Do you get stressed out even thinking about getting organized?
I sure do! I never even know where to start!
Luckily my Mom is a Professional Organizer and she’s always willing to help me get everything in order!
We’d like to share some of her tips and show you how EASY it can be organizing toys in three simple steps, regardless if you have an actual toy room or not!
These steps will help anyone looking to manage toy clutter!
Barbies and Dolls and Cars oh my! Is your home getting overrun with toys?
Taming the toys in any home can be a big deal.
How is it though, that little tiny people can have so much stuff? Is the answer to put an end to gift giving on Birthdays and Holidays?
We all know that’s not going to happen!
So let us help you get a handle on all the toy clutter and show you how to keep them organized for good!
Organizing Toys Step: 1
Ready to get down and dirty?
Step 1: Declutter, Donate & Dispose, or you could call this step “The Triple D!”
Let your kids be a part of this step! You can’t keep every toy forever.
My kids have been watching Toy Story lately and as I write this I keep picturing that scene in Toy Story 3 where the kids are told to go through their toys and decide which ones they’ll donate to Sunny Side Daycare.
(Pure coincidence on the name guys. If you know us and what we’re all about, we were inspired by our name from the song “Sunny Side of the Street”.)
Anywho, in the movie, Andy has a hard time deciding what he’s going to do with his favorite toys and ultimately decides he’ll store them in the attic.
Later he realizes that it’s better for him to donate them to a young girl named Bonnie and is happy to see how excited she is to get new toys.
Allowing them to be a part of the process is a great way to teach your kids about donating.
Have them go through the toys with you and set toys aside that are not played with as often anymore.
Organizing Toys Step: 2
Step 2: Sort and take inventory of what toys and games are left.
No, you don’t have to actually write down everything that you have…
but take a mental note of how many toys and games are remaining.
This will allow you to see how much space you’ll need to store these items.
You can even get a rough measurement of how much will fit in a bin. This is especially helpful before you go out to buy all the bins you need.
Organizing Toys Step: 3
Step 3: Get Organized.
Do you have a playroom dedicated to toys?
Will you need to store them in your living room?
Will they have a home in your kids’ bedroom?
Do you have a spare closet you can dedicate to toy storage?
Decide where the most practical space in your home will be and see how much space you have to work with.
PRO TIP: If you have more toys than you can have in your home at a time but aren’t ready to part with them, consider rotating these toys monthly. Bring one bin in and move one out. Store these “extra” toys in your garage, attic or under your bed. After a month of not playing with these toys your kids will treat them like new toys again!
Once the location of the toy storage has been decided you can start organizing.
If you need to purchase a small storage bookcase or something similar to what we’ve used here in Mr. A’s room, take some measurements of your space before heading to the store.
If you’re working with a closet or another area with existing shelving, you many want to measure how much space you have if you need to purchase any storage bins.
Clear bins are a great option to help your kids see what items are inside before opening the bin to play.
These are also great for stack-able storage. If you’re using fabric bins hang a little tag labeled with the contents of the bin.
For younger children, pictures on the tags are also very helpful!
We’ve created some darling tags you can download and use for yourself!
Organizing Toys: Labeling is KEY
Wherever your designated toy storage is located, labeling is the key!
This will help the kids know where the toys are that they want to play with, as well as help them with cleaning up when they’re finished playing.
This bright and colorful room is in my Parents home and is known to my kids as “The Sleepover Room”. Click here to see the full tour of this darling room!
These bookcases from IKEA are great for organizing toys, books and games.
These bookcases are standing on end vertically, but if you only had space for one or wanted a different layout, you could tip it on it’s side and use it horizontally.
Similar options are available at Target and Walmart to name a few.
For some reason our puzzle boxes always seem to get squished and broken.
Can anyone else relate?
Using pencil bags is a great alternative to storing all of the puzzles.
They close with a zipper so you don’t have to worry about losing any of the pieces. You can generally find them during back to school shopping for a pretty cheap price too! And they take up way less space than a puzzle box.
Once everything is organized and labeled it makes cleaning up a breeze too!
The kids know exactly where their toys belong, and for the most part, in my case anyway, my kids are pretty good about picking up when they’re finished playing.
This cute little Mr. Magoo LOVES his cars!
We had them stored in one of those fabric bins and he picked up after himself pretty well.
The PROBLEM we ran into however, was that if he was looking for that ONE specific car he wanted, he’d dump the entire bin of cars on the floor!
After nearly tripping to my death too many times to count, we needed a better solution!
This is what inspired us to make these floating shelves for his cars!
He was so excited we told him we were going to build his cars a special shelf!
He LOVES them!
He loves putting his cars on there and usually has to display them in a specific order. 😂
He also loves to have us video him while he puts them away, so he can watch himself when he’s done…little goof! You can see the full tutorial on these shelves here.
We didn’t wanna leave you hanging with good storage and organizing ideas without having access to some cute tags!
We’ve created a color and black and white version to pick from.
All files include these adorable sketches of kiddies playing with their toys.
You can print them to whatever size you need, write on them, laminate them to ensure they’ll hold up well…whatever you need to do to use them and get organized!
We’ve put together a few ideas for storage cubes, bins and containers that will work well for toy storage.
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Thanks for stopping by!
We hope that you found some inspiration to manage the toy clutter in your home.
Don’t forget to DOWNLOAD the darling tags for your toy organization!
Please PIN it for later and share with a friend who would find this post helpful.
As always here at Sunny Side Design
WE HOPE TO BRING YOUR HOME TO THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET!
Organizing Toys: from our fellow bloggers
You may also be interested in seeing some clever organization ideas from our fellow bloggers.
These first 2 images come from Erin’s darling home. We love how neat and tidy her closet is with matching and labeled bins. And check out those awesome drawers built into her wall! She said they had extra space in their wall above their garage and they utilized that as additional storage area! Clever!
Next, Chelsea created this darling arrangement for toy storage without having a specific room set aside just for toys. It’s off to the corner of the room, but looks just like it’s meant to be there.
Here’s another great way to store puzzles! You can get small containers with lids at the Dollar Tree in many different shapes and sizes. Thanks for the great idea thistinybluehouse.
Krista created this cheerful play area utilizing bookcases to store their books and games and darling striped bins for the toys. I love that she even made space for her Hubby’s vintage toys!
Be sure to follow us on Pinterest for even more ideas for your home!
