When Toys Take Over

We live in a 700 square foot suite, of sorts, and I pride myself in keeping it well organized and clean (which is kind of a must when you have a small space) so I knew before Lilly was born that I would need to come up with ways to make it easy to corral the toys. I must admit there was a lot of brainstorming involved and I remember scouring through the internet looking for ideas so although this isn't anything new I thought I would share what works for me.

Baskets. Baskets and bins and boxes. Oh my!

We have a large basket in the living room and one in her bedroom, right now those hold most of her toys. Having two main places for toys makes it real easy to tidy up before nap time or in the evening - we literally just toss them in. It is also really simple to swap out toys and switch them up between the two baskets, which is sure to keep her busy for a little while as she checks out all of the seemingly new toys.

While we can mostly contain her toys between the two baskets we knew that storage was at a premium (remember, small space) I don't like things to look or feel cluttered so finding solutions just like the baskets was a big priority as she gets older and accumulates more things (though we try not to get out of hand with toys).

In her bedroom there are a few different places that are empty (or mostly empty, a puzzle here or some small toys there) first is a sweet little toy box that doubles as a bench, this was Dylan's when he was a child, built by his grandpa it was once bright green and then a creamy yellow before it found it's way into storage. While working on Lilly's nursery I painted it white with pink inside and I can't wait to find her sitting on the bench surrounded by pillows and little dolls. Right now it is empty! There are also a grand total of FIVE canvas bins throughout her bedroom, all of which are empty or nearly empty. I am a big fan of these bins, we will likely end up with a few in our living room or on the desk someday, they are much larger than they look and like the other baskets it will be easy to keep tidy, although I will likely organize the bins with a bit more structure than I do the big baskets (for example: dolls in one and dress up clothes for another).

Now I am trying to think of how we can contain all of her stuffed animals, I am thinking of maybe a toy bag to hang off the side of her crib (which would put it right into the "play area" of her room anyway - still brainstorming.

I want to add that it may seem like I totally have it all under control but I don't! Ha! Some days there are toys and books sprawled everywhere, lucky for me I've made it easy to clean up.

So, how do you keep the toys from taking over?

See you Monday!
xo, Anne Anderson