living room is playroom, any recommendations for toy box?

BoomChickaPop

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:28 am

anyone have recommendations for a toy box to keep toys in the kids play area, I want one that is big so it can fit a lot of toys and better manage the toy clutter. our playroom is our living room and it would really help with cleanup and neatness if the toys were all in a toybox...I looked online and they seem quite pricey, $150? I was hoping to spend less than that...

Mimisinger

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:31 am

The best thing, as I have the say problem. Go to IKEA get their toy system - we just got the one tower and then you pick out the bins that are good for your toys - a bigger one for the mega blocks, a smaller one for his pots. It's easy cheap and now we take out one bin at a time! If you need me to find it online let me know.

shoy18

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:33 am

I bought a big leather bentch, it looks nice and holds all the toys, it was about 150$ on price line, but its really dubs as another place to sit also

Helani

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:37 am

We use plastic bins-they are clear so you can see what toys are inside, but keep everything neat. You can use various sized to separate toys with parts.
Here is one with wheels from target:
http://www.target.com/Sterilit.....age=1

Mimisinger

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:37 am

It's called the trofast system. You spend as much as you want.

BoomChickaPop

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:37 am

thanks mimi, if you could post a link that would be great...

Mimisinger

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:39 am

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....2018/

Just cut and paste that into your browser, I don't know how to make it linked.

BoomChickaPop

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:50 am

wow, thanks for all of the responses

shoy: what do you do with smaller toys, do they just fall to the bottom of your toy chest or do you store them separately (like whistle, yo-yo, etc.) I am really trying to improve our current situation of messy toys...

mimi: do they come in different colors, do you paint the wood frame? I like your idea, I guess I would have to go to the store to figure out what sized boxes to get and what kind of frame...does the store have a few of these things configured?

amother

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:54 am

I bought two dark brown rattan boxes with lids that can double as side tables I guess. The big one was 30 and the small one was 20. I got them at the X-mas tree store. They fit in with our living room decor and are a great place to hide the toys.

shoy18

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:55 am

I keep all little toys in bags, although this prob sounds super dangerous, I always poke holes in all the bags before I use them, and ds was never a kid who ate things or did anything dangerous.

Mimisinger

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:59 am

All of the bins come in diff. colors = we got red, white and blue and we didn't paint the wood frame, though you could. We like the plain wood and it matches our living room. I think it also comes in white laminate though. They do have several different options set up at the store. We just bought the one tower, but iyh when I have more children and more toys, and more space, we'll get an additional one or a bigger one.

We use one bin for books, one for his pots, one for his trains, one for his mega blocks, and one for other stuff.

shopaholic

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 11:23 am

I bought this: I love it:

http://www.target.com/Whitmor-.....age=1

louche

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 12:30 pm

I'm not in favor of toy chests. if you insist on having one, make it lidless, or if it has a lid, make sure it has the following features: ventilation holes, guarded hinges, a mechanism to hold the lid up until it's deliberately lowered, and NO LATCH OR CLASP. Lids dropping on little fingers are only part of the story: children have climbed or fallen into toy boxes, been unable to lift the lid, and suffocated.

An open box with no lid is not only far safer but easier for children to use. There's no need to lift the lid, just throw the toys in 1-2-3. Even so, the box should be small, as a very small child could be crushed or suffocated if he got into the box and were covered up by a large number of objects.

from http://www.northcountrygazette......html
QUEENS---The former owner of Devlin Day Care in Forest Hills has pleaded guilty to reckless endangering the life of a 7-month-old infant boy entrusted to her care by leaving him and two 3-year-olds unattended. The child...later died as the result of suffocation after the two toddlers piled toys in the infant's crib.

If you use an open box or basket for all the toys, smaller toys tend to get lost in the bottom and are never seen again. In our experience small children will not bother to excavate a pile of toys to get to the stuff at the bottom--they'll take what's on top and play with that.

If you want more equitable use of toys, get stacking open bins. large toys may not fit , but small toys will be easier to find than in a big box.

As our LR was also our guest room, dining room and playroom, everything had to be multipurpose and portable. We didn't want to invest in an actual piece of furniture--we needed something that could hold large toys but would take up as little space as possible, and could be easily picked up and carried to another room.

We used a hand-me-down rectangular plastic milk crate, which was more durable than our original choice, a laundry basket. It wasn't the most stylish thing in the world, but one has to make allowances for households with little people in residence. You can't expect them to look like something out of Architectural Digest, not that that has ever prevented people from trying.

Our plastic crate worked well and hard. When not holding toys, it served as a laundry basket, a low seat, a very low scaffold, and eventually a bookshelf, a position which it still holds.

abismommy

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 3:00 pm

BoomChickaPop

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 9:41 pm

thanks everyone...
mimi: what about your bigger toys? I have some toys that look like they wouldn't fit into any of those boxes...

Mimisinger

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 9:46 pm

like what kind of toys? His ride on toys obviously don't fit - they're parked in front of the tower. What else is there? Stuffed animals are in a shelf in his room and other big ones are on top of another shelf. But, if you get that big wide one, you can put them on the top of each vertical rise.

greenfire

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 10:14 pm

hm - I simply bought those rather large rubbermaid or sterlite bins - same size as toy chest - only inexpensive ...

louche

Thu, Apr 03 2008, 11:24 pm

greenfire wrote:

hm - I simply bought those rather large rubbermaid or sterlite bins - same size as toy chest - only inexpensive ...

You'd think those would be ideal--but there was a terrible case not long ago in which kids playing hide & seek, maybe aged 3 and 4, put the baby into one of those, closed the lid and forgot about him. I don't have to tell you what happened. (oy, those kids will be living with the guilt forever...I hope they got therapy.)

That's why I specified no lid, or if there is a lid, lots of ventilation holes. (which can be easily drilled into a sterilite bin or lid).

HindaRochel

Fri, Apr 04 2008, 1:51 am

I would go with wicker or wood or rattan. Depends on your decor. You could try a wood trunk as well.

OR if you are artsy, get any old lidded box, and make a cloth covering for it, or paint it to match your decor.

HealthCoach

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 2:41 pm

Hello HappyHome. I hate big toy boxes. You can have ours if you want one. Smaller boxes are much better to keep toys neat and separate. Otherwise they are not usable. We just bought some more small drawers in national wholesale liquidators.