OK, it’s day two of our organizing week and we’re currently working on our crazy sink drawer that we shared yesterday. In the meantime, this isn’t one of those organizing play by plays with before, during, and after pics (that’s this afternoon’s post) it’s more a full breakdown of a system that works for us when it comes to taming the Clara-phernalia that threatens to take over our house. Around twice a week we get a question like: “can you do a post about how your organize Clara’s stuff? I could really use some ideas on how to control the chaos!” So here’s the rundown.
In the beginning it was pretty simple. She was little so we had a small ottoman and a basket with rattles and balls, and a swing and a few little blankets on the floor for tummy time. You can actually read a post all about that stage of kid clutter here.
Well, that was child’s play compared to toddlerdom. Why? Those were the days before she had A MILLION AND ONE THINGS. Ok, I’m exaggerating. But really, the girl has books, crayons, bowls, drums, stuffed toys, faux food for her kitchen, buckets, balls, blocks, toy cars, and dolls galore. As much as we said we’d try to keep it simple and not buy more things than one toddler can play with, well, we got hand-me-downs and birthday/holiday gifts, and it all added up.
And I was not good very very bad at devising or maintaining any sort of system for nearly 10 months (pretty much since she got mobile it got crazier). I just crammed the growing piles of kid clutter into various baskets and ottomans (seven of them!), never taking the time to group things so that I knew where to find them later. It just all got piled in, and some nights it just stayed on the floor because I was too tired. And remember our new ottoman which started out looking like this?
Well, that actually became the key to my organizational epiphany. And now it looks like this (don’t mind the pink tint, I forgot to white balance):
But that more cluttered “after” above is a good thing. It brings me immense joy that so many toys can be crammed in there. Why? I finally decided not to leave every last toy that Clara might play with out at all times. So many friends of mine said their kids were happier/more stimulated if their toys were switched out, instead of just giving them free rein of a million things at once. And when I read this quote in The Happiness Project (remember John got me that for my b-day?), it sealed the deal:
The head of Eliza’s school told a story about a four-year-old who had a blue toy car he loved. He took it everywhere, played with it constantly. Then when his grandmother came to visit, she bought him ten toy cars, and he stopped playing with cars altogether. “Why don’t you play with your cars?” she asked. “You loved your blue car so much.” “I can’t love lots of cars,” he answered.
So right then and there I decided my big white ottoman would become my “toy store.” It would be the place I stashed every last toy that wasn’t Clara’s current favorite. I literally combed through everything and pulled out only the “best-of” toys that she plays with all the time – the rest got piled into the bit white ottoman. Would you believe I was left with one basket?!
One glorious, manageable basket (from Target by the way). The kicker? It could be a developmental coincidence, but Clara started playing independently for longer stretches pretty much as soon as I made this switch. I’m not sure if she was getting bored or overwhelmed with her old bounty of everything, but she definitely spent time with many of the things in her basket for longer periods than she used to when she had an explosion of too many toys to really focus on anything for more than a minute. It was like Clara’s Greatest Hits: The Basket.
It takes way less time than you think to ruthlessly yank out anything your kid doesn’t currently play with (no maybes, just leave favorite toys only) and stash the rest in a big plastic bin in the closet or an under-bed storage container. Maybe it took me half an hour total? And now I can clean up her basket in two minutes when she goes to bed – and quickly rotate other toys in and out whenever the mood strikes. But I always keep it to one basketful. That’s the key. She loves when new things show up, since it seems to keep her interested. Here’s what’s in there now:
A few favorite stuffed animals, a wooden pull toy, balls, a purse from Grammy, a few baby dolls, a dress up skirt that she wakes up and demands to wear, and a pot that she loves taking small items in and out of. But the favorite items are actually in that fabric pouch (remember we got that for her as her Easter basket?). She likes the fabric pouch itself for the fun she has opening and closing the zipper…
… and as for what’s in there: few favorite cars, a fake cell phone and John’s old disconnected real one, a wood train, a small ball, some plastic animals, a plane that we got her for our Hawaii trip, and a shaker, two sticks, and a scarf from music class.
This small pouch full of favorite toys probably comes into play at least four times a day – she loves it. And I love that it all can get shoved into one basket every evening. Still haven’t gotten around to dusting the media cabinet though- haha. Someday…
In my new system, we also have two baskets of books. One in the office (which she likes to look at on the rug on her own or read in the chair with us)…
… and one in the living room.
Sure, she’ll bring a few books into other rooms throughout the day, but now that we have two designated book baskets, we know where they go. Books used to be mixed in with toys and balls and stuffed into ottomans in a bunch of places. Now it’s nice and streamlined without any thinking necessary. Toys go in the toy basket and books go in the book baskets. Someday we’ll get her a bookcase but we’re convinced she’ll just take everything out of it every time we fill it up, so baskets work for now.
Recognizing how many Clara zones there are for her to enjoy really helped me not get all down on myself for “limiting” the stuff that’s at her disposal by stashing un-favorites in the ottoman. For example, she has her coloring desk (which used to be our desk that we made from a door in our first house’s office):
I love that you can tell she’s a leftie from her scribble. Awww. That’s marker scribble, so it’s something we do with her (those things can get messy, so we supervise markers, play dough, and chalk). But her crayons are just stashed in that small zippered green pouch and her stickers are in the yellow pouch (both of which came from TJ Maxx for a few bucks, and offer her unlimited entertainment when it comes to taking things in and out and zipping and unzipping them).
Then in the hallway we have her rocker (a sweet gift from the grandparents a while back). She’ll randomly hop up from paging through a book or playing with her cars and just walk into the hallway to rock for a little while (see how we kid-proofed the frames at the bottom of the wall here).
Then she has her Christmas play kitchen (that we Santa made for her here).
It thankfully stores all of her kitchen-stuff in the cabinet under the sink and that small metal shopping basket I found for 20 cents at a thrift store. So those things have a spot too. If I see one in the kitchen, I bring it back into her room and put it away instead of tossing it into a random jumbled basket.
We also have two baskets (from Linens N Things about five years ago) under her dresser, one that’s full of blocks and one that’s full of puzzles.
One of my biggest annoyances was that Clara couldn’t do any puzzles since her puzzle board might be in one basket in the office and four of the pieces would be in the basket in the living room. So I organized them once and for all by giving them their own basket. Of course I still find pieces in the living room or the kitchen, but now I know where they go. So each night I usually make one trip back to her room as we’re putting her to bed (with any puzzle pieces or play kitchen items that need to be dropped off). It’s much faster than desperately searching for missing puzzle pieces and realizing they’re all over the house and I’m about to lose an hour of my life trying to find them.
I actually got the puzzles-in-a-shallow-basket idea from my neighbor (she has a daughter about a year older than Clara). It might be obvious to some people, but after trying to shove them into big round baskets and ottomans (and hearing all the pieces clatter out and fall to the bottom), I saw shallow baskets next door and realized they were a great way to keep the boards and pieces stacked together.
There’s also a book basket in Clara’s room with a bucket of wood blocks next to it. They usually don’t leave Clara’s room, but if they do the books can go into either of the other two book baskets, and the blocks get brought back at night when we bring play kitchen and puzzle pieces back. This might sound complicated, but it’s one walk down the hall with stuff that goes into Clara’s room each night since we know what goes in there now. It’s novel. And we’re also starting to ask Clara to help us clean up (she even sings the clean up song!) so sometimes she brings things back where they belong instead of us. That rocks too. It’s nice that even Clara’s picking up that certain things have “a home” to be returned to.
Oh and here are those “supervised” activities that we do with Clara (they all get tucked into a drawer in the kitchen so they’re special things we’ll whip out if she’s ever having a restless moment and we want to change things up. Since they’re not always out at her disposal, they’re always met with excitement.
And when it comes to outdoor activities, the rock box has continued to be a hit among toddlers. Our three year old neighbor actually joined Clara in a little Sunday afternoon rock romp, so it’s nice to know that it’s another “zone” where Clara can have some fun and dig around.
One organizational thing that we do need to tackle is an outdoor storage bin (we’re thinking of grabbing something like this) for the buckets and trucks that don’t fit inside her rock box when it’s covered. So we’ll keep you posted! In the meantime, that’s our kid-clutter rundown. We have no idea if this system will work for us when Clara and her toys get bigger – in fact I’d bet that it’ll keep changing and evolving – but you know we’ll blog all about it as we go.
What do you guys swear by when it comes to organizing kid stuff? I’m sure there are a million ways to skin this cat (gross expression, sorry) so we’d love to hear what works for you. My BFF has a giant playroom packed to the gills with stuff and her kiddos love that room, so there are definitely lots of ways to go!
Psst- Wanna know where we got something in our house or what paint color we used? Just click on this button:
rachael says
I noticed that you don’t have any battery operated toys. You know, the plastic, bulky ones from Playskool, or FisherPrice, the ones that when you push a button, it does all the work for the baby? How did you manage to never receive those as gifts?
YoungHouseLove says
I’m not sure! We did have one of those tables where a kid pulls up on it and pushes buttons and it makes noise but it was a hand-me-down so we gave it back to the original owner (who will have another kiddo and use it) which is nice since we don’t have to store it!
xo,
s
Beth Anderson says
Hah! My husband is actually the industrial designer for the company that makes these fading, finger-bashing deck boxes! But this is great feedback for the company and I’m passing it along.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, it’s such a small world! A few folks said they had them and loved them so it seems like we’re getting lots of info on them! So helpful.
xo,
s
Kate S. says
I really like the baskets full of books. I guess I haven’t seen that before and it really is a lovely idea to encourage regular reading.
Darnetha says
I love organizational post, it always gets me in the mood to reinvent my system. As far as toys are concerned, I have tried everything, but it seems my kids have their own idea for organizing toys (everything shoved under the bed).
cameron says
When I read that Clara plays with an old disconnected cell phone, I had to pass this along. My twins love cell phones, and we gave them a couple of old ones to try to keep them from playing with ours. But they weren’t fooled since the old ones didn’t light up or make noise.
We put a battery back in one thinking that it wouldn’t matter since the phone didn’t have any service. The next day, I walked into the room where my son waas playing and to my shock, heard a woman’s voice coming out of the phone!I didn’t realize it, but if a phone has a battery and a SIM card, it can still call 911, even if it has no service. So my son was chatting away with the 911 operator!! Thank goodness I caught him and apologized profusely before emergency services were on their way. Lesson learned- old cell phones are great toys, but only if you take the battery out!!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh, good to know! Our battery has been dead on that one for a while, thank goodness!
xo,
s
Ash says
The story about the trucks (and the oversaruration in toys in general) reminds me of one of my favorite things : the “monkeysphere,” or more scientifically called “Dunbar’s number.” It’s a cool phenomenon in the brain that keeps us from associating/caring about more people (and probably things) than our brain can handle. This article (some spicy language!) explains it really well (although Wikipedia has the more technical mumbo-jumbo with words like “neocortex,” heh):
http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html
Anyway, it prob explains why kids (and adults!) seem to do better with a pared-down system. I thought it was kinda cool, just wanted to share! Trivia FTW :)
YoungHouseLove says
So interesting! Definitely some spicy language, but something to think about!
xo,
s
natalie says
pinning this for the day I have a kiddo! great tips… thank you, Young House Love!
Meg@ Green Motherhood says
I was wondering when the dump baskets were going to stop working for you! We outgrew that method a little while ago too. As a former PreK teacher, I used a lot of my classroom experience to try and organize our toy explosion.
And yes, they play with their toys more when there is some sort of order to it. Check out some stuff about the Montessori principle, it’s very along the lines of what ya’ll are naturally doing.
Here’s our toy organizing inspired by Montessori
http://www.thegreenmother.com/2012/05/puhlease-baby.html
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, I’m a Montessori kid (went through 6th grade). Love it! Think that link might be wrong though- would love to see toy organizing!
xo,
s
Meg@ Green Motherhood says
Oops! Sorry. Our Internet is wonky today
http://www.thegreenmother.com/2011/12/attempting-montessori-at-home.html
I totally forgot you were a Montessori kid! Thats why this in ingrained in you!
YoungHouseLove says
I love it! And Isla June is looking so cute with that blueberry bum!
xo,
s
Jenny says
I have to tell you guys that your organization posts are really kicking me into gear. Childless though I may be- the clutter in my place is mine! Art supplies EVERYWHERE.
These are terrific suggestions. I also have to take a couple of sentences just to say that I’ve been lurking here for ages and I absolutely love your blog. Years of reading and subsequently leaving various blogs left me a bit jaded, but you have managed to maintain a really refreshing style and a great respect for your readers. Thank you!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Jenny! So sweet of you to say. Happy organizing!
xo,
s
Lizbeth says
Thanks for the wonderful ideas! Does anyone have any suggestions for how to organize when you have a preschooler and an I-eat-everything-baby? I love the Montessori philosophy of keeping things accessible to kids so they can make choices about their own activities, but my one year old thinks that crayons are yummy, books are for tearing, and small toys are great for stealing? When they get older, we’ll be able to separate their stuff and help them to respect their sister’s “special things,” but what to do with a little girl who isn’t old enough to understand boundaries?
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh great question! Anyone have tips?
xo,
s
Dora B says
We have an outside storage box like the one you showed as inspiration and ours is outside in South Alabama heat and humidity and is still in great shape and our yard gets alot of sun all day. We love it for storing outside toys close to the kids sandbox.
Another thing that we do is that some trucks and toys end up becoming outside only toys and that helps us clear up the clutter inside- which is awful right now with a 6 year old boy obsessed with cars and a 2.5 year old girl obsessed with everything- toys that didn’t really get played with inside get played with outside more.
YoungHouseLove says
Smart!
xo
s
Sabrina says
We do the same thing, but I had gotten lazy with it. I just read this post and immediately got up to swap out some toys. It took me less than 5 minutes. Thanks for the push!
YoungHouseLove says
Yay- so glad!
xo,
s
Mama Gigi says
We have always been switcher-outers (he gets two small ottomans in the living room and two small boxes in his room for toys). What we recently did was sort out his toys into “animals and people” in one box, cars in another, tools in another, and blocks in another. He also has a “music” box.
He plays SO MUCH BETTER and for so much longer with his his things stored like this.
Plus – the amazing thing is that he actually puts his things away in the right box (at 23 months!).
YoungHouseLove says
That’s amazing!
xo,
s
Emily says
How happy does it make me that your media cabinet is covered with a thin film of dust too?! We have the exact same one from Target, purchased secondhand from my husband’s former coworker for $40 about four years ago–and it’s starting to sag in the middle since we upgraded to a bigger TV. I recently returned to grad school, found out I was pregnant (and thus, constantly tired), and adopted a puppy, so to say that the housework has slipped as of late is a nice way of putting it. The other day I noticed paw prints on the dust of our media cabinet and was horrified–what have I become? Yet do you think I managed to find ten seconds to wipe them off? Nope!
Knowing that even organization and homey DIY gurus like you two also have dusty furniture and aren’t afraid to admit it makes me smile. Sometimes you inspire not by your beautiful projects and crafty skills, but by demonstrating that you’re everyday people just like us–and proud of it. :)
Annette says
I have 3 kids (3 and 4 y/o boys and 2 y/o girlie) and I recently converted half of the boys’ closet into toy storage. Even with older kids, keeping most of the toys out of sight keeps the clutter at bay! Now I just need to do the same with my daughter’s room.
Erin says
As someone without kids, I can totally appreciate this post and your ability to contain the toys and books without making your house look like Toys R Us. I can’t stand when I go into friend’s homes and I see that they converted their formal living room or family room into little tykes central. Baskets that coordinate with existing decor and
ottomans that provide appropriate storage are great for making your house still look like adults live there – and
not just little ones.
And not that I’m comparing having a dog to having a child (ok I am – my puggle Guinness is my baby), I do the same to coordinate my dogs menagerie of toys and food.
Jenny says
Haha, the Montessori teacher in me was cringing every time I read about YOU picking her things up. I’m glad to hear that she’s helping too!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, of course she helps! I was a Montessori kid through 6th grade. Represent!
xo,
s
Laura says
It looks like you don’t have many electronic toys but here is a tip that worked for me…I wounldn’t put batteries in my girls’ toys for months/years after they were opened. For example, my Middle recieved an electronic doll house when she was about 2. She played with it for 3 yrs or so until it got ‘boring’. I put batteries in it and it was a brand new toy for her! I think it is better for kids to use their own imagination anyway. I think she would have been bored with the toy much sooner if it always been electronic.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a really smart tip!
xo,
s
Jamie@VTMamateurs says
The kid-toy storage is an endless battle in our home too. We too are big, BIG fans of baskets for containing toys, books, etc. We also rotate toys out quite a bit- so some are kept in the basement- that way we aren’t picking up ALL the kid toys every day AND it keeps it fresh for the wee-one ;)
Heidi P. says
I’ve been doing the same thing! So much better than having free reign of all the toys. I agree that it must just be overstimulating. He also plays with his toys more after I pick up and organize.
Charlynne says
Such an inspiring post. I have a soon-to-be three year old and a six month old. I so want to have all the toys organized, but get overwhelmed when I think about sorting them. I am definitely more motivated by your ideas.
Renee says
Not incredibly attractive but we used to keep the puzzles like those that would fit, in the largest size ziploc bags. One puzzle per bag and all of those bags into a basket. I had been keeping them in cloth bags but the ziplocs allowed our daughter to easily see which puzzle was inside.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s smart!
xo,
s
alex says
Okay, maybe its just me, not that i don’t love Disney movies or didnt have toys from movies, not many, just a few favorites. But I loathe going into a babysitting job where the kids playroom looks like toystory or cars or Disney princesses threw up, it just seems super unstimulating and redundant….but how do you guys feel about “theme toys” I have noticed and adore the fact that Clara doesnt have too many toys that make noise or require little to no imagination to play with…is that just a personal learning / toy choice?
YoungHouseLove says
I think we’re drawn to the more classic wooden toys and cloth dolls (stuff we grew up playing with) but Clara definitely gets her fair share of plastic toys and things that make noise, so we just pay attention to what she likes (she seems to love “pretending” to be a grown up, so fake phones and fake kitchen food is her favorite) and stash everything else she doesn’t in the big white ottoman. Haha. And we do try to suggest gift ideas to relatives who ask when a birthday is approaching (ex: when she turned one we said: just bring your favorite kids book for her and that’s plenty!” which really cut down on the giant loud plastic toys!
xo,
s
Karen says
I love this post, and love that organization week matches up to the week my baby is due! I am in organization/ cleaning heaven right now and when I take a break and read your blog it makes me feel like I’m making progress, not just reading about it. You are making a nesting mama to be very happy!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, congrats Karen! So exciting that the baby’s coming any day now!
xo,
s
Traci says
Former Toddler Teacher here. I love your storage ideas. Toddlers love to do things themselves, so I love that you made it easy for her to use too! I especially love the book baskets.
A few tips to take or leave:
Picture labels are great for little ones. They love putting things back where the picture is and if you add a word label with it you help to develop word recognition. (Clara’s still a bit young for that, but it never hurts.) For cheap lamination check out a teacher store like Lakeshore which let you use their lamination machines for 40 cents per foot with each foot being 3 feet wide.
For the puzzles, you might consider adding velcro to the pieces. It is a life-changer in keeping the pieces with the puzzles and it helps little ones from getting frustrated by spilling puzzles. The only downside is the pieces won’t sit in the puzzle as nicely as they did, but I found the benefits outweighed this.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tips Traci! Love it!
xo,
s
Jenna at Homeslice says
Sounds like an awesome plan. My favorite part is that you have stuff of clara’s all over the house. I think that’s important and logical. Thanks for sharing!
Casey says
Wow you two are off to such a great start! My older kids are now 9 and 7, and kid clutter was taking over our whole house! I’ve finally gone through everything so many times, each time giving bags of stuff to charity, that I feel like things are finally manageable and organized. Now we have an almost 2 year old, and I won’t make the same mistakes again! As soon as a new toy is bought or given to her, something old and unused goes to charity. We have designated zones for toys as well, and I’ve found it’s best that when the amount of stuff increases, rather than trying to find more space to store everything, I just get rid of the excess.
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
We don’t have kids yet, but this gives me soooo many ideas when we do have one. ;) I love the thinking of only having the toys they are playing with now and then switch them out. So smart!!! I see other kids in my family that just seem to have way too many toys and they seem to go from one toy to the next toy within a matter of minutes. Thanks for sharing what works for you. Great job!!! :)
Cassie Helwig says
We organize pretty much the same way you do, except that we have a 3 year old and an 8 month old, so there are 2 levels of toys everywhere -_-
We have a play kitchen in the living room along with a small wagon with stuffed animals and a bucket for duplo, and board books (all things the baby can play with) and there are also coloring books, crayons, and colored pencils.
The baby doesn’t really play in their room because it’s upstairs, so for now that disaster area is all of my three year old’s toys, and something I need to get to soon.
dervla @ The Curator says
Great ideas here, and i love the Amy Butler fabric pouch. I’ve given up trying to pick up the toys until the end of the day, otherwise I drive myself crazy because my 3 year old just takes them right back out a few minutes later. We do it together as part of her bedtime ritual.
Megan L says
Thanks for the post Sherry. We rarely if ever buy toys for our little guy but grandparents and aunts and uncles definitely make containing his toys difficult. We live in an apartment where space is coveted. Totally appreciate putting out his favorite and storing the rest. We have to make room for #2 (a girl) coming along soon and already I’m dreading the collection of toys we will have to deal with. Thanks again!!!
Carli says
Love this post guys! I don’t have any kiddos of my own just yet, but when I do, I hope my storage solutions look like yours. They’re fab! :)
Kelly says
You are totally right about thinking Clara would just pull books off a bookshelf. The boy I used to nanny had a gorgeous built-in bookshelf in his room, loaded with books, and without fail, every single day that we played in his room, the entire bookshelf would be on the floor!
Janice says
One thing to be aware of with John’s old cell phone, even though its not on any network, it can still make 911 calls (FCC requirement). Link: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/wireless-911-services and relevant portion: The FCC’s basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to a PSAP, regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider’s service or not.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip! The battery is dead so it doesn’t even turn on or make 911 calls since it has no juice!
xo,
s
mp says
You’re spurring me to get my uber-messy office in order! I just have to pray for strength to finish!
Emily says
I just went and put a TON of toys in our ottoman. There were two blankets in there, but I don’t mind finding those a new home. Our 19 month old was very interested in what I was doing, but I had her help me. “Which toy kitty do you want? This one or this one?” I watched as she picked up her toy Cookie Monster and hug it like she hadn’t seen him in months! (I bet she hasn’t!)
Thanks a lot for the organizational nudge, I think I’ll be getting The Happiness Project soon. Oh, and I totally emptied and reorganized the coat closet yesterday because of you too! :)
RLR says
I still haven’t solved our storage problems indoors, but for outside toys I use a (clean) rolling garbage bin. Here’s a nearly 3-year-old post about it. The toys have changed a bit, but the bin is still in use!
http://momsmagic.blogspot.com/2009/07/storing-outdoor-toys.html
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love it!
xo,
s
Leah says
I’m a sociology major in college and at the risk of sounding like the most nerdy liberal out there, I wanted to say that I love that you guys not only ALLOW Clara to play with trucks, cars, footballs, animal toys, and tool puzzles, but you ENCOURAGE it. That’s really rare and she will surely be a well-rounded little girl. Don’t let her enthusiasm for those things diminish. :) And as always, great tips. I love organizing (is that weird) so this week is a complete dream haha.
alg at rental house rules says
I use the same designated basket/bin system. I also make sure to take a smallish basket with me when I do the bedtime “walk about” (ie: picking up stray toys.)
It really helps make it a one-lap proposition, because your hands never get full halfway through :)
Katie says
How much kitchen “stuff” does Clara have? We’re going to be giving my daughter a play kitchen soon and have been wondering how much is fun but not too much…
YoungHouseLove says
She has as much as you see in the picture with the play kitchen open. A bunch of wooden pantry items and fruit to “cut” (it’s velcroed together) and a few pots and spatulas. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Ali says
Some great ideas for storage. Toy storage is driving me crazy as we have three little boys with a million things each. And I’ve been toying (pun intended :)) with the idea of eliminating a bunch so that they aren’t as overwhelmed. If there’s too much, they just don’t play with any of it. It’s just so hard to “archive” certain toys while they’re awake and then when they’re asleep (and I’m not working), I’m too tired. lol
Cassie says
We used to stash kids stuff all around the house when we had only a toddler (never in as cute of containers as you), and that worked well for a while. However, when baby #2 became a toddler, the system started to go downhill. We had to cram things in the closet to keep some order in the house, which wasn’t great either. When I found out I was pregnant with #3, we needed a change. We decided to get rid of a lot of toys, (mainly the big, plastic ones) and create one central storage unit: http://ana-white.com/2011/10/trofast-toy-storage-solution
We’re apartment dwellers and can’t have a deticated play room (we be thrilled to even have a 3rd bedroom!) but I love how well it’s worked for us. We’ve already had it in ::hangs head:: 3 apartments, so the portability/packablility of it has been AWESOME. It stores so much, but takes up so little floorspace. We still have a big sterilite container of little people, the board games and a couple other small toys in a closet, but that’s mostly it. The main goal was to have the toys accessible, easy for the kids to put back, and easy to separate big kid toys from little kid toys. In this apartment we keep that in the kids bedroom and stock a small bin in the livingroom with rotating toys that work well for all ages. We’ve had it just over 2 years and it’s worked great for us!
YoungHouseLove says
I love it! Such a great solution!
xo,
s
Kate of zmombie.com says
That’s one lucky little girl! I need a magic ottoman!
Lisa says
Grandmom here….why on earth do you have so much stuff? Honestly, kids need very little, and Clara isn’t old enough to demand stuff.
Coming from a minimalist household, I’m constantly floored at the amount of plastic and other crap children have these days. I had one toybox for three kids total.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I guess it’s all relative! We’ve heard from many folks that we don’t have half of what they have! As we mentioned in the post, we get hand-me-downs and birthday/holiday gifts from well-meaning and generous relatives and we just do our best to pare it down (we’re no strangers to sending visiting friends home with toys that they like and Clara doesn’t seem to mind). We’re definitely trying to keep it simple by having one toy basket and two book baskets going on! Seems to work for us!
xo,
s
Jennifer says
My son is movi g up in clothes size and I need to start packing up his newborn, etc stuff. How did u organize that and what did u put it in and where did u stash it? Thanks… I’ll def use there tips when he gets older.
YoungHouseLove says
We just have large tupperware tubs in the attic (labeled newborn-12 months, 12-24, etc). You can fit a ton of stuff in there!
xo,
s
Eva says
I am very organised and lately I have found myself spending way too much time on organising toys… My daugther, who will turn 3 in a couple of months, has become very good at playing for long stretches of time… but her favorite game is cooking and baking. As for sugar, flour and all that… she uses puzzles, legos, coins and basically everything which has many small similar or identical small things… And then she mixes it all together and puts it in different containers, spreads it on tables and on the floor… So every evening I pick all this stuff up and sort it and put it back in the relevant containers, I know it’s mad since she will mix everything again the next day, but I just can’t help it… I’m very happy that she is playing happily all day, but sometimes I wish her favorite play wasn’t mixing a million small things and spreading it all over the house :)
Natalie says
Good morning! I was wondering how you keep Clara’s coloring desk so pristine. You mentioned the markers and play-dough are supervision only, but how do prevent any crayon marks from going on the wall or all over the desk? By the way, I’m very excited for this week’s series of cleaning/organizing posts. You guys are the best!
YoungHouseLove says
I guess we just have a kid who likes the paper! She has never tried to color on the wall or the desk (of course that could happen today so we won’t count our chickens) since we have that big white pad out for her (maybe try a bigger pad if your little one likes to go over the edge and explore other surfaces like the desk?). Our desk is also wipeable, so if she got some marks on it we could wipe them off (and we’re not sure Clara could reach the wall while sitting down – she’s tall but not that tall yet! Haha).
xo,
s
Alison says
Where did you get the Baby P bucket? It’s cute!
YoungHouseLove says
Isn’t that cute? A relative got that from a local craft fair in Richmond for our shower (before Clara was even born or named). We still call her Baby P sometimes!
xo,
s
Amy Knisely says
We do a similar thing for our puppy, all of his toys go in the basket. Although, lucky for you that Clara doesn’t chew on the basket like it’s *also* a toy. :)
I was going to suggest a storage shed of some sort too – or a little playhouse with a storage bin next to it or something along those lines. I can totally see you two DIYing something like that and making it awesome.
It’s nice to see parents organizing their kid’s clutter. So many of my friends that have toddlers have the “toy explosion” issue. I’ll be forwarding this post to them.
Lauren says
I’ve been slowly pairings down the toys and getting rid of any that make noise/electronic. Now I’m even more motivated with my plan to rotate stuff in and out of our basement storage. I’m cleaning out the basement than its on to toys!
And love the puzzle bin idea. I raced out yesterday to goodwill and scored a cute target basket for puzzles that fits nicely under the lack side table I purchased for my daughter (eighteen months). Yay for clearing clutter and keeping things organized!!
Oh and I love these types of posts. And the previous update ones. Keep them coming!!!