I just have to say - canvas cubes are amazing! Because they are flexible and open at the top, they can fit SO MANY MORE toys in them. All of the toys in this picture that are housed on one wall of canvas cubes and cupboards used to be in SEVEN separate bookshelves filled with plastic totes in our basement. That's right, SEVEN! We had Amazing Space come out and do this wall for us, but I think my dh could have easily done it if he'd seen how they do it. If you have a handyman in the family or as a friend, I think this would be pretty easy to do.
We put a stepstool for the highest shelves in the playroom, and we put the older boys' toys on the top. Only my oldest ds may use the stepstool. We also left the shelving system open on the bottom, as we had an outlet we wanted to keep exposed and available for use.
I bought the canvas cubes at Target. I actually chose just 2 colors (red and blue), and bought one of each size I could find. I used the different sized canvas cubes to measure how many of each I'd need by dumping in the toys from the plastic totes. Then, I knew how many of each canvas cube to buy, and I knew how many shelves to make and how wide to make them. I made a pile of the big things that wouldn't fit in cubes, and made two sections of shelves with doors to house those.
I cut plastic nametag badges (from Office Max) in half and printed off the names of the toys on white cardstock. I stuck the cardstock rectangles in the plastic nametag badges, and velcroed them to the front of each canvas cube.
I liked this so well, that I did this with another unused, wasted space - a walkway to our attic stairs. Here are some pictures of that area:
You can see that things look much neater behind closed doors! I hope this can help someone else tame their toy mess!
In Christ,
Julie
Julie, I love this idea!! The toys have become an issue here; and with our boys about to start sharing a room that was one of our biggest problems to solve. I will have to use this idea and post pictures when it comes to fruition. You have such a gift for organization!!
ReplyDeletesilly question- but how do your boys reach the containers on the taller shelves? Do they have to ask for help to get them down or do they get a step or something to get them themselves?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Edie! That's a good question - we bought a stepstool that has 2 steps. Wyatt is the only one who can reach the things on the top shelves, which is what we wanted, as those things are only for him and too small or too breakable for the littles. HTH!
ReplyDeleteIn Christ,
Julie