Small Space Living: Where to Store Ride-On Toys?

At some point in a baby's life, he will want mobility above everything else. (Of course, we know that desire will continue well into the teen years!) We shied away from buying ride-on toys for a long time for one simple reason - lack of storage.

Without a garage or some similar secure outdoor space, ride-on toys need to find indoor shelter. Two workable (albeit inperfect) solutions we've come up with are:

Storing it in our small coat closet next to our boots.

This required moving our shoes to a over-the-door shoe organizer.

Storing it in the space under the console table in the entry hall.

Anyone else have a storage tip for us?

(pic via Stephmodo)

Comments (8)

If they're as cute as those in the photo, you could hang them on the wall somewhere...

posted by lemonadefish on July 17th 2009 at 10:12am
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Yeah, I'd take the dog toy approach. Get one you like to look at and just leave it out.
The ford tractor is ADORABLE. my grandmother has the exact same model in adult-size. Its 60 years old and it runs great.

posted by DahliaCactus on July 17th 2009 at 10:54am
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We use bike hooks on the wall...and I gotta say...the Radio Flyers look great up there. Seeing the red bicycle tricycle riding up the kitchen hallway wall like good fiends makes me smile. And being fairly light/small, they are surprisingly easily to lift up/down. We also clip their helmets around the seats...

posted by teamcraun on July 17th 2009 at 10:57am
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My boss has a vintage pedal car stored on top of a wide bookcase, but she lives in a huge loft with ridiculously high ceilings.

Our apartment isn't that small, but we don't even have anywhere to store the stroller where we wouldn't be tripping over it, so we keep it in the trunks of our cars (depending on who had the baby or stroller last.)

posted by Pencils on July 17th 2009 at 11:01am
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All our ourdoor riding toys are sort of crammed onto the back porch. Maybe it is time for some bike hooks!

posted by standupstapler on July 17th 2009 at 11:28am
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We use the trunks of our two cars for all the kid stuff we can't store inside the house: strollers, scooters, etc. The size of our trunks figured prominently into our car-buying decisions for this very reason. It's worked out great for us.

posted by lisamfb on July 17th 2009 at 11:30am
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The only ride on toy my daughter has inside is a Rody. It's cute enough that I don't mind it left out. She has a tendency to ride it around the house and just leave it wherever it is once she reaches her destination. I actually kind of like finding it in odd places throughout the house. It also helps that Rody is light enough to move easily.

I don't think anything else would work very well in our house. Although her balance bike (barely) fits by the back door, we usually store it in the garage. If it is inside, she occasionally tries to ride it in the house, but it's much more awkward than Rody.

posted by Tashy on July 17th 2009 at 6:49pm
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my son hasnt ever really been into the ride on toys... we have two huge tonka trucks that end up filled with toys that eventually get dumped around the house for mommy to pick up. :)

posted by deeboyayay on July 17th 2009 at 10:55pm
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