Hello lovely friends! We’re back again!
Today is a quick little post about what we’ve been up to lately, and the mass chaos that is the never ending job of organizing children’s toys. Remember this post? The one where we knocked out this wall of the closet, and created a family closet for all our clothes?
We’ve been working hard trying to get the new playroom under wraps – since diving into all things home school, everything is now a learning opportunity in our home. We’ve been tight on space for a while, and wanted to find a great system so that our kids can access all things toys, games… actually see what they have. We’ve purged so much, and we’re still purging. But it’s time to get the toy crowd controlled.
Their room this week, looked a lot like this. Shhhh. No judging.
Let’s pretend it still looks like this: All the time. We’d built this crate a few years ago, and while it was great, it was kind of a mass catch all. The kids couldn’t find anything they needed.
Here’s a sneak peek of what we’ve been up to… (it’s not quite finished yet, but if we’re lucky, I’ll have that playroom reveal up next week) This was simple, inexpensive, organized storage for our closet. And my eyes aren’t bleeding anymore.
Here’s what we did.
I took a few packs of these basic cork squares you can score at any craft store, and spray painted them gold. These are size 6 x 6. You could totally do this with cardboard squares cut to size… we already had these around our home so we just used what we had.
I actually had some brass tacks that have been sitting a drawer waiting forever to be used. They’re probably considered vintage at this point.
But I simply took a label, and stuck it on with these tacks.
And then glued it to the box.
They’re interchangeable when I need them to be. I probably need to laminate them. {Is it weird if I want a laminator for Christmas?} If you’re concerned about the tacks coming out, a dab of hot glue will secure those for you… I probably wouldn’t use these if our children were younger, but with the youngest now at four (!!!) and the oldest eight (@#*&!!!%%&???) … these are working out wonderfully.
And here we go! Easy, affordable uniform storage.
I realize not everyone is weird OCD like us, so they may not color coordinate their legos. But here’s a few freebies I thought you guys could use if you wanted to do the same. If you have little boys, I know how many weapons, shields, walkie talkies, army hats, swords, (need I go on?) you probably have.
We have one reader, one beginning, and another who thought there were actual robots in a box because of these little illustrations… so there’s that. But we thought they would be useful.
Just click on over to our freebies page, and look for toy organization. TADA!
If you use it, let us know! Stay tuned for that playroom reveal… and if we have a lucky duck kinda day with a glass installation… the studio reveal tomorrow! We’re tired, and just ready to have our home back in order.
Have an inspired day, friends!
Such a cute organizing idea!! Love the way you made the labels!
This is really precious. Such a clever & easy idea! Thank you as always for your generosity! I love it! 🙂
Only the mom of boys can fully understand the need to have an entire box dedicated to weaponry. I laughed out loud when I saw that box, and then I thought of a similar box in my toy closet!
My favorite part is the bold green wall color!
Nice! My son organizes his Legos by color.
I love this. Ways looking for new ways that are uniform for storing toys. And way cheaper than the plastic bins. I am just curious where you got the boxes from?
Hey Carrie! They’re the standard storage boxes you can pick up just about anywhere but these were from walmart. Super affordable! 😉
Help! I have searched Wal-mart stores and online and can not find these solid white bankers boxes. I must have them. Can you provide the details, brand, sku anything to ease my pain and begin the transformation.
I love everything about this! First off that loft is perfect! We built a loft for play in our basement in the toy room and I am dying to do one like yours in my daughters room so that I can do a little draped area under for barbie extravaganza! The little bins with the cork are perfect too! It is a shame that these closets they make in houses are so poorly organized! These are great solutions!
Laura
House Envy
You continue to amaze and inspire me. I’m hoping for a little OCD by osmosis.
Solid white banker’s boxes are impossible to find. If you found these at Wal-Mart please give us the details.
They really do make the organization clean and stylish.
Hey! They are spray painted boxes. We just purchased plain ones 🙂 I hope that helps clarify! 🙂
Thanks. Love me some Rustoleum!
YAY! I love seeing banker’s boxes put to use for anything other than filing! ;p I have 3 kids and 3 IKEA EXPEDIT units (1 5×5, 1 4×2, and 1 1×5 so I have a LOT of cubbies to fill :|. Banker’s boxes were the lease expensive option I came up with and they’ve worked beautifully (and held up really well, too). They fit the EXPEDITs they a glove and I used scrapbook paper to cover the front ends and added labels. Fairly inexpensive for needing 25 PLUS cubbie boxes… (the other cubbies are for dispaly ;p). I use them in the closets for out of season and keepsake storage, too. 🙂
Beautiful job!