hung everything themselves. It helped keep their hands off our big tree and our good ornaments which we did not want them to fiddle around with.

When the kids got bigger and their 'toys' started to changed, we added a game room to our basement and turned the living room/play room into what is now our music room. It still has the kids 'toys' in it, but more grown up things like a drum set, a clavinova and a baby grand.

This is great! I am sensing a theme of cubby boxes:) What about all those stuffed animals?
Thanks everyone!

I bought two of these bookcases from Target for some storage. My dining room is the kids' toy room and the bookcases are next to each other on a long wall. I also have several Rubbermaid plastic storage bins stacked. Those are nice b/c the kids can see what's in the bins. Works for us!

Target Adams bookcase:

A pp also shared a pic of one of these, but here is the Ikea Expedit shelf in my DS's room.

This makes storing toys and books SO much easier. We bought a second smaller one for some toys on our basement media room as well.

wow that's looking nice.
good arrangement of toys and books.

Here is a link that might be useful: Science kits for kids

I agree with mjsee. This is what I did, rotated so what they had at their disposal was manageable. They LOVED the newness when it came time to rotate. We gave up on toy boxes and bins with lids..no kid can sort the way a mom would. To find the toy they were looking for often meant dumping ALL the bins...ACK!! By the time the second child came along, we put a board across the bottom of the bedroom closet. DH secured it and put a rounded chunky trim piece across the top so there would be no sharp edges. The bi-fold closet door could still open and close. Instant toy box with no lid to worry about, even a small child can get at the toys,dig, replace with little fuss. It also cut down on the furniture in the room, left more room to actually play in. When we needed the room to look put together we closed the doors of the closet. My three learned to clean up quickly with little fuss. It has been 15 years since we needed a toy solution so no pics.

Well, my daughter is 5. The only solution(s) I've got so far are:

Toybox with a lid. It's generally a free-for-all with the toys...I gave up on super-organization with the random stuff.

For bins and places where I did want separation, I gave names to the places, and made sure my daughter knew the names from day 1. The Barbie Bin. The Block Box. The Jewelery Drawer. Dress Spot. Shoe Spot. Those places are called by their proper names and nothing else. Daughter knew/knows the names and she knew/knows those particular items go in those spaces. That helps a lot for me for a good portion of the stuff. The rest is Toybox.
Gayle

We have the stackable bins similar to the ones linked from The Company Store except ours are from Pottery Barn Kids. I liked them except over time, the paint got super chipped from the kids tossing their toys inside (as they should). Ds's bed came with rolling wooden drawers for underneath so there is additional toy storage there. We also have a wooden toybox (FIL made) in the closet and a couple large floor baskets for toys.

I'm wanting something more cohesive though and now that we have moved we have a playroom and I want all their toys in their so their bedrooms aren't messy. I'm looking into some sort of wall unit like the ones they have at Pottery Barn kids.

We have a semi-finished playroom, and we use the Trofast storage system from IKEA in an alcove. I like that the bins come in a variety of sizes. You can buy the frames and whatever bins/shelves you need separately. We use large plastic beverage tubs for costumes and larger toys. There is a train table with trundles instead of a coffee table in front of the sofa and some wicker laundry baskets on the other side of the room.

{{!gwi}}

We didn't go all out on toys for our kids so I didn't have to worry about it until our grandson came along. I happened to have a three shelf folding bookcase that six fabric Disney Cars bins that fit perfectly into them. Each one has certain types of toys them, big guys, little guys, cars, small stuffed critters and two for those big blocks. Larger toys are in a larger mesh bin with handles. When I baby sat him they were all in the sunroom, but now they are in his room upstairs. When he comes for visit we head upstairs to pick out what he wants to play with and bring them down. He has way more toys here than our two had put together. We did game night and other things to occupy our kids so they didn't need/want so many toys.

I know you will all think I'm totally nuts (and I probably am), but DH and I do this very same thing with our pups' toys - they have so many that we divided their toys into three equal sized containers and rotate them every other month. It works so well - we aren't overrun with all the toys out at once, and yet, the pups think they have brand new toys when they're rotated and the next batch is brought out.

We do leave a few of their absolute favorites out at all times, but the majority are rotated and cycled thru. :)

I also have the Expedit bookshelf from IKEA in my daughter's room and it works great. I put itso fabric bins from Target in there -- there's room for 8 bins but we use the top four shelves for books. The Expedit works well because she can access the storage bins herself. I try to keep our toys to a minimum so four bins in this bookcase and three bins in our den are sufficient to store all our toys.

DD's entire closet has built-in storage cubbies and shelves. I think DH was anticipating they would primarily be used for clothes and shoes when he installed them, but except for one clothes rack and a small area for shoes, they're used almost exclusively for toys and games.

The toys are all organized in different sized stackable Rubbermaid containers - large for dress-up clothes, medium for Barbie dolls, small for Legos, etc.

I also have this antique hutch with a bin in my dining room. The bin has 3 sections that I use to store outside toys, skates, soccer bags, etc.

Funny this thread popped back up! Ever since I commented on it I had been debating on ordering those bins from land of nod. I looked in to the ones from the company store, and they are cheaper. The company store also has sales. The difference though is that the ones from land of nod come with hardware to mount them to the wall. I was just about ready to order them. I had sample chips of the colors and had navy blue picked out.

Then I came across this ridiculously long farm work table thing on ebay....

It was close to my house and the price was right. I also like that it can stay when he grows up and I can put other things on it someday. I just have to find some bins now and get my son to start cleaning up with me. He has just started doing that.

I like the canvas box type things shown above, but it seems like kids can't see in them too well. That isn't a problem?

I thought I would need either plastic bins or bins that have a lower front so it is more obvious what is inside. For now I have been just stacking his toys on the shelves and on the floor underneath.

Well I decided to go ahead and order some wall unit pieces from JCPenny last night. They were on sale and I had a 15% off coupon code and an additional 5% off through my CC.....plus free shipping. Here is what they look like but I will post pictures once I get them installed....although I'm doing 4 drawers across the bottom with four of the four cubbies on top:

{{!gwi}}

Oh that's going to look so nice Regina.

I love that storage Regina.
Pipdog, what is the color you used in your DD's room. I love the color you used in your DS's room too. Would you mind sharing it?
Thanks in advance,

hi vidyaram, the paint in my daughter's room is Silver Sage by Restoration Hardware.

Confession: I'm green with envy over those of you who are within a reasonable distance to an IKEA. Their style isn't mine, but I love their storage solutions, gadgets, lingonberry drink, etc. The nearest one is a 6+ hour drive so I've only been a few times since moving. But I lived in Sweden for a bit and miss IKEA dearly. :(

I use the "Cubicals" thing from Rubbermaid in my DD's playroom. We have the 9 cube unit and the 8 cube unit. Fabric bins on the bottom half of the 8, with her artwork hanging above. 4 bins in the 9, with a tv/dvd above. That, and her playroom is a converted bedroom so we have the closet built-ins for toy storage too.

Boop, do you plan on using the table only for toys? Now is a good time to teach him about his things and your's. If you have decorative objects you want to set out you can use museum putty to keep from coming off the table. Believe me, he'll become bored pretty quick with grown-up stuff and it gives you a chance to do your own decorating now. :)

I think it'd look cute if a portion (like a third) of the table was for his things. It'd keep the room from looking cluttered. And baskets on the table shelves with his things would be so cute and far easier to pick toys up with from the floor. Especially for a quick clean-up if company comes over!

I do love baskets! I have a large white one in the LR for my 2 1/2 yr. old GS full of toys and I have so much fun adding to the collection. lol