FP Little People Stuff

[emmiem]

I know that this as been asked before but I would like a simple solution without buying lots of bins. How does everyone store the little people playsets like the farm, house, car, circus, zoo, you get the point. I know we can bin the people and animals but what about the rest. Since it is always out, I feel like my DD doesn't play with it that much anymore.
Michele

[mom2kandj]

We love the Little People and it was getting out of control. We just moved into a home with builtins in DS's room. I'm attaching a pic so that you can *see* how we store our playsets. As for the Little People(and animals), they are all in one big lower bin and all accessories are in another. The kids are now learning to take down one or two playsets at a time and then return them after they are done.

FWIW, you do NOT need to have builtins to make this type of storage work. The shelving is only 12 inches deep and the kids can only reach up to a max 3 feet or so. I'm sure that you can buy inexpensive low bookshelves and bins to achieve a similar look. One word of caution would be to make sure that any shelving that you put in is secured to the wall as DS has already tried to climb up! HTH!

ETA - My bins cost a total of $24 + tax at Target! The larger bins run $1.99 and the medium bins run $1.49!


Rose
mom 2 Katie 12/02/00
& Jack 04/16/02

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/7948.jpg


http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/7949.jpg

[jubilee]

The builtins are very cute!

So, you don't store the people/animals with the associated set? For instance, the farm animals aren't with the farm? Do you separate different animal/people into groups- ark animals in one area, farm animals in another??

I'm just trying to get a handle on my own toy jumble!

[Karenn]

Rose,
You're torturing me! ;) This is the second time I have stumbled across your pictures of your shelves lately and all I can do is drool over them! They look SO neat and organized and I'm SO envious! Our house just doesn't have the room for a system like this but I love it anyway!

I do keep all my LP figures in their own basket similar to the ones in this picture. I have one basket for people and one for vehicles. Surprisingly, I'm finding they actually get a lot more play that way than when I kept each set of people with the larger set they came with. Unfortunately though, the big pieces just sit out on the floor at our house.

[emmiem]

Thank you for the advice. I have built ins all through the house except for the room where I want those toys! It is in a upstairs media room. The room is a little odd shaped so there is no place to put lots of shelving. I did buy those bins and shelving units from Target and have put all the people and animals in those. However, the playsets are still taking up room on the floor. I might have to consider a low bookshelf to put them in but it seems like a waste of the bookshelf. Any one put the playsets in a rubbermaid container. Too big?
Michele

[atlbaby]

I have the shelving unit/bins from Target and I love it. It's a good thing. I waited for 2 months for the Pastel model to come in! The Ark fits in one of the larger ones (put it on the top row, since the boat is tall). I put the Bus in the same bin as the Ark. But the Farm, Train, and House don't fit. We also have the Garage, but Arielle never got into it, so it's in storage. Like you, I was thinking Arielle might play with the sets more if they weren't so accessible all the time. So first I removed the Farm and House for a month or two, and when I brought them back out I put them in her room, whereas previously they'd been in the LR/Playroom. It worked really well! Maybe you could try moving the playsets to a different room and see if that makes them "new"? I'm not sure about the size of the Rubbermaid containers, but would DD be able to open them herself and lift the playsets out alone?

ETA--Rose, I'm drooling over your built ins!! :)

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle, 10/30/01
and Daliya, 10/27/03

[mom2kandj]

My oldest is kind of crazy and when she plays with one set, ALL the Little People and animals *get in line* to play on the Ark, Garage, Farm, etc. Imagine my surprise the first time I saw about 30 LP and LP animals in line for the ticket booth at the amusement park. I think that DD is an *equal opportunity* Little People person! They also like to link up ALL the fences and have a huge corral!

FWIW, the Farm is the only set that both kids play with and use *only* the animals included. For us, the only way to get the kids to clean up was to get all DS's toys off the ground so that they could see what clean carpet looked like. In the move, we downsized his toys by 1/2 because it just wouldn't all fit in his room! Think *Clean Sweep*! Now, if we could only find a place for the gigantic Little People Airport... :)


Rose
mom 2 Katie 12/02/00
& Jack 04/16/02

[emmiem]

Thanks Rachel for your help. The noah's ark is the one piece she plays with everyday! That one I left downstairs in the den. I am moving all others upstairs since they have been collecting dust in my family room. My 3yo can get into most containers but I just don't know if I would rather have a ugly container or the playsets sitting out!
Michele