I've been hesitating whether or not to share my "toy storage rotation system" with the world. I finally decided I would share...with this caveat: PLEASE do not compare your own system to mine (unless you feel that yours is superior...than by all means...feel free). I do not want to share one.single.thing that will make you as a mom (or dad for that matter) feel burdened or less than. My point in sharing this TOTALLY SIMPLE MINDED system, is that you may see it and go "light bulb!" and let it be an opportunity to get your own creative juices for storage going. Or just copy it. Or, share an even better system. Just don't put yourself down or lift me up higher than I should be lifted.
Deal?
OK...so, here it is!
My cooler than cool friend Amanda asked me to meet her at Ikea one day. We had been talking about the Ikea Expedit for awhile and how she had put nearly ALL of her six children's toys in it. We ate meatballs and roamed the store for a few hours and by the time I left, I knew I had to get the Expedit. I sold my Trofast and was saving money...when City Dad came up with his brilliant idea: "Look for it on craigslist." Not only did that brilliant man save me money on taxes, we (he) didn't have to set it up the shelving unit. He simply had to borrow his brother's truck and pick it up. Much better!
***(in case you are wondering...the blue and pink bins to the left and right of the Expedit are the Target "Itso's" and I love them more than I should. They can be re-configured into different shapes for different spaces (and oh have they been through many different stages in our home) and they are so cute. (The kid's school stuff is in there, so I won't say anymore about them now.)
I have books in the upper three shelves of the expedit. This is nice. Books aren't ALWAYS thrown all over the place all of the time anymore (hint*toddlers can't get to them as easily~don't freak out moms...I make them available to my JoJo, just not ALL of the books at all times). The top three shelves will look different once I get all of our school things for next "year" ready, but for now, they are a nice book spot.
The bottom two shelves are filled with gender biased colored bins that I got from the Target dollar aisle. Maybe they were $2.50/piece but that's still kind of a steal. The children VERY EASILY put the "girl toys" in pink bins and the "boy toys" in blue ones. I don't label them (and you'll see why in a moment).
You would be A.MAZED at how many stinking toys fit into 10 bins! These bins are on the main level of our house and can be moved to the family room or office or a bedroom if need be. But for the most part these are the ONLY toys accessible to the children. They have special things in their rooms (American Girl stuff and legos mainly--that could be entire storage blog post in itself). There is also a play kitchen in the above picture which you can not see. And the basement has gross motor toys that are available at all times (but most stay downstairs).
This lovely storage shelving pictured above is in the basement. I got it on (ta-da!) craigslist. It is STURDY. And it holds...a LOT! All the rest of the kid's toys are in these bins. The idea is that every two weeks or so, we bring the canvas bins from the main level, down into the basement and swap out toys. In each bin you see, there are toys (grouped in plastic Target bags). You empty the "current" week's canvas bin into a plastic bag and put it in a downstairs storage bin. Then you take out a plastic bag of toys from a storage bin, empty it into the canvas bin, bring it upstairs and wa-la! your toys are swapped! Simple, isn't it?
This is a LIFE saver for me. When kid's are home all day it is nice to change up the flavor of "tools" for them to use in play time. It is also nice to not always have access to every tool (toy). We value things being "tidy" while also valuing the idea of actually using what we have.
This is my way of "subduing" (as Sally Clarkson would say) our toys in the home.
It is fun to go "toy shopping" with the kids and pull things out that haven't seen the sunlight in awhile!
How do you store/subdue toys? Do you have a "toy rotation"? How does it work? Just ask JuBe, I'll be changing this up in about four months (I have ants in my pants!)...so share your ideas so I can store them away for future needs!
On another quick note...
I did wake up on Mother's Day to a BEAUTIFUL perler beaded heart. I've gotten a lot of perler bead hearts for Mother's Day over the years...but this one has such a special story attached to it (Mommy, she broke my heart!) that I had to share the pictures of the surprises I was blessed with first thing in the morning.
you look GREAT!!!
ReplyDeleteWOW!
We are minimalists with toys. We mostly have nerf guns, swords, spy gear and leggos. The rest of the time is imaginary play. BUT, when we used to have more toys, toy rotation was THE way to go!