The best playroom storage ideas

I love the idea of a playroom, but I also loathe it. A place for all of your kids’ toys sounds great until it becomes one big unorganized mess that paralyzes play, because your kids are too overwhelmed with all the clutter.

To keep my kids entertained, I put a significant amount of work into thinking through how we store their toys.

In today’s post I’ll walk you though what works for us and provide more solutions you can use in your home.

Toy storage solution #1: Organize by category and use bins!

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Earlier this year, I revealed our loft playroom renovation. As part of the renovation, Daniel built cabinetry with drawers and doors.

Now, you certainly don’t have to have cabinetry to store kids’ toys, and in fact, we used these very inexpensive storage units in our playroom before the reno.

We’ve now moved the storage cubes to our daughter’s closets and these have worked amazingly well, going on 6 years now.

(photo of Emma’s closet)

The one solution that’s kept me sane is storage bins. I keep toys organized by category and probably sort the bins every couple of weeks to stay on top of the organization.

Now, when you’re dealing with toddlers you want these to be clear.

Your kids will not play with what they don’t see and opening up a cute jute basket just isn’t in the cards for them, which is why the clear bins work so well. I know, so frustrating!!

We have the turquoise bins in our playroom because the girls stand over the drawers when they open them up, so they essentially function like clear bins.

When you are storing toys in common areas of your home and want to have it look presentable, I do recommend not using clear bins, but rather jute or other material to conceal the toys.

Just remember that when you want the kids to play, you might need to pull out some bins for them so they actually see their toys.

Oh, and do not fall for those cute rope baskets…those are way too flimsy to be of any use.

Here are some of my favorite storage bins (the pink vertical bin works great for books in a storage cube!):

Board games tend to pile up once your child reaches preschool and beyond, so think about having a good place to store those.

Sometimes, some board games can be stored in those zippered bags and you can throw away the box all together, freeing up some space.

I love having the zippered bags on hand for smaller categories of things that don’t warrant an entire cube. They are great for road trips, too.

Toy storage solution #2: Create a place to create

If you don’t want your kitchen table taken over by artwork at all times, consider investing in a kids’ table and chairs.

I found a cute little set that worked well with our decor and the kids probably spend half their time sitting at this set coloring or creating.

I was at a loss with what to do with all of their art supplies until I found the caddy you see below on their table and I love that thing. So great for organizing all of the different markers, crayons and colored pencils.

SOURCES: Green and white table | Crayon organizer

Toy storage solution #3: Maximize closet space

Toy storage tip #4 Hang up dress up clothes

Toy storage solution #5: Baskets are your friend

For the times where you’d like to have the toys out of sight and especially in rooms like your living room, baskets are your friend.

I may have a basket addiction, because I do have these all over my home, but they really work when you want your home to somewhat seem like wild animals are not living with you.

But again, I find I have to keep the lidded baskets open, or else the girls just won’t look in them.

Below I’ve included the baskets we love and use, and several other baskets in different price points.

I also included other toy storage solutions and the inexpensive piece we’ve used for over 5 years now to keep toys organized in our kids’ closets.

How genius is the lego storage shown above? I love this and plan to buy this as our girls’ lego collection grows.

I also really like the shoe storage that works really well to store kids’ toys, as they are clear bins that kids can easily see what’s in each section. The open storage shelf works well too, and several of our friends have this one for their playroom.

I hope this post has helped to give you some ideas on playroom storage and has given you ideas on how you can control the chaos.