my daughter just turned 2 this weekend and I have been trying to figure out how to grganize her toys (expecually with all the new stuff she got). she does have one of thoes storage things with 9 cubes and some of the cloth bens that go in it in her room. We will hopefully be moving soon if we sell our house so I dont want to spend alot of money or anything until we move and know what our new house will be like. so the cheeper the better!
she has a lot of puzzles, baby dolls and accessories (including a baby bed, stroller and swing) play kitchen, books, little people, shape sorters, musical toys, stuffed animals, and various other things including lots of little misc toys (like from kids meals, ext)
Waht about some clear plastic stackable bins with the lids? Those are GREAT and very inexpensive. She can SEE what's in there and you can organize them.
I have always liked the clear plastic storage units with drawers. You can use one drawer for doll clothes; one for books or puzzles; one for Little People, etc. They're nice because your daughter will be able to see what's in them, and she's more likely to put things back in the proper drawer.
This won't help much with the big/bulky toys, and I don't have any good ideas for them. I think I'll check back and see if anyone else can help us on that one!! :)
I noticed that you're an army wife. Please say 'Thank you and God bless' to your husband for me. Many thanks to you as well for the sacrifices you make to support our military.
We just get rid of alot of the toys our daughters don't play with within a certain amount of time. Like say if they don't play with something within a couple of months, it's gone. Now some of the nicer toys we keep and do a toy rotation. We pack them up in a bin and leave so many out. Then a little bit later (couple months or so) we get those ones out and pack others away. For them it's like having new toys 'cause they forget about them after awhile. Unless you want to keep them for her, I say ditch the kids meal toys (goodwill). I just read the other responses and it sounds like we all pretty much gave the same ideas!
You can box up half of the toys and then change them back in about 6 months. That can help with the clutter. Anything that she is really too old to still be playing with can go to Good Will and any thing she no longer plays with can go as well.As far as arranging her toys I wish you luck. Maybe once you sell your home and move else where you could put shelves around the room to house her toys, this would also teach her to put things back when she is done playing with them.
We started at an early age seperating the toy items, and at three my girls know where all of the different toys belong, and it helps us keep things organized. We have a rubbermaid tub full of mega blocks, two tubs full of dress up clothes, one of those shelves with little tubs that has barbies-ponies-cars-jewelry-balls all seperated, a toy box for the larger toys and a book shelf. They know where everythign goes, and it has made clean up time (and finding a missing toy) much easier. The tubs/shelf/toy box also help keep things off of the floor. My husband also built a shelf to put the games-dollhouses-keyboards-etc on and we get them down when they want to play with those. We also bought one of those mesh things you hang in a corner to hold all of the stuffed animals.
Used to call them milk crates, they come in a variety of colors, I have some red and white ones and they stack easily even on their sides, the other thing we used were those plastic stackable units you can use in your cupboards.
For puzzles we got one of those upright file folder things from walmart and just turned it "sideways" So the puzzles can lay there with all the peices in the right puzzle.
My son is 3 so we have alot of toys too. I worked in a preschool for 4 years so I think I organize everything that way. Everything has a special container. I put all his cars in one, puzzles in one, musical toys in one, you get the idea. I have alot of those toys put up on the shelf in his room. We get them out to play when he wants them. But he has learned to put them back in the box when he is done. He is more willing to play w/different toys if I give him different toys. Its like something new if he hasn't seen the legos in a week.
My kids play room is our loft so I needed something that the toys could be thrown into easily to get off the floor but also affordable. I went to Meijer and bought 4 large red totes and divided the stuff animals in one, books in one, trucks and cars in one and left the fourth for misc toys. Hope this helps.
The oldest of my 3 kids just turned 7 so I have a few years experience with toy organization. :-)
We dont' have many toys in the children's rooms. Most the toys are in the basement toyroom and there's a few in the family room. The toyroom has a closet and we bought 2 big plastic utility shelving units for it. It's not pretty, but it fills the closet floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall. We have a few plastic bins for toys and the bigger items (Little People barn/house/pirate ship, etc) just sit on the shelf. At any one time about half the toys we own are in the closet (which the kids can't open) and we rotate the toys out every few months. This keeps the house from being overrun and gives the kids "new" toys to play with without buying.
Each kid does have a plastic 3 drawer unit in their room. My son keeps Star Wars action figures and transformers in his. One daughter has a drawer each for Littlest PetShop, Barbie and Polly Pockets. The 2 year old has things like small board books, blocks and random toddler toys in hers. She also has a big dollhouse in her room and the furniture/people can be tossed into a nice-looking basket that sits on the floor next to it.
In the family room, we have a Step2 plastic toybox with the built-in 2 shelves. We put a few wooden puzzles and books on the shelves. Toys go in the toybox. We rotate these toys with ones in the basement and limit it to what fits in the toy box so the family room doens't get overrun. We also have a plastic 3 drawer unit in the family room and each child gets a drawer. This is for the small stuff that would get lost in a toybox like happy meal toys, etc.
In the toyroom, we have 2 of the storage units that are a wooden frame with colorful plastic bins. These hold stuff like blocks, duplos, matchbox cars, potato head parts, plastic tools, doll clothes, etc. (at any one time, half the bins are sitting on the shelf in closet waiting to be rotated in). A small 3 drawer plastic organizer (half the width as the ones in the bedrooms) is next to the kitchen for the dishes/food. We set the room up in 'zones' like a classroom.... plastic tool bench/tools in one corner, kitchen/table/doll high chair in another area, doll strollers/crib together, etc. Plastic bins under the train table hold all the train parts. Mostly I don't care what the toyroom looks like and it's messy. :-)
I've found that less is more. You can have a room full of toys and the kid won't touch any of them. So you think you need to buy some more she likes. But if you just put out 2-3 toys you'll see that she plays with them. When you bring out the "new" toys in a month she'll play with them. Keep rotating the toys. It's also easier to keep 5-6 toys picked up and organized than 50. :-)
