Toy Storage Ideas To Combat The Clutter

Most children have a lot of toys. All those toys and games can soon feel as though as they’re taking over your whole house, making it feel cluttered and untidy. If you miss your tidy house, or your children are losing toys because they’re scattered everywhere, you need to think about some better solutions for toy storage. 

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Double-Duty

Make every inch of space of your child’s bedroom work for you, by adding storage that doubles up as something else. For example, buy a small white sideboard, which looks sweet in the room, adds storage space for toys and games, and can be used as a surface for something else. Put a changing mat on it, to make it into a changing table. For older children, use the top to put a TV or a CD player on. 

If your kids keep toys in the living, add an ottoman with storage inside. These work well for storing things like board games, or video games, that are played with in the living room. With the lid down, it’s an extra seat or somewhere to put your feet up. 

Use Dead Space

Look around your child’s room for any unused space that you might have overlooked. How could add storage there? 

Is there a gap under their bed? Buy some plastic storage boxes on wheels that can be filled with toys, and then easily slid in and out from under the bed. 

Use the back of the door. Put up hooks, or to add more storage, buy an over the door hanger designed for shoes. The small pouches are ideal for things like craft supplies, dolls, or other small toys. 

Look up. If you have high ceilings, add some shelving higher up, where you can add more storage. Just make sure your children know to ask for your help to get things down from these shelves to avoid accidents. 

Teach Them To Tidy

When you’ve added in all this extra storage, you need to actually use it. The best way to do this is to teach your children to be responsible for their own possessions and to tidy things away for themselves. 

Help them to find a home for everything, and show them where everything goes. Make tidying part of playtime, and set some simple ground rules. For example, before they play with something else, make sure they put away what they just played with. Spend five minutes together at the end of the day putting everything back in its place, resetting it all for the next day. 

Talk to your children about why they should put things away, in terms they can understand. Talk about how it is important to look after the things we love so they last longer and we can keep enjoying them. Tell them that by putting things away, they are less likely to lose things like Barbie shoes, board game pieces, or other small pieces from their toys or games. If they understand, they will be more likely to put things away properly.