apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My husband & I do not have kids yet, but we have found organizational salvation in the Ikea Expedit bookcases. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/series/09064/They come in all different sizes and you can have them upright or on their sides. You can buy bins or baskets, which ever you prefer and it really helps keep everything in order.

sorry, the link is http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/series/09064/

I got colorful bins from target that were inexpensive.

growing up, my mom used small boxes with secured lids to sort each toy and its parts together. Those then got stacked on shelves with a photo/drawing (later words) on the outside. The lids kept things from getting spilled out easily and everything had a place and pieces were never lost or damaged. For example, doll bottles and such had a box, doll clothes were kept in a old suitcase which was also used when playing "house". Items for the play kitchen were stored in a few boxes, crayons in one, markers in another etc. When I got older, barbie shoes and small parts where kept in clear film canisters and the clothes and barbies in a suitcase with dividers.

For boxes that weren't on display and for messy art supplies, she reused baby wipe containers.

We have a 3yo daughter, who's in Montessori school, so we try to be as Montessori as possible... We use small bins and baskets for small toys, blocks, etc. grouped by similarity; also we put 3 shelves in the closet to hold those baskets, games. We use IKEA kitchen orginisers to hold crayons and brushes. http://www.flickr.com/photos/31170044@N06/3002120200/
You can also makes hooks and sew some bags to hold small toys, dress-up items. In my experience, toy boxes and crates are best for the board games. I can send you more photos if you like.

I think a combination of open and closed storage works well. There is a combo bookcase/open bin shelf available at Michael's craft stores right now (its not online, but has book sleeves on top and open bins on the bottom). Make sure your daughter can reach into all of the bins and the books.

The bins are nice because they are small. One mistake parents make organizing is that they use bins that are too large it becomes difficult to find all the small pieces. Find a unit that has multiple small bins and sort like with like.

Good luck!

We found a Closetmaid 8 cube shelf on sale at Fred Meyer. We're using the unit horizontal; everything is within reach of our son and it fits under the window. I'm trying to imagine ways to put labels on the fabric cubes. I think the "fabric" would melt if I did an iron on. I might have to sacrifice a cube to practice on.

The down side, the cubes are only ~12 inches. Tall books have to go on their sides.

We have a series of bins for holding toys in their bedroom, but I found it hard to signify where sets of toys go, so I made a few cloth bags and appliqued a picture of the toy that it would store. The same effect could be done with fabric paint or markers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25979991@N00/tags/toystorage/

Star3night, I have the same cube shelf (although in 6-cube version), and I am also looking for ways to label the cubes. I saw one of the ohdeedoh storage contest entries had attached cards to the handles with clothespins:

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/storage-solutions-2008-entries/32-cloth-cubes-with-labels-047752

I don't know if this interferes too much with the use of the handles, but it's something to keep in mind. One variation that occured to me was to use metal rings, like a keychain, to attach cards without taking up the entire handle. I haven't tried anything yet, but those are my thoughts.

The best organizing tip I've found is to buy lots of mesh toy bags. They not only keep all the small pieces together, but they make it easy to put toys away in a toy box, they slow down Baby when she wants to dump everything out, they keep paint from chipping, and they also reduce the noise of everything banging together. I love them! Here they are posted on my blog.

http://museumofhappiness.blogspot.com/2008/03/mesh-toy-bags.html

I also got natural baskets with lids that I keep all the puzzles, blocks, puppets, and dollhouse furniture in. The heavy baskets are stored onthe floor and the lighter baskets stored on opening shelving from The Container Store. They are natural wood with no offgassing like IKEA stuff.

http://www.storables.com/Shop/Shelving/Shelves/?launch_pg=itemPage&launch_sel=1003116&launch_pg_sp=true&title=3-Tier Natural Stackable Folding Bookcase

Then I have stuffed animals in a nice canvas draw-tied laundry bag (sort of like a giant pilow case) to keep them from getting dusty when they are not knocking on her playhouse door and asking to come in.

Sturdy board books are within easy reach in the night stand and fragile books are up on high shelves like these:

http://museumofhappiness.blogspot.com/2008/05/1970s-nursery.html

We just had visitors who said they are amazed how clean my daughter's room is, but really she keeps it tidy herself because everything is fun to put away with bags and baskets, and I like that it looks totally clutter free (and without plastic), when really there are tons of toys.

I'm totally amused that you think "natural wood" shelves don't offgas. Unless you've purchased unfinished shelves made from solid pieces of wood, which warp, not plywood, which is far more dimensionally stable, you have offgasing from the glue in the wood and the finish.

Ikea MDF meets the German standards for offgasing, which are the highest in the world.

But hey, it has the word "natural" in front of it, so it must be better!

I really like these ones from Land of Nod:

http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=2860&f=3752&pc=4

I had something similar (but not quite as cute) made for a lot less by a local bookcase maker.

All those cute baskets you see stacked up picture-perfect in magazines? We were using a system like that before. My messy boy would upend every basket several times a day, driving me utterly nutty in the process. For us, this is better because a) he can't dump them out and b) he is more willing to put toys away if he can still see them.