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Organizing My Kids Toys

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My kids toys end up all messed up in a giant pile where they can’t find anything.

Kids toy drawers open

So I have tackled the mess by making photo labels for bins so that my kids can find their toys, play, and put away!

I wanted to involve my kids and my husband in the cleaning so that we tackled as a family. So we turned it into a weekend family tackle.

I got Julia really excited about the idea of the job. She told me, “I’m 4 now, so I’m old enough to help, but Sophia can’t because she’s still 1 and 1 year olds are still small babies.”

Julia even got on board with picking out some toys to send to charity… but the pile didn’t get too big.

Sophia as you can imagine wasn’t too much help. She kept dumping out the bins of toys that I sorted.

But we all dug deep into the mess together. (My husband was thrilled to have us donate two garbage bags full of extra toys.)

Watch us work…

It has to get worse before it can get better…

Sophia dumping out bins as I try to sort Julia sorting toys in the drawer

Playroom in progress

Having the family tackle together was fun, but soon Julia wore out, so she and her Daddy went to the store for supplies. Then later that night when the house was quiet, I put on the TV and plowed through the rest of the job.

My favorite part of this tackle was making the fancy laminated photo labels. I followed a great tip from one of our long-time loyal readers Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie and bought some self-laminating sheets.

I took photos of the toys and added the name of the item to the photo. I printed, laminated, and tied the labels to the bins that had handles and taped the labels to the smaller plastic bins.

I felt like such an organizer! LOL

Yay!!! Take a look…

Playroom After

Toy Drawers After

Reader Interactions


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36 Comments

  1. I think your babies have wayyy too many toys. No wonder you can’t keep up. You need to make things simpler for yourself.

    Reply

  7. One more thing. I love that table in the middle of the room. Where did you get it? (I already checked your shop hoping that it came from there, but those styles don’t have the nice big drawers underneath.)

    Reply

  9. I love an organized play room! My daughter’s toys are mostly in the living room, and we struggle to keep them organized, too. Those little canvas baskets work nicely for us. We have one for balls, one for bowling stuff, two for books, one for puzzles, and one for misc other toys like her jack in the box and see ‘n’ say. Then there are six more in her kitchen. 🙂 I’m glad we don’t have more space. I’d just fill it up with more toys.

    I wrote about homemade pizza crust today. We’ve been trying to get a recipe that we liked, and it’s taken a lot of trial and error. 🙂 Read about it here – http://www.feelslikehomeblog.com/2009/05/bread-machine-pizza-crust/.

    Reply

  11. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to post my url in the comment. I’ve noticed my comment won’t submit if I paste my url in the comment? I guess I’m technically challenged [email protected] lol!

    Just click on my name and it will take you to what I tackled today…

    Giving the dog a bath!

    Reply

  15. Susan, your toy area looks fantastic! My house is worse than yours, full of clutter everywhere. No matter where I look, there’s STUFF. Most of it is not mine! Ugh. I tackle one area and the kids come along behind me and undo it all.

    Hope’s 3rd birthday is coming up and I plan to go through all of her toys and donate the things too little for her, to make room for new things! Keeping organized is no easy task!

    Reply

  25. That’s an awesome accomplishment! We’ve got most things in bins, but I love the idea of adding photos so little ones can tell exactly what belongs in what bin. I think I’ll have to try that for Becca! 🙂

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  26. That is amazing! What a huge tackle! I am impressed. We have rubbermaid tubs with lids that hold all my kids toys.

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  27. Yay!! Great job and I totally agree with Amy. The after wouldn’t mean quite as much if we hadn’t seen the before. You must be thrilled to have it done, way to go!! I’m proud of you 🙂

    Laura

    Reply

  30. I love that you shared the “before” video! Thank you for making us real moms feel like we are not alone!

    Reply

  31. The “after” pictures wouldn’t mean near as much if you weren’t brave enough to show the “before.” Incredible job. Love the labels!

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  32. Well that was an epic, but well worth the results. Well done you [all] Now if we can only maintain it like that……..
    Cheers

    Reply

  33. Your toy room looks so good. Love the photo label idea. We have Lego bricks strewn across our living room floor, loads of baseball gear on our dining room floor, and boxes of shoes along our basement wall. You are definitely not alone. After we tackle our school year this Wednesday, we’ll focus on cleaning for a couple days. 🙂

    Reply

  34. Susan, as an organizer, I say, WOWEE!! It looks beautiful! Do NOT feel bad about the before pictures. Yes, we all have had disaster areas. The pictures look so bright and beautiful. You did a great job!! I can tackle next week if you need help. Throw me an email if you want something.

    Reply