Yay! It's time for another installment of 'Ask The Swag Gal'- where you ask the question and I give you the answer! Today we are going to talk about how to organize impossibly small toys.
Dear Swag Gal,
I have been working really hard the past two weeks on some Spring Cleaning. I've done great on everything so far like washing cabinets, cleaning spots on the walls, cleaning out cabinets to get rid of clutter, even steam cleaning my carpet myself. I have hit a snag with my daughter's room though. She is four years old and seems to have so much stuff. She is really into all the toys that come with so many small parts. I can't keep up with all of them and she just can't seem to figure out where to put all the small pieces so they end up scattered all over the floor! Her room is not that big so large pieces of organizational furniture isn't really an option. Do you have any advice on what to do with all these small toys without me having to just throw them out since they are her favorites?
Thanks,
Hopefully Organized Mom
Dear Hopefully Organized Mom,
Oh man, I am so amazed you actually do spring cleaning! Good for you! As for organizing small toys, I think I have come up with a few ideas:
I am just loving these little paper suitcases from the webstore Pink Loves Brown. They are perfect for storing small toys such as legos, doll clothing, and Polly Pockets. Plus they have a handle so your daughter can move them from room to room.
Here is another way to store toys: nesting boxes. I am not sure if these are in your color scheme, but if they are then they would be perfect for storage. If you buy them through Swag Bucks you will earn two Swag Bucks for every dollar you spend!
If the first two containers are not to your liking, how about clear plastic boxes? These are great because your daughter can see what is inside of it without having to open the box up. Plus they look cool displayed on a toy shelf.
So there you have my three ideas. If any of you have better ideas (and I am sure you do), please post them in the comment section. I would love to read how you all keep your toys organized.
Keep Swagging!
TSGal
35 comments:
Your title states "March 7th", don't you mean April 7th? :)
I recently picked up "The Busy Box" from The Container Store. I absolutely LOVE it. It holds so much of my kids' toys. It is clear, so they can see what is in it and it has three stacking containers. I love that in addition to the stacking part, the bottom piece has wheels and a handle.
I am a very frugal person. If you sew, you can make adorable storage containers that are stackable out of plastic coffee containers (any would probably work). I sew a cover for them and have even sewn their names on them. I use them for anything small including canisters for noodles in the kitchen. My four-year-old loves it. We have one for each set of small things like barbie shoes, littlest pet shop etc. There is so many beautiful girly materials that you can have a lot of fun.
I am very frugal. I sew a cover for plastic folgers coffee cans and use them for storage containers. These work great for storing littlest pet shop, barbie, etc stuff. I also made some for storing pasta like shells and rotini in material that matched my kitchen. You can make them as simple or extravagant as you like so no one has to know they are coffee cans. You can even taking different material and sew their name or other words on them.
I have butterfly material on the ones in my four-year-olds room.
Huggies wipes come in a cute Winnie the pooh containers. They make great storage containers for small toys....and it smells great too! :-)
We use a over the door shoe organizer. Instead of putting shoes in it, we put little things that are hard to keep up with
Umm, It's April 7th sweety. Try again :) Can I get a code now for pointing this out? lol
It's April 7th sweety. Try again! :)
Is it March 7,2010 or April 7,2010? Just wondering??? Thought something was wrong for a minute... any SWAGBUCKS for catching the mistake??
SwagGal - this may sound crazy but it worked for us when we had small girls. Go to the fishing section at Walmart and get a Plano tackle box - they make them with MANY small compartmens that are just perfect for Barbie shoes and hats, clothes...
That is Jimi's Tip of the day! Just put the extra SwagBucks in my account...
Another idea would be to donate any unused toys.
Or, you can always try selling some on eBay or even try your hand at a yard sale to help clear out some of the clutter.
We use clear plastic tubs and group by type of toy (littlest pet shop, barbie, playdoh, polly pockets, etc). Your child can help sort and then, if you want to play with a new type, you fill up the old one. The pile not being used can be in the corner of the room, under the bed, in a closet, in another room.
Just make sure she helps pick out the containers and the system (even if you influence her) so she will want to help keep it tidy.
OK Swag Gal I thought you had it going on....but a month late..WHOA!! Today is April 7, 2010, not March 7,2010!
thegrayhair!
don't y'all mean april 7th, not march 7th?
My boys loved legos when they were little - and ice cream buckets were our container of choice to store them in. The kids can decorate their own buckets with acrylic paint, and the handle makes it simple to bring along to Grandma's house, too. Not as pretty as The Swag Gal's ideas, (which are ADORABLE) but cheap & simple.
I undestand what you mean,We went through my sons room and we talked about giving some of his toys to kids that dont have any.So we gave a bunch of them to charity. He felt really good about it,and his room is more organizes with a 2 or 3 toy bins we got him,thats how i resolved it TY swagbucks love your site!!!!!!!!
There are many creative and often inexpensive ways to store the toys around your house. Here are some toy storage ideas you can consider for storing small toys. I used some these ideas when my daughter was small. Now she use them for the granddaughters
1. Get small buckets, label them and place the toys inside. Hang them on pegs. Make sure to hang them low enough for your child to reach.
2. If funds are available for nesting boxes use old shoe boxes. To have all of them to coordinate wrap each in old newpaper, label with "words" or "pictures" for younger children. If they can't see what's inside, chances are they won't use the toys within the nicely organized containers. Get creative, and let the kids help you label the boxes with photos or magazine clippings of the items. This is a good rainy day project, and promotes reading skills for the little ones.
3. Sturdy plastic bags with a zipper or cloth string bags. Choose transparent or mesh laundry bags to easily recognize the contents if available. These bags are ideal for storing small art supplies including crayon, glitters, pencil and marker. You can then put these bags into a drawer, or a bigger art supply box. Alternatively those cloth bags with string can be hung on pegs.
4. Oatmeal containers. These work great for storing small cars, crayons and other small objects. Find a picture of what you are going to put inside, and glue it on the outside.
5. An over the door shoe holder is a neat and inexpensive way to store small stuffed animals or anything that you don't want to toss into the toy box. Just hang it in a convenient place where it can be reached by the them. Place the inside of a closet door, behind the bedroom door or add it as an accessory piece to the room and hang it out in the open on the wall.
thecatseye74
I was wondering if anyone seen the typo that was made!! Today is April 7, 2010 and not March 7, 2010!! I think i should get some sb for that one! LOL!!
The sunshine has been great motivation!
Ahem, Swag Gal ... it is April, isn't it? LOL!! As far as the toys with tiny parts, you might check out the partitioned plastic containers often found in craft sections. Those are great for keeping small parts together, but separated so your daughter can easily see what she has!
If you are looking for a free method of organization using what you may have around the house, try using old wipes containers. They are not large, kids can open them on their own, and you can label them using magic marker. Really works well for arts and craft items like markers, crayons, paint. Good luck!
I love those boxes!!! I have two boys and totally understand the "little, tiny" issue!
For the larger amounts I have a trunk, however, for the small collections maybe something like this will help? It's small and compact :D
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Bin-Store-Drawer-Cabinet/dp/B001ELD2D6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1270666274&sr=1-1
OR if you have a little more room, something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Honey-Can-Do-Kids-Organizer-Storage-Bins/dp/images/B0030BEPQQ/ref=dp_image_z_1_0?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&img=0&qid=1270666221&sr=8-2&color_name=1
Or maybe even something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B001DCK7WA/sr=1-4/qid=1270666189/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=1055398&s=home-garden&qid=1270666189&sr=1-4
I am loving the paper suitcases. That would be ideal for my daughter, who loves to carry her Barbie, Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Pony, etc toys around to play with.
For my son who is more into Legos and K'nex, and who likes to stay in his room to build stuff, I bought several stacking clear drawers like the one shown here. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-Shoe-Drawer-Set-of-6/10401060 I like them because they can be stacked, but are also self contained so you can easily pull one drawer completely out if you need to. He has some stacked in a corner of his room, but also has several in a row underneath his bed. He has a *lot* of small toys.
I'm pretty concerned about using wipes containers to hold toys - those things outgas at you - both from the chemicals in the wipes and the plastic itself degrading (it isn't stable plastic as its intended to be disposed of or recycled, not kept and re-used). Keeping them long term in a child's room is a mistake, and putting toys inside them to soak up the toxins is an even bigger mistake. Especially if those toys might go in someone's mouth :(
I'm all for re-use, but some t hings are just not safe for that and need to be recycled and removed from your home.
Also its important if you are going to donate or sell some of your kids toys that they are involved in the decision making process - so they don't feel like their stuff isn't safe with you.
I came across a Lego organizer once that had stacking trays with different sized grids in the bottoms. The lowest tray had a solid bottom. You would dump your Legos in the top tray and with a bit of a shake, the smaller Legos would filter through to the bottom. I thought that was a really good idea for toys with tiny parts. You could make your own with some chicken wire and 1x3s. One layer of chicken wire in the bottom would catch the larger toys; two layers offset would catch the smaller ones, and you could outfit the bottom tray with a solid bottom.
Shoe boxes. Check with your local shoe stores and/or department stores, ask if they will give you any empty shoe boxes they would otherwise throw away. The boxes can be covered with felt, fabric, shelf paper, etc. etc. and decorated with stickers or perhaps pictures cut out of old magazines to remind your daughter of what is in each box when she is looking for something, and which toys go in which box when it is time to clean up!
Any swagbucks for those who caught the mistake on the blog? ;-)
My son is 5 and we have the same problem. I bought one of these:
http://www.target.com/Storage-Organizer-Natural/dp/B000W9R7EG/ref=br_1_2?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&searchView=grid5&searchNodeID=194755011&node=194755011&sr=1-2&searchRank=salesrank&searchPage=1&searchSize=30&id=Storage%20Organizer%20Natural&qid=
And I absolutely love it. I have all of his toys organized in it and he can take one bin out at a time and put it back when he is done. They also have one for girls in pastel colors. It is sturdy very easy to put together! Hope this helps!
Ashley
Organizing small toys are pretty hard to do. But Swagbucks has just the thing to do the job!
thanks swagbucks.
p.s: do we get points for commenting on a blog?
Hey Swag Gal, I was wondering if you could make a blog post...on teenage love and how to get over a boyfriend/girlfriend? :(
Don't you mean March 7th?
Those little suitcases are awesome! My daughters would love them!
We use the "caboodles" containers for all the million polly pocket things we have. My girls love packing them away in their "store" as much fun as they have playing with the toy. (Similar to the tackle box - i don't know which is cheaper).
Supper cute pink boxes!
is this real
how do I get quick swag bucks? i try so hard but i dont make more than 10 a day! HELP ME PLEASE!!!
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