organizing DD's toys...i'm losing it!

[Allisonsmommy]

im going nuts organizing DD's toys. I mean I'm really obsessive about it. We just got the ikea expedit system and I got plastic bins (i sort everything in bins). We have snap and style bins, princess doll bins, duplo's, etc. My question for all the other organizer happy mommies out there is..... how many of one like item do you need to have before giving that item its own bin?
Also for play food, do you keep only the amount of food that will fit in the kitchen or do you have extra in a box or bin? Would you consider the mellissa and doug cake slicing toy to be in its own category or would you mix it with the other play food in a big bin? SEE i'm nuts! LOL

Am I the only organizing freak out there? LOL. I would like to say however, that I am totally fine with DD mixing up toys and making a mess when she is playing. I encourage her to get creative. But when its time to clean up i love that everything has a spot.

[Jenn27]

If there is not a bin full, find a smaller basket :) I'm also an organizer. I finally stopped obsessing over everything (sort of). We have an expedit with different sized baskets depending on how much there is. Like DD has a few Plan City cars, a bus, and a few other small cars which are in a small basket. If she gets more, I'll need a bigger basket. I find myself rotating baskets. For the kitchen, food is grouped by type in baskets (veggies, fruit, sweets) and everything else us in a big basket. We are gettig a new kitchen and more food for Christmas so this will all have to change. DH thinks I'm nuts!

[Seitvonzu]

we're not the most organized, but that is probably because we have too much :) we *certainly* have too much play food. i keep sets together and thankfully lots of our sets came in their own "storage" we then have extra baskets/bins and a "market" stand that houses lots of the food (usually produce, but sometimes it's a bakery or meat market or candy store... yes, we have TONS of play food)

even with rotating, we have to have an extra shelf for kitchen food/accessories-- it houses our pbk microwave, land of nod mixer, cheapo (but works) circo coffee maker and baking pans/ linens (aprons/ovenmits/chefs hat). plus some food goes on there too-- the ikea fabric & a couple of melissa and doug sets for now. we probably could fit more in the fridge if i contained it better , but oh well, that's were i "let go."

[Allisonsmommy]

i think i have it somewhat figured out and organized to my liking (as much as it can be). My problem and i don't know if others do this, is I feel like think ahead too much. I'll look at our expedit and how nicely organized it is and think "oh no there are only 3 empty cubes left, what will i do when they are all full??" or I'll obsess over what my DD can actually reach. I don't like to use the higher shelves because she can't access it, KWIM? My DH thinks i'm nuts and i probably am ! :ROTFLMAO:

[infomama]

Play food is play food. I don't care what brand it is and I'm guessing your Dc don't either. I have an entire bin for purses/bags vs putting them in the dressup/make believe but that is only becuase we have so many.

[Seitvonzu]

oh- and i don't organize playfood by brand* but by "type"-- that's just because i'm weird like that...and it's certainly not a perfect system. so i'll keep veggies together, fruits, meats, sweets, "staples" etc. we have tons of play food, but also tons of baskets/bins/crates/bowls etc to divide them up in :) it's part of the "play" for us :):)

*melissa & doug sets are sorta the exception because they often are HUGE and come with their own storage...so they just sorta stay that way. and YES i do go crazy if all the pieces aren't accounted for. we are currently missing a cutting cookie and it's driving me bonkers :(

[wimama]

We put all DS playfood in one medium sized Ikea Trofast. Back when we had his play kitchen set up we had it all organized by food groups. And stored some of it in the trays they came in or in the play kitchen. But, now it all fits in one medium Trofast bin. DS never played with the play kitchen, he only played with the food. So, I am much happier now with it all in one bin.

We group like things together in bins. Adventure/dress up toys in one bin. Smaller cars and vehicles in another. Thomas the Train gets a big rolling bin under the train table. Lego minifigures get separated from basic building Legos. Duplos separated from Legos. Unit blocks have their own bin. Plastic dinosaurs and animals have their own bin. Miscellaneous character figures have their own small container. Matchbox cars have their little container. Leapfrog magnets, wooden letter magnets and Leapfrog Scrible and write go together in the same bin small Trofast bin. You get the idea. Just find categories that work for you. My goal was to eventually take a picture of what went in each bin and paste in on the outside of the bin. To make clean up easier. That was my goal for after Christmas last year. But, I never got around to it.

What drives me crazy is all the little toys that don't fit into our categories. I hate all those little random toys that seem to float around. I don't really care for small containers either. I would rather have more toys of a similar type to lump together into one category and put away all at once in one container.

Because of this disdain for random toys and little sets of toys, I have decided that future purchases be designed to simplify brands of toys.

Legos will be the only building toy we will buy DS (besides the unit blocks, Magnatiles and Lincoln Logs that he already has). DS likes Playmobil, so for pretend play we will stick to mostly Playmobil instead of adding other brands like Schleich and Imaginext into the mix. He has some Imaginext and I plan on still buying him other brands for types of playsets, not available in Playmobil. Anyway, these are my new loose guidelines. DS is likely getting a Imaginext space shuttle for Christmas. Space toys are not available in Playmobil. But, I hope to get rid of his Imaginext Pirate ship, because it bugs me that all his other pirate stuff is Playmobil and those Imaginext guys never stay where they are supposed to on their Imaginext ship. Mommy's OCD side would be much happier if all his pirate toys are Playmobil. We tried a bunch a different toys to see what he likes last year and now I feel like now that we have an idea of what he really likes we can simplify some now and make things easier for ourselves.

It takes a little while to settle on a organizational system you like. There were some great posts on the last year I used for ideas. I really like the Container Store's clear shoebox and smaller bins for all those little toys. Since they are clear your DC can see what is inside easily.

And, obviously you are not the only organization freak on here. I am right there with you.;)

[cono0507]

im going nuts organizing DD's toys. I mean I'm really obsessive about it. We just got the ikea expedit system and I got plastic bins (i sort everything in bins). We have snap and style bins, princess doll bins, duplo's, etc. My question for all the other organizer happy mommies out there is..... how many of one like item do you need to have before giving that item its own bin?
Also for play food, do you keep only the amount of food that will fit in the kitchen or do you have extra in a box or bin? Would you consider the mellissa and doug cake slicing toy to be in its own category or would you mix it with the other play food in a big bin? SEE i'm nuts! LOL

Am I the only organizing freak out there? LOL. I would like to say however, that I am totally fine with DD mixing up toys and making a mess when she is playing. I encourage her to get creative. But when its time to clean up i love that everything has a spot.

We just moved and I spent yesterday organizing the playroom, so this is timely! :)

We have a little shelving unit next to the play kitchen. The melissa and doug pizza set and food cutting set and cookie set each go on shelves. The other food goes in a bin and silverware/plates go in another bin or on shelves.

As for how much to warrant its own bin for other toys, I'm quick to put a small set into its own bin. I prefer that to having it in some other container that doesn't fit anywhere. That being said, I did have to go buy more bins and additional cubes yesterday to fit more toys (we use the Target itso system).

[essnce629]

We have 3 Expedit systems and instead of using bins that fill up the whole space (and therefore need a lot of one like item to fill) we use the Container Store clear sweater and shoe boxes. Two sweater boxes fill one Expedit cube perfectly or you can put 6 shoe boxes in one cube (3 lengthwise in back and 3 lengthwise in front) or just do 3 shoe boxes in one so you can see what's in all 3 boxes. I love having all different sized bins so everything has a space. I even have a little clear bin for the 10 finger puppets that we have!

Container Store boxes
http://www.containerstore.com/shop/storage/storageBoxes/plastic?productId=10000166

[wimama]

We have 3 Expedit systems and instead of using bins that fill up the whole space (and therefore need a lot of one like item to fill) we use the Container Store clear sweater and shoe boxes. Two sweater boxes fill one Expedit cube perfectly or you can put 6 shoe boxes in one cube (3 lengthwise in back and 3 lengthwise in front) or just do 3 shoe boxes in one so you can see what's in all 3 boxes. I love having all different sized bins so everything has a space. I even have a little clear bin for the 10 finger puppets that we have!

Container Store boxes
http://www.containerstore.com/shop/storage/storageBoxes/plastic?productId=10000166

Those are the ones that we have. We have mostly sweater and shoe boxes, but also have some Deep sweater and boot boxes in the playroom closet. I like that the Container store doesn't change the style or sizes of their storage boxes often. I hate when I got to Target to get more storage boxes and they don't sell the same ones anymore. I like when the boxes look similar. They look neater on a shelf. They also stack nice.

[Allisonsmommy]

I have the shoebox sized ones from target and i can only stack 2! i think i need to get the container store ones. Can you put 2 of them side by side and have them fit or do they have to all stack?