Do you have a closet that looks something like this?
It starts out clean enough, but throw one thing in haphazardly and soon things begin to multiply on the floor, the shelves….
My parents have devoted a room to their very active grandchildren. Since the room serves as a grandkid’s guest room and playroom, it needs storage for all of the toys that the kids dive in to each time they visit. The storage has to be structured enough to make clean up time a breeze too.
During my last visit we decided to tackle the disorganization. We started by pulling the toys out of every nook and cranny and taking stock of what we’d accumulated. Sorting all of the toys got messy fast, but sometimes the process of organizing can make a room look worse before it gets better. This project kept my “helper” quite busy! Let’s call this picture the storm before the calm.
The closet needed storage with easy installation (okay, that is my own need) and easy access to toys. With toys, especially, maintenance is the main concern. It needs to be as easy as possible, only one-step, to put toys away. Open labeled tubs without lids keeps clean up simple. This toy shelf fit the closet’s requirements quite nicely.
Once the mess of toys found a permanent home, I was pleased to have leftover space in the toy caddy. The extra tubs will leave room for new toys as tastes change.
Although I do like how accessible and visible the toys are, the tubs sizes were fairly limiting. I also found that the tubs are a little awkward to get in and out of the shelves, not what you want for little hands.
In all honesty, I don’t think I will use the type of storage unit again as much as I thought it would be perfect when analyzing the space. I prefer shelves with tubs that can slide in and out, like in my kids’ room and closet. Those are more likely to change and grow as the little ones do. And in the meantime, they are more likely to make it back to their home after playtime. Since this is a grandkids’ room, with more little ones to come, the storage will be used by multiple age ranges (toddlers- early elementary age kiddos) for a long time.
The toy caddy held the smaller toys and there was plenty of room for the larger toys and more complicated games thanks to the large shelves already built-in to the side of the closet.
Since it is also a guest room, I added lots and lots of labels so everything can be returned back to its home. I even designated a little box specifically for found Legos. Those little suckers always seem to be roaming around free.
We tackled the closet on the other side of the room too. The legos were moved up higher (since they are for older kids and all the grand kids are still pretty young) which created more space on top of the drawers which are full of dress-up clothes. We also moved all the items from in front of the drawers so that the drawers were easy to get to.
Now you can reach the wooden ball maze thingy (whatever those things are called), without any injuries.
The dress-up drawers benefited from a little organization with a shoe box as a drawer divider to separate the belts from the purses instead of leaving them in a jumbled mess.
Labels on the outside of each drawer along with finding a home for the dress-up shoes (in the red bucket on top of the dresser) rounded out the organization. After a whirlwind of dress-up/ playtime everything can make it back to its home.
Once the closet was tackled, we kept right on organizing over to the bookshelf. Since it wasn’t planned I don’t have any before pictures but that doesn’t mean I can’t share the after, right!
With all the books organized, the puzzles found a home in the bookshelf with the harder puzzles tucked away until the grandkids get older. There is also a listening center now contained in a simple tupperware, but kept higher up away from little hands.
The bookshelf has been around for three generations so far, so it’s not a surprise that the two bottom drawers tend to stick. A once over with some candle wax on the drawer glides helped them to slide smoother (you could also use soap). The drawers (still a little too hard to open by little hands) are the perfect home for adult-supervised activities like crafts and storage for baby toys. Labels are necessary since the visiting adults often forget what is hidden away in them.
With everything in its new, labeled home the room looks like a guest-room for a majority of the time, but is ready to welcome grand kids with open arms closet doors. Organized closet doors.
Do you have a virtually magnetic closet floor too? What have you done to keep your toys in order? Does any one else have the same toy caddy? Does it work for you?
