About a year ago, my house looked like this:

And I realized I had to do some serious toy purging, furniture rearranging, and some major cleaning out to do. Our house seriously lacks storage space, so we had to get creative with storage solutions. We wanted Chloe’s toys to be easily accessible for her, easy for us to pick up, and for our house to be clutter free. In April, my husband installed laminate flooring throughout our upstairs so we took the opportunity to really clean the house and go through Chloe’s toys. Anything that she had outgrown was cleaned and packed away for future children, and some of the toys she didn’t play with quite as much were taken downstairs (which we are turning into a play room). Our living room and dining room has an open concept, so we turned the area between the couch and dining room into a little play area for Chloe.

 

 This is the most played in area of our house, so it gets messy quickly but it’s also very easy to clean. Almost everything goes in a bin or a shelf, and Chloe is really great about helping us pick up her toys at bedtime and putting them where they belong.
– 9 cube organizer from Target
 – Baskets from Target and BRU hold diapers, diaper wipes, play food and other toys
 – KidKraft corner play kitchen — this was a Christmas gift, and is the most played with item in our house!!
– Melissa and Doug Pots and Pans
– Little People Princess House– Apron from IKEA
– Stuffed Strawberry from IKEA
– ABC Bucket from Target

 

On the other side of our living room, we keep Chloe’s arm chair and her baby’s crib. It’s filled to the brim with her stuffed animals that she “puts to bed.” I counted 11 stuffed animals in there after taking this photo.  

 In her bedroom, have another storage cube. This 8-cube expedit shelf is from IKEA. We added legs to the shelf to give it more height. This shelving unit holds more toys, stuffed animals, shoes and books.

1. Grey bin is from Target, and holds more stuffed animals.
 2. Pink bin is from BRU and holds all of her shoes
3. Pink Piggy bank is from Things Remembered
4. Cool Mist Humidifier is from BRU. We hardly use the humidifier, but Chloe loves the stars it casts on her ceiling at night!
5. Gilded blocks spell W-I-S-H and are from Cabin7
6. Gold crown is from Kirklands
7. Pink bird canvas print is from Pier 1

With little closet space, we quickly became huge fans of storage shelving and baskets. It helps keep the clutter off the floor, and makes picking up toys so much easier for us. There is also a toybox in Chloe’s bedroom, and we keep more toys in our game room that’s slowly being converted into a play room.

 How do you organize toys in your home?