Comments on: Organizing toys with cubbies

By: Think this would work...? - London Moms

Think this would work...? - London Moms — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:12:11 +0000

[...] baskets I got wondering… Think one of these type of shelves can be turned into a barbie house? Organizing toys with cubbies : I'm an Organizing Junkie I figured I could get the stick on flooring they sell at the dollar store and use that in the [...]

By: Creative Triplet Mom

Creative Triplet Mom — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:35:06 +0000

I have this too. I just need an idea of how to get the kids to pick up after themselves. They are always dumping the bins out which drives me crazy.

By: Christy

Christy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:59:03 +0000

I did the same sort of thing for my son’s room. Instead of tags though, I painted a small board with chalboard paint and hung it on each basket with a ribbon. Then we can change the labels as needed.

By: MommySpendsLess

MommySpendsLess — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:44:44 +0000

I love your blog. I feel a lot better knowing I’m not the only one obsessed with bins. And I think I’ll have to borrow your term “organizing junkie” to describe myself – it’s perfect! :)

I just got a cubby system started in my daughter’s room (she’s only 4 months old, but as the only grandbaby on one side and the youngest by eight years on the other, I felt I needed to be prepared for Christmas!). I fell in love with Ikea’s Expedit unit but I was super disappointed to discover that their “white” is not truly white so it wouldn’t match with her other furniture. I looked at the Closetmaid cubbies but I wanted ones that could hold bigger toys to get us through the toddler stage. Then I looked at the Via toy boxes but they were outside of my budget.

I ended up buying 12 of the Foremost Hold’Ems open storage cubes. They’re a 15″x15″x15″ modular system available at Staples.com and Target.com. We’ve only had them a couple weeks but so far I’m pretty happy with them. For right now they’re set in a basic 3 wide x 4 high rectangle but when she gets a little older we’ll probably switch them to an L shape so she can use the lower ones as a flat play surface.

For bins I bought the Drona fabric boxes from Ikea. They’re collapsible and only $5.

To attach labels, I got some self-adhesive business card holders from Office Depot – basically clear plastic sleeves with a sticky back. I printed labels from the computer and just slid them into the sleeve (using Google’s image search feature, I was able to find pictures of a lot of her actual toys).

I just hope everything holds up well once it’s being used by little hands.

(I’ll post a picture on my blog later this weekend in case anyone is interested).

By: Valerie

Valerie — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:10:35 +0000

I too love the cubbie idea. I actually have it all planned out for when our house gets built this coming year. Each of the kids bedrooms will have this system but I got the idea from HGTV. It is a low cubbie box like a foot and a half tall then as long as you want it. I want to be able to put at least 6 cubbies in theirs so it will probably run the length of the wall but it serves several purposes. They store their toys in canvas or wicker bins and are easy to get to and put away. It will also hold their TV, they can sit on it and play or build on top of it or whatever. The one on HGTV was beautiful. I LOVE CUBBIES!! :-D

By: Lucky

Lucky — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:53:53 +0000

I have the same shelf, and also love it for keeping my son’s toys together.

By: BigMamaCass

BigMamaCass — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:59:22 +0000

Awesome!! I have seen those but was worried he would pull them down on himself. Did you anchor it to the wall?

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:03:02 +0000

I use these in my kindergarten classroom. It is the most organized the students have been. Each row is a different color and I have clear name tags clipped to the front with pictures of the toys.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:35:44 +0000

I just bought the same one for my son’s room and I LOVE it! Devin can now put away his toys because they all have a place! I’m going to get one for my daughter’s room when she gets older too!

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:00:11 +0000

Although I don’t have any children of my own yet, I plan on using cubbies. I worked at a daycare for four summers and they used cubbies. I was amazed at the difference adding pictures to the cubbies made. It is definitely the way to go.