Children’s Toy Storage

It’s that time of year. The holidays are over, and your recycling and trash bins are overflowing with all the cardboard and plastic they can handle. There’s sure to be another area of your home that’s overflowing too - your child's room or playroom, with all those new toys and their accessories. Yikes!

The toys are everywhere, with no logic or reason as to why they’re shoved into that box or tossed onto the couch. It’s time for you to get those toys organized, so they stay in good shape and are easy for your child to find and enjoy over the year. Below, Porta-Stor will go over some simple toy storage ideas for you to get some organization in your child's space.

Toy Storage Bins

There are many things you can creatively use to store your child’s toys. Using stackable storage bins that are easy to label is a great way to store little toys or toys that come with a lot of accessories. You can organize by category or likeness. If you get some clear plastic bins, it’ll make it even easier to tell what’s inside each one.

Using a marker, either directly on the bin or on a piece of masking tape, you can easily label the storage bins so your older child knows what’s in them without tearing the whole room apart. You could even have your children help you do this. Let them sort the toys into the bins in the way that makes the most sense to them and then label everything themselves. This will help them get excited about getting their toys organized, and they will (hopefully) be more likely to keep it that way later.

Wooden Crates

Wooden crates are great for creating a shelving unit to hold all of your child’s books and other items. Another option is a set of square shelving units with cloth bins that fit inside, if you needed more storage space for toys. Using wooden crates for storage on shelves or on the floor gives your child easier access to their books or toys while you help them get organized by giving everything a home. Again, label everything for easier searching.

You can also paint the crates fun colors to coordinate with the room, as well as add wheels to the bottom so your child can move them around to wherever they are playing with ease!

Shelving, Shelving, and More Shelving

As mentioned above, there are many shelving units you can use for your toy storage. We talked a little about the cube shelves. Those are great because they hold canvas bins and other storage containers while being easy for your child to access. These cube shelves are also good in other rooms of your home for toy storage, since some of the storage bins can coordinate with your home décor and look nicer than just the plain canvas ones.

Using any type of shelving system is a good idea. You can stack different sized bins or baskets on them and label them so they can be easily seen. The shelving will grow with your child as well, allowing for new things to be stored and changed out as needed. Shelves help keep the little things organized and out of the way while also being visible and accessible.

Storing Games and Puzzles

Storing board games and puzzles is a hard project to tackle. All those pieces always seem to get everywhere, and losing anything can mean the game or puzzle is ruined. The boxes are all odd sizes, and puzzles get mixed up together. Yes, shelves are great for storing rectangular game boxes and puzzles, but here are a couple of other ideas to help you tackle the organization.

If the puzzles are smaller, you can think about getting some soft zipper pencil pouches and placing a puzzle in each. Once they’re stored in there, you can add a binder ring clip and hang the puzzles on a hanger that can then be hung up in a closet, or they can all be placed in a canvas storage bin as mentioned above. This creates more space for other things while keeping the puzzle pieces all together and accessible. This tip is especially useful after the original cardboard boxes fall apart and can no longer hold their contents.

Think about placing a big jar or bowl on the shelf where you keep your games and puzzles. Then if you find those pesky game pieces under the couch cushion or that missing puzzle piece under the TV stand, you will have somewhere to put those odds and ends pieces without digging into the game boxes immediately. This keeps all the like things together and everyone in your family will know where to look if they set up a game and find a piece is missing.

Storage for Craft Supplies

All the markers, crayons, and paintbrushes that seem to multiply and end up all over your house need a place to stay too. One way to organize them is by putting mason jars on a tray. You can glue them down so they stay in place. Use each jar for markers, crayons, paint and brushes, and pencils. This will help create a space for all of the craft supplies, and your child will know where to find them and where to put them back when they’re finished. You could even dedicate a little space with a small table and this art tray nearby for a creative space that your child can use.

Clothes Hampers

These larger bins can be used for more than just holding your dirty clothes. They can also hold larger stuffed animals or even outdoor toys like balls and small ride-on toys. They are great storage containers for those larger more bulky toys that seem to just move from one place to another on the floor.

For the stuffed animals that multiply faster than you can go through them, think about buying a couple of beanbag covers. Use these covers to hold all but the most treasured stuffed animals. Once it's full, they have all the stuffed animals safe in one place while your child has a new comfy seat to sit on while they read or watch TV!

Extra Container Storage

In the end, if you just have too much stuff to store, you might consider whether all of your child’s toys need to be available all the time. Do they have lots of seasonal toys that only need to come out during the holiday season? Are there outdoor summer toys that can be put away during the winter? If so, you might think about sticking those toys into your portable storage container during the off-season. If you want more information on holiday storage, check out Porta-Stor’s blog here.

It the end, it’s important to not get overwhelmed with the toy clutter. Let the organizing process be pleasant for you and your child. The more you make organizing fun and engaging, the more your child will want to keep it that way!