Organizing the Kids - Toys Edition

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It's amazing how quickly toys can multiply. You buy one small set of Fisher Price Little People and the next thing you know, they've moved in their entire family, all of their friends and their weird cousin's traveling circus.  And when you're not looking, they travel... from one room to the next. Personally, I think the Matchbox cars are giving all the toys joy rides whenever us grownups turn our heads.

Or have you ever been walking casually across the living room only to suddenly be screaming out in mortal pain as Mr. Potato Head's eye stabs you in the foot? How about spraining your ankle on that plastic orange that just appeared on the floor out of nowhere? Or perhaps you've sat down on the wrong end of some miniature action figure from the latest Happy Meal? And don't get me started on the blocks... or the dishes... or the Barbies!

They're everywhere!!!

Well, with two young girls in our house, we are overwhelmed with toys. {Seriously, I don't know where they all come from!} So in a small effort to try and organize some of the chaos that is our playroom, I bought one of these when they were on sale at Target.

Closetmaid 8 Cube Organizer

Along with it, I bought 6 of these Fabric Drawers in different colors. 

Closetmaid Fabric Drawer

Now, any "normal" person probably would have left it at that and just ensured that the drawers were used. But, I'll admit it... I'm not "normal". I love to organize things. I reallllly love to organize things. Drives the Heela crazy. He's on the opposite end of the spectrum. For example, his filing system consists of something like this... "Oh here is an empty spot that I can shove this piece of paper in. There. Done. Oh is this the napkin drawer? Eh, that's ok." Drives me bonkers. But I digress...

Where was I? Oh yes, fabric cubes... In order to really make the storage system effective I figured the kids would need to know where the Little People or the blocks or the Barbies were. So I decided to label the cubes. But given that they were only 2 and 3-years old at the time, I knew that just using words wouldn't work. So I decided to add {pictures}!

I divided the toys into groups and then took photographs of each set.

Blocks

Purses and Dress-Up

Little People

Baby Doll Clothes

After printing out the photos, I encased them in those self-laminating sheets to ensure they wouldn't get all mucked up by grubby little toddler hands. Then I attached each photo to a cube using self-stick velcro. That way, I can change out the contents of the cubes as their toys change and just replace the photo.

Self-Stick Velcro enables easy change out of photos when necessary

Lastly, I used my label maker to add the title of each cube so they (maybe!) could learn the words too.

Added labels to help associate words with pictures

Now the kids can find what they want easily AND they can clean up effectively too since they know exactly where these toys are supposed to go!!

Other toys are housed in plastic bins to the left of the unit - also labeled!

For the record, if you decide to use a standing unit like this (or have any furniture in your house that is tall and narrow) and you have young children, please please please be sure to attach the unit to the wall. I will admit that we had a quite a scare one afternoon when Boogey tried to pull Noah's Ark off that top shelf and the whole unit toppled over!! Thankfully, she somehow avoided being hit (or worse, crushed!) but it scared the bejeezes out of her - and me! That very night Heela attached the unit to the wall with one of those special safety straps. Please take my advice and spend the 5 bucks - it is worth it!

The girls actually like being self-sufficient so this system works great for them. And I love the little victory of semi-cleanliness and organization!!

Wow! This post was highlighted by Laura at "I'm an Organizing Junkie"! Thank you!

This project has been submitted to The CSI Project: Organization Ideas Challenge

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