Toy Hacks and Storage Ideas for Small Spaces
Have you ever felt like your children’s, or grandchildren’s, toys have taken over your space! Does it feel overwhelming in your small space or you don’t know where to start?
I can understand, having three kids of my own, how it can feel like toys multiply like bunnies. Let talk about some simple and easy ways to go from mess to success with the best toy organizers for the smallest spaces!
MAKING GOOD USE OF SPACE
Two mistakes that people make when trying to organize their space is:
- They think they have to organize everything they have
- They only think about the space that is low
RELATED POST: Three Simple Ways to Help Kids to be Organized
How do you solve these two issues?
First, I recommend that you go through all the toys and sort out broken items and items they no longer are interested in. This will mean less stuff for you that you need to find a space for when they aren’t being played with.
Second, many only think about solutions for storage and organization on the ground. That is only one level! Imagine if you took advantage of vertical space? It brings things to a whole new level!
There is only so much floor space to hold storage and containers unless you do it creatively.
Get innovative using different methods to get organized in your small space.
VERTICAL SPACE
Making using of vertical space can include a few options.
Some are:
- Hanging shelves
- Bookshelves
- Hanging baskets
- Towel bar with hooks
- Back of the door
The key to using vertical space and getting inventive is to make sure that you aren’t using all of your wall space.
Just like you don’t need to stuff your closets, you don’t need to use every square inch of your wall and door space.
What was overwhelming on your floor will become overwhelming on the walls.
Pairing down the amount of toys you have and where things can be located, will help to keep your space beautiful and functional.
CLOSET SPACE
Closets offer you the ability to tuck away toys, however the ability to tuck away toys may not be a good idea if you don’t sort and organize. You may create mess behind closed doors!
It’s nice when you don’t have to look at things, but if you don’t see what you have, the toys are taking up space if they aren’t being used. Out of sight out of mind. Create a beautiful system in your closet the kids can keep up with.
If you have a small space, you may not have an extra closet to store toys in. This is where vertical space and multi-purpose furniture can be helpful.
MULTI-PURPOSE FURNITURE
Having furniture that serves multiple functions may be the perfect solution for you.
You may not have much wall space or a closet available, but you probably have furniture you use. Maybe you have been wanting to have a table or extra bench for guests to sit on, but you never had the space because the kids toys took up the space on the floor.
Multi-purpose furniture gives you more function, and kids have an easy time putting their toys inside something simple that they can easily reach.
It’s important that if you use a piece of furniture you already have, that the lid or doors on the furniture do not slam shut. I’m thinking of the sweet little fingers that can get hurt. Many new pieces of furniture already have the slow close hinges for the lids.
You can buy them if you want to put new hinges on an existing piece of furniture that you have.
QUICK CLEAN UP
What will save you time and your sanity is to set up a system for clean up time. Having a system is what will make toy clean up time quick and easy!
YOUR CHILDREN
Having your children help you with clean up is helpful! Depending on how old they are, you can figure out what system will work best for you.
- Specific time of day for clean up
- Clean up chart
- Kids rotate clean up days
- Set timer for clean up time
- Make it a game
Make it fun and easy and you may be amazed that when it’s like a game, simple and fast to clean up, chances are over time they will do it all on their own. Maybe leave a timer in your space so they can set it on their own. FUN!
THE WHOLE FAMILY
You may not have cooperation at first, or your children are still too young. If you have a set time a the end of the evening to do a quick pick up everyday for yourself will be starting fresh. As the kids grow, they will help more and more.
If you have older children, they can help pick up the baby toys or younger kids toys. Your significant other and you can also take turns each night.
Lots of different ways to keep things picked and help each other doing it.
STORAGE, DONATION, AND GIVE-AWAY
One solution for toys is to rotate. This wouldn’t be my first piece of advice for a small space, but I understand that some have extremely small spaces. If you have an extra bin that can be stored elsewhere, you can rotate toys each month, or each week, so your kids have less in your space and they can keep what they enjoy. Plus, it feels like they have newer toys each month!
After you have sorted through your toys, make the choice right away and follow through on what you want to do with the toys you don’t want to keep.
Do you have someone who would love toys your children have outgrown? If not, could you sell gently used toys on Facebook marketplace or find a non-profit that could use children’s toys?
We have given toys to our church, after-school care non-profits and friend’s kids who would enjoy them.
CONCLUSION
It can be fun coming up with clever ways to store toys in small spaces.
What a great way to start to train your children how to pick up after themselves, organize, give away what they don’t use and how to be a good helper.
This is a win-win for everyone!
Enjoy getting innovative by finding the best toy organizers for the smallest spaces in your home!
