Help! I'm being overrum by blocks, tea sets, balls - organizer suggestions?

[dules]

DD plays in the family room which is also where DH and I hang out after she goes to bed. We are finding ourselves overrun by Little People, blocks, balls, wooden puzzle pieces, etc.

Looking for suggestions of containers or combination container/shelving that has worked well for corralling the toys but also still allows the Short One easy access to it.

I have an Ikea and Container Store local to me and I'm sure they have things that will work but I'd like to know what others are using before I buy.

Thanks so much.

Best,
Mary

[hellokitty1]

We have a similar verison to this one though I wish we had gotten this one:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007LVB4.16._AA384_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_4/601-7014862-5708910?%5Fencoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B00007LVB4

Not sure how it goes with decor but it works well for us bc it's tucked in the corner and is a great height.

[WooChx]

I couldn't find a great picture, but we bought a couple of these at Walmart (the ones we have are much wider).

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=882192

[hellokitty1]

I would not recommend these because when Sydney hit that pulling up stage, she would pull on this and almost knock it over if we weren't watching and the drawers would come rolling out and hit her on the head. It's very lightweight and not too sturdy so if you want your child to be able to access her toys independently, I don't think this is a good idea.

JMO.

[kensjen]

Well, I am sure there are much better things at IKEA and the container store, but this is what we have.


http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2037558

It was on sale at Amazon a few months ago, they must have been clearing them out. It is really nice, and DS can pull out the little plastic drawers to access his cars, blocks, etc.

[JFC]

DS actually made his own solution to this problem by using empty Quaker Oats containers as where he "parks" all his little people, legos, etc. I'd love to say we are organized to the point of seperating them out at the end of the day, but we aren't. We place the containers on a small two-shelf bookcase DH had previously. HTH!

[mudder17]

Actaully, we have something similar but it's a little wider and I did not put the wheels on. But I got them before Kaya could stand up and for some reason she never used them to pull herself up. When she did learn to stand up, she stood up from the middle of the floor, so I still don't have that problem. But just in case, I put a bunch of her board books in the bottom drawer, providing more of an anchor. I got mine at Lowe's.


Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif , 16 months & counting


http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png

[squimp]

We were overtaken by this same problem a few months ago, and bought a decent bookshelf for our family room. DD's blocks, puzzles, tea sets, M&D food etc., go there, and we have videos and catalogs on the upper shelves. It's 48 wide and 42 tall or something like that. It's dark-stained oak, and I bought it locally. I bet Ikea has some good stuff. The toys are actually not in any kind of containers, just sitting out in the open on the shelves. I found baskets to be just junk repositories!

I think your Sophie is around the same age as my DD, and I have Sophia help me put toys away when we're done playing. With Legos, we make "one more tower" before bed, then she "helps" me clean up. She may only throw one lego in the container, but it's a start :).

[brittone2]

We have a cubby type thing at our house. DH removed a section of kitchen cabinets when we moved in and with doors removed they work perfectly as cubbies for toys. THe shelves run all the way across the whole length, so the cabinet box faces are the only dividers (no division of actual shelves). You can definitely find similar things at Ikea, etc.

The biggest help to us though overall is
1.) toys with tons of little pieces that drive me insane are kept up high in baskets out of DS's reach. We bring these out when other things are cleaned up, etc. It isn't something he has access to all of the time. For example, we have 2-3 different shape sorters (some gifts, one we bought). The pieces are similar but different, and so if all the pieces get mixed up, it is a pain to sort out (have to go by paint texture as the shapes themselves are quite similar but won't work interchangably in the sorters). So...after driving myself nuts with this many times, I realized it is easier to just put them away. I also do this with things like puzzles.

2. Minimizing how much stuff we buy overall.


Those two things for our family are at the heart of keeping things organized. For us, all of the organizational items in the world won't fix things if #1 and #2 aren't followed ;)