You look around your house and your heart sinks again. There are toys everywhere. In their bedrooms, in the bathroom, the toilet, the garage and the garden. Behind the TV and in the washer dryer. Nowhere in your home is safe from the danger of a toy infestation when your kids play fast; It usually doesn’t take long for your home to start looking like someone is stacking toys in the center and setting off some sort of explosion there.
To be fair to little ones, unless you have some sort of toy storage system in place, they (literally) have the excuse to scatter toys everywhere. If your children have toy boxes that they take toys from, you can teach them that part of the play process is to put the toys back when they are done. This is the same idea that they teach their children in kindergarten when they play there. Also, if you manage to get a toy box with their favorite cartoon character on it, then that’s even better.
The solution? Toy storage boxes, of course: Give your little ones a place to store their toys in the first place. Just keep your kids’ ages in mind when you buy them: you don’t want them to be too complex or too childish (you know how kids are) and make sure little fingers don’t get caught in lids that close too easily.
A quick and easy option for storing toys is to use a rack or shelf. This is great for storing smaller toys and of course books, and helps keep the floor clear of toys quite easily. And because it’s open, your kids will be able to see what they want to play with right away. Otherwise, you risk them emptying the entire toy box onto the floor to find that one toy they wanted in the first place. With the shelves, you will have to make them sturdy and well fixed to the wall; kids have a habit of climbing things, so maybe keep that in mind as well.
You can choose from a toy box you find in a store or you can have it made by hand by a local carpenter or tradesman. Store-bought boxes can be quite pricey at times, but they are designed specifically for the job of storing toys properly and safely; they must pass very strict quality tests when sold for children’s use. Store-bought versions also tend to be designed with kids’ favorite TV or movie characters in mind.
You can also ask a local carpenter to make you a toy box and this usually costs much less than you expect. Children tend to remember handmade toys during their early years and the same goes for their toy boxes. To be honest, I still have here a box of toys that my mother had made for me when she was about 10 years old; now I use it to store old memories and albums (yes, vinyl albums). There are so many memories attached to that toy box now that I could never get rid of it.
There is also the inexpensive option of using rubber bins to store your children’s toys. These are cheap and can be used for short or long term storage of toys. Which brings me to another point: maybe your kids have too many toys? If they are overloaded with toys, then you could put some of them in long-term storage in your garage or attic. Or maybe even ask your kids if they want to donate some of their toys to worthy charities in your area? The children’s ward of any local hospital is always grateful for any toy it can get their hands on, all year long.