The child barely had time to be born, and happy parents and loving relatives have already begun to shower him with a variety of toys. This collection is growing steadily, and if in the first years you still have a chance to somehow place old and new gifts, then the question of where to store children's toys will become an issue. The area of the apartment may be clearly too small for this.
Toys in the house appear as if out of nowhere. It seems that they are pouring out of a cornucopia, occupying all the corners. And only you, it would seem, managed to stop this toy invasion and concentrate everything in one heap, when something will certainly try to roll out at your feet. So where should we put this child’s happiness so that there is no chaos in the house and at the same time, the child can easily use them? How to organize a children's play space? How, after all, should you properly store these so different toys so that you can live comfortably and your baby can play with them freely?
wardrobe with open shelves for storing children's things
You need to start with the main thing - sorting. Look at the toys scattered on the carpet. You can't help but notice how different they are. There are animals here that are almost life-size, and tiny surprises from Kinder eggs, and it’s simply impossible to look at the abundance of construction elements, balls, cars and dolls without panicking! And there is nothing to throw away, because your child simply cannot imagine his existence without this bear cub with a torn ear and will never fall asleep unless he hugs a tailless cat. Well, let's try to at least put the house where the baby lives in relative order? Then let's get to work!
furniture with open and closed shelves
The easiest way to solve the problem of where to store donated children's toys is by owners of private houses . They can allocate for this:
- Lumber room.
- Garage.
- Basement.
- Room.
There’s not much room to roam around in the apartment, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any ideas.
How to organize toy storage in a children's room: 25 ideas
Organizing the storage of toys in a children's room is not as hard a science as it might seem at first glance. To save space, just study 7 rules and then choose the right idea - and you will always know exactly where to put everything that strains your eyes. Watch, read, get inspired, and may order come to your home.
Slingo shelves
For young children, books with illustrated fairy tales are no less important than toys. But over time, there are so many books in the nursery that a small shelf for storing them becomes insufficient. In this case, sling shelves will come to the rescue - such a wall-mounted bookhouse will not take up much space and can be easily installed at a height convenient for the baby. In addition, several pockets of the sling shelves can be used for other purposes and hide your favorite toys in them.
Photo: homebnc.com
Photo: zulily.com
How to organize storage?
Today, it is rare that a child knows what a shortage of toys is. He, like his parents, is more likely to face an overabundance. You can often see mountains of construction sets, dolls, and cars that literally filled the entire house. It begins to seem that children and order are incompatible. Not at all. Just 7 rules for organizing toy storage can radically change the situation.
- Your own corner. If a child has his own properly organized place to play, the likelihood of toys being stolen throughout the house will be reduced. The children's space must have: a table or desk with drawers and shelves for storing creative supplies, a chair, ottoman, a chest of drawers or a basket for toys, a soft rug for playing on the floor. You can paint the wall with chalkboard effect paint, and hang a bucket of crayons and a sponge on a hook next to it.
- Toy storage space. You can't put toys anywhere. Each item must have its own place. It is optimal to mark the drawers with pictures or inscriptions, for example: “For construction sets”, “For balls”, “For cars”. Such a system will help not only a child, but also an adult to quickly navigate when cleaning.
- The priority is quantity, not size. When choosing between one large storage container and many small ones, it is better to give preference to the second option. When toys are sorted rather than piled up, they are easier to put in and take out.
- Free access and ease of use. It is very important that the child can pick up the toy independently. To do this, shelves or chests of drawers should be no taller than his height. It is better to place frequently used toys on open shelves so as not to tempt the baby to empty the entire drawer. But it is better to store books and toys with small parts higher up, on a hanging shelf that a child cannot climb onto.
- Attractive view. Multi-colored shelves and drawers have a positive effect on the psycho-emotional state of the child. Psychologists especially highlight the color yellow, which supposedly encourages children to have order and calm behavior.
- Safe and easy to clean. It is very important to keep the children's room clean. Therefore, you need to organize the storage location so that as little dust settles on the toys as possible, and all containers and drawers are easy to wash. In addition, they must be safe for the child: smooth, low, and made of non-toxic materials.
- More doesn't mean better. We are talking about toys. It's much easier to keep things clean if there's not much to throw around. And it’s easier for a child to choose what to play with from 5-7 toys than from 50. Everything else can be put in a distant drawer and offered to the baby something new once a week.
After getting acquainted with the principles of organizing toy storage, you can safely move on to choosing places. This could be baskets, drawers, an organizer or special furniture. Let's take a look at the best storage ideas.
Plastic containers
They come in all sorts of colors and shapes. Most often, people choose transparent models with wheels so that they can see what has already been put there and make them easy to move.
Opaque low containers with a lid fit perfectly under a child's bed and are easy to pull out and push back in.
Pay attention to the fact that the size of plastic containers usually does not include a centimeter or two, which is occupied by wheels. So you should choose containers that are not flush against the bottom of the crib, but with a gap of at least a couple of centimeters.
You can also take several containers and place them in a kind of wooden shelf without doors, for example, in the form of a ladder. Children will be interested in climbing the new slide and putting their treasures in their places. The advantage of this method is that dust will not accumulate on the toys and, as a result, they can be washed less often.
Plastic containers do not have to be plain. You can choose colors and patterns to match the interior of the children's room, or simply the color of the curtains, the main thing is that they fit organically into the surrounding space.
For example, if a girl’s room is already decorated in light purple tones, then white, purple, pink and transparent containers of the required sizes will be ideal.
If the room is decorated in a neutral style, you can give your child a simple transparent container and a pack of stickers, and the child will be happy to decorate it himself.
Idea for unwanted toys
Also, plastic opaque containers can be placed under the bathtub or on the closet, and toys that are not particularly needed at the moment can be placed there.
How do you know what to temporarily hide under the bathroom? These can be any plastic construction sets, toys that have already been given by caring relatives, but they are not suitable for your baby’s age, toys that are waiting for a verdict on whether to give them away or not.
Now there are containers with hermetically sealed lids, so that mold and excess moisture cannot reach the toys and they, safe and sound, will wait for their finest hour. If the toys lie there for six months and no one remembers them or wants to play with them, you can give some of them to friends, neighbors with newborns, or to a shelter.
Baskets for toys
The very first idea that comes to mind is to store toys in a special basket. As a rule, it is a wire base on which fabric is stretched. Baskets for toys can be folded and put away when not needed, they can be washed. In addition, despite the impressive volume, it is easy for a child to look for the right thing in them. The edges of the baskets are soft, bend under weight, and it is impossible to get hurt or hit on them.
But there are also disadvantages. It is difficult to find a small item in bulky bags. They are not suitable for storing Lego construction sets, various animals, figurines, etc. But toy baskets are great for storing balls, soft bears, large cars and dolls. But these three-tier options help to free up space in the house to the maximum:
Chipboard product
To store children's toys, you can make a product from plywood or chipboard.
The walls and bottom of the box are fastened together with self-tapping screws; here, of course, you will need a man's help. To fix the box lid, it is best to use special spring holders. This design will prevent children from getting their fingers pinched. To easily move the storage box, it is better to install special wheels on it. They are sold in every hardware store.
The product must be varnished. The varnish must be transparent and non-toxic. The walls of the product can be decorated with various figures, numbers or letters. These parts can be easily made from wood using a jigsaw and painted in different colors, or you can consult with your children; perhaps they already have ready-made parts in their bins, for example, from puzzles. Then glue the decoration to the surface using glue.
You can decorate a wooden basket using a stencil and bright colors.
Additional chests of drawers
If your budget is limited or buying an entire nursery is simply not part of your plans, you can limit yourself to purchasing individual chests of drawers. There are a lot of inexpensive but attractive options in the IKEA store:
By the way, it is not at all necessary to buy a chest of drawers in the children's department. You can purchase classic furniture, and then decorate it yourself with children’s self-adhesive cars or princesses. When the child grows up, they can be removed.
Even when planning a child, it is important to think about organizing space in the nursery. It is better to initially purchase furniture with drawers: a table, a desk, a crib.
Organizers
Everyone should have such a thing at home. An organizer is a compact device in which you can store a wide variety of small things. For example, Hot Wheels cars, Lego figures, Kinder Surprise, magnetic alphabet, pencils, pens, brushes, etc.
There are quite a few models of organizers:
- canvas with pockets;
- chests;
- drawers with departments;
- plastic containers with compartments.
They are often made of thick material or silicone, which makes cleaning easier. Some organizers are convenient to hang on a wall or door - this allows you to use the space of the room to the maximum.
Do it yourself
If parents have enough free time and want to do something for the child with their own hands, you can adopt one of the following ideas:
To make homemade storage devices you can also use:
- laundry baskets;
- wooden fruit boxes;
- carton boxes;
- food trays;
- pet carrier;
- plastic bottles.
To add attractiveness to them, it is enough to apply a child’s drawing with acrylic paints or paste them with self-adhesive pictures. You can also sew or knit covers for the drawers. Ideas made using the patchwork technique look especially colorful.
DIY cardboard box shelves
Do-it-yourself rack shelves made of cardboard boxes step by step
Watch the master class on how to make this rack for things using the photo above.
Minuses:
- not very reliable
- not strong
Pros:
- cheap
- Just
This design uses two types of boxes
- these are the big ones from which shelves are made
- these are narrow ones from which drawers are made
All boxes are secured with regular tape.
View the embedded image gallery online at:
Adviсe:
- Light items should be placed on the upper shelves, larger and heavier items on the lower ones.
- when you cut large boxes, as shown in the pictures, then from these scraps you can make additional shelves for small items inside the shelves, for this you just need to make cuts in the trim and connect the scraps with a grid.
- These scraps can also be used as additional supports inside the boxes, in problem areas.
Photo source: wikihow.com
How to teach a child to have order?
Everyone knows that maintaining cleanliness and order must be taught from childhood. However, this does not mean that you can limit yourself to the phrase: “Put away your toys.” The baby might be happy to put it away, but often doesn’t know where to put everything and how. In addition, his mental capabilities do not allow him to concentrate on one task for a long time. Therefore, until about 10 years of age, the lion's share of cleaning falls on the shoulders of parents, whether they want it or not.
How, then, to teach a child to order? The answer is to clean with him, to set an example. Mom folds dolls, and daughter folds cubes. You can even have a competition and race to clean up. This way the task will be completed quickly, easily and positively, and the desire for order will be instilled painlessly.
Once you have ideas for storing toys, you need to take a fresh look at the room and understand which ones will suit you personally. What can be changed or improved? Do you have the money or free time to make your own organizers? Having made a choice, you can move from theory to practice. Don’t forget to go through the toys, throw out the broken ones, and give away or sell the outdated ones. Let each of them take its place, then order and calm will come to the house, and cleaning will no longer be a burden.
Toys for children from 0 to 3 years old
The first age we will consider is from birth to 3 years. As soon as your baby has already begun to move along the walls or walk on his own, you should have your baby’s first work place - a children’s table and chair. We will look at recommendations for choosing furniture for a nursery in detail in another article.
Closed toy storage system
The storage system in the room should be closed. Why do we close all the closets at home?
Everyone is now obsessed with the early development of children - they spend a huge amount of money on developmental courses, classes with tutors, and clubs. But when it comes to home, everything is exactly the opposite.
At home you can give good stimulation to your child's intellect. Instead, parents create obstacles to the natural development of the baby.
When a baby is just born, all his driving force is aimed at moving and exploring the world - he learns to sit down, walk, and control his body.
But parents begin to slow down the driving force of the baby. It would seem that they want to develop and interest the baby by laying out in front of him all the educational games that are in the house. But in this way they extinguish the child’s motivation to move. He doesn’t have to do anything - they got everything for him, they put everything in front of him, and they also played for him. And by the age when a baby might be interested in these toys, in the end he no longer plays with them. He simply lost interest in them.
To encourage your child to move and develop naturally, you must create an environment for movement at home. For one-year-old children, there is nothing more interesting than opening cabinets, rummaging around and getting something out. For them it is a pleasure to engage in the search movement. But instead, mothers are actively figuring out how to say the word “impossible” so that the child does not open the closet.
Children's world in a one-room apartment
In a one-room apartment, everything needs to be thought out in advance, taking into account the possible addition to the family. What should a room for parents and a child look like so that everyone feels comfortable in it? This is a question many parents ask. Let's try to find interesting ways to solve this problem.
Few families begin their life's journey right away in a spacious apartment with a separate children's room. Ideally, each child should have his own separate room, or at least a room that is intended for 2 to 3 children and is located separately from the room where the parents live. However, this is not always possible. In such cases, how can everyone fit in a limited area and use the space most efficiently?
Where to store toys: top 10 useful ideas
From early childhood I remember that I perceived my parents’ request to tidy up the room and put away the toys as punishment. Therefore, I always did it reluctantly. Well, really, what could be more boring than turning your colorful and cheerful children's world into the most ordinary, unremarkable room? Fortunately, designers have now come up with a lot of original ideas for storing toys, so the cleaning process becomes quick and fun.
Space under the bed
Perhaps this is one of the most practical ways to store toys, which saves space in small rooms and effectively uses a seemingly useless area of the interior.
We advise you to take a closer look at the beds with large drawers from the Orbita-Furniture store. Here you can purchase practical and functional furniture of the company’s own production at reasonable prices.
Bed “Funky Kids-8” at Orbita-Furniture, from RUB 15,412, order
Bed “ABC Furniture” at “Orbita-Mebel”, from RUB 9,510, order
Boxes on wheels
This option for storing toys, although not compact, is very convenient: it can be easily moved from place to place, and this can be done with a slight movement of the foot, or hidden under the bed. And how interesting it will be for a child to take his pets for a ride around the room or go for a ride himself! So both you and your baby will enjoy the joy of using the mobile box.
Photo: housebeautiful.com
Photo: nymag.com
