Over the weekend it dawned on my hubbie and I that we had quite a few baby toys in the house that my 3 year old son was no longer playing with. We can see that he definitely has his favorites and everything else, although once loved, had just become clutter.
So we set to work clearing out all of those neglected toys and then rearranging the toys that were left to make them that much more exciting again. I always find it fun and re-energizing to not only move things around but change out the storage solutions as well. I’m such a wild and crazy girl like that. That’s me, just living on the edge 🙂 So in the process of all this switching and re-arranging I was able to re-purpose some of the storage solutions once used for baby toys to other functional purposes. I rarely part with these storage solutions as normally I can always find some way creative way to use them.
First the toy box. I’m not typically a huge fan of toy boxes because they tend to become the bottomless pit and just a mish mash of crazy. However I do like them for younger tyke stuff because generally their toys are of the bigger variety which means toys are likely not going to get lost within. Now that my son is out of those toys and more into sets of things, he has outgrown his toy box. I got the idea to move it into his closet and use it to store the hand me down clothes that are still too big for him.
Next up was the toy basket under the coffee table in the living room. This was ideal when my son was little and wanted to be right near where I was. However, now he is mostly into his train set which we have set up at the back of the living room for him to play with. This toy basket has been converted into fabulous storage for the afghan I’m currently crocheting. I love that I can tuck it away when I’m not working on it and it’s big enough to hold all my yarn that goes with it as well. As you know I like keeping like with like or I go a little cuckoo 🙂
Jacki HollywoodBrown says
My kids are now tweens but I’ve kept one Rubbermaid bin of high quality toys for each age group (0-3 years) & (4-7 years) just in case we have company.
All the rest went to the “sharing centre”
Tanna says
I’m going through the kids stuff as well. I would really like to get rid of our play room all together and move my youngest son in there. They won’t play in the playroom but will play in their rooms! Happy to see some of the noisier baby toys go though! 🙂
Laura says
Jackie, I did this as well. I kept a tub of the big Lego and a few other small things.
Tanna, I hear ya on the noisy toys. As I get older the toys just seem to get louder 🙂
Valerie says
I have been crazy lately…but I think you already found me out! I recently did a post on organizing too – I am a junkie! Love your site and thanks for commenting on my blog.
Meghan says
We don’t have kiddos yet (one of the way though!) so Easter weekend was dedicated to re-organizing some things around the house. Specifically, the garage (so we will actually have room to move a baby carrier in and out of the car) and the pantry (so we will actually have room for all the extras that come along with baby). I don’t have pictures posted on my blog yet, but I’m so excited about the new shelves we put on the wall in the pantry that allowed me to move my spices and Ziploc bags from drawers into hanging shelves on the formerly empty side walls of the pantry. After re-arranging some other things in the kitchen, I now have one completely empty drawer all ready for baby things! Yay! I love that things like this make other people happy too – makes me feel a little more normal! 🙂
Heather says
I kept one Rubbermaid bin of our kids’ best (and favorite) baby toys up in the attic, but I think I can still go through it and weed out some more. I am having a hard time with parting with their childhood things, but I am getting more ready to do it. I still need to sort through the dolls, Barbie dolls and stuff, childhood books, and help my son (now age 10) sort through the toys in his closet. We did get the hundreds of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars sorted out last week, though! He narrowed them down to only the ones that will fit in on Matchbox car case. I was very proud of him!
Elise says
I felt like organizing something yesterday – just felt I *needed* to(I know you understand!) so I alphabetized our cassette tapes : ) They were loosely organized by group/singer and “his” and “hers,” but I felt great when I was done alphabetizing!
Kristen says
Hi Laura – I just found your site, and love it!
My toddler was given a new set of toy dishes for Easter, so I had to find a place for them. I have a toy rack with colored bins (found it at a thrift store), and one of the bins was holding a toy that didn’t really need to be there. So I designated that bin for the dishes, and made picture labels for all eight bins in the rack (something I’ve been meaning to do for weeks anyway!). Then I showed him the new labels and we practiced putting things away. Pointing to the pictures and talking about them was a fun game in itself!
Rita says
As I was cleaning out winter clothes from the drawers, and muttering once again about how much space fleece “footie” pjs take up, it dawned on me that they should be kept ON A HANGER in the closet, where they won’t take up any more space than a shirt or a dress. Guess I’ll make use of this revelation next winter.
mikki roo says
I’ve been totally crazy lately! =) Especially since we’re finishing out our basement & stuff absolutely has to go! I like to keep a small box/basket of baby toys for when we have visitors but otherwise I clear out whatever our 5 and 3 year olds don’t play with anymore… and anything that’s too redundant.
Teri says
We just cleaned out our garage yesterday & I wish that we had done before & after pics because it is AMAZING…we moved in October, so we didn’t have a lot of time before it got cold to do much outside (or in the garage). Yesterday, we hauled our grill out, and our huge garbage can! We moved another trash can and some coolers down to our garage & we built two shelving units! Now all of our cleaning supplies (except the ones that are immediately in use) are stored outside on the shelves! And we bought a label maker to get ourselves even more organized!
Next stop – the basement!!
Annie says
He may not have baby toys anymore but he’ll always be “baby carseat” to me!!!
Carmen says
I actually NEED to do this! We went from my 8 and 5 year olds having separate rooms to now sharing one big room. All of their stuff is still jammed in rubbermaid totes. Eek!
GiBee says
Oh, yes… I did the same thing two weekends ago… Good bye to bags full of baby toys… HELLO to lots of room.
Serrenity.
I also organized my pantry, my cabinet for glasses, my cabinet for dishes, my coat closet, my laundry closet…
I’m on a roll.
The only problem? I can only organize every-other-Friday, and that’s not soon enough to get everything done I want to do!!! But little, by little — I’m tackling it!
Susanne says
In a way, I’m so very jealous! Because of my dayhome those baby items never disappear. And my youngest is 14! But I totally agree with you about toy boxes. I was just trying to think of a way I could redo things to get rid of them. They are exactly what you said. Bottomless pits.
reba says
i just consigned a bunch of stuff and it felt so GOOD to get the unloved toys out of the house! and get a little pocket money for mama 😉 i like the idea of keeping some of the best stuff for company i think i will start a “playdate box” for just that reason.
i share your love of not just organizing but coming up with new ways to organize things. my current organizing star is plastic coffee cans…man i use those for everything!
Sarah says
Great repurposing! I hope that your recent conquests have helped soothe whatever hurts you’ve been going through.
Christy says
I have a 5 year old and I was feeling that the toy box thing was not working for us either. Thanks for the ideas. I don’t like to throw things out that aren’t working if I can figure some other way to utilize them.
maggie says
I just bought an organizer just like the one next to your toybox. Please tell me what you put in yours? Toys/clothes? I want to use it to its best ability! lol
Jackie L. says
I need to do the same in my (almost) 3yo’s room. In fact, that’s on today’s list! Thanks for the kick in the pants. 😉
And remember, baskets are ALWAYS best used to store crocheting or knitting projects. The kids have taken over enough space! hehe
Sarah says
I too am an orgjunkie! Look what I did to my freezer? http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1551766&l=b9d665d89b&id=758588616
My spices are also in alpha order.
~organize everything you can and don’t worry about the rest!~ Sarah L.
Organising Queen says
Laura, I didn’t know you crochet.
That certainly is crafty 🙂
Jessica says
I wanted to let you know that I sw those CD case sized little plastic crates at Dollar Tree today! 🙂 You know, the mini produce crates?
Saver Queen says
I like how you re-purpose everything you own to adapt it to your changing needs. It’s a great strategy instead of just heading out and buying new stuff. The toy chest is perfect for storing clothes and the wicker basket is great for your crocheting!
Saver Queen says
Jessica, actually what I’ve done to better organize my cds is get rid of all cd covers and slide the discs into a big cd case. This protects them and hides them from sight. You can just slide the case into a bookshelf or wherever you like!
Hope Cantrall says
Oh…I have been wild & crazy lately!!! I spent several hours on Thursday pulling every single tote I had under my house & went through them all! I have 5 bags of stuff to donate and 3 totes of stuff to sell at our community garage sale….I also had 4 bags of trash when I was done! I think my next project will be DD’s closet since it’s getting to be time to pull out all the winter stuff & get rid of it! Off to the resale shop it will go! I cannot wait to do this…hmmm…maybe Monday!!