Want to improve your mood in less than 15 minutes? Go around the living room and develop a toy storage system.

It is amazing how looking at a clean floor can help your ability to stay patient and zen-like. Especially when you aren’t stepping around (or ON) sharp blocks or sticky cars.

Now, while some of us live in large, luxurious houses with plenty of closet and storage space, others of us *cough, cough* live in smaller sized homes with little space to store all these toys.

This means that aside from throwing them all into the Giant Toy Box Dumpster of Doom (where toys go to be buried and never again see the light of day) you’re left with the challenge of finding a useable place to put the books and the puzzles and the cars and the musical instruments and the dolls and the blocks and the Legos…

The Secret to Toy Storage Solutions

Let me let you in on a little secret. If you want to have a clean (looking) and well organized home, you have to find ways to motivate your household to keep it picked up! This means…

1. Having stylish and trendy options that YOU will want to use to keep your house tidy.
2. Creating interactive and fun ways to motivate your KIDS to keep the house relatively organized.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to select toy organization systems that do both!

Monopoly Stop:
Do Not Pass Go Until You’ve Done This

Before you go through your entire house on mission to put away all the toys, do yourself a favor and take a look at what you actually have lying around the house. Does your child actually have too many toys to store? (Newsflash: Probably.)

So your first step this afternoon is to start sorting. Time to winnow the wheat from the chaff.

Sort Pile #1: Ditch the Embarrassments (Discard)

These toys are broken or in such bad shape that you would be ashamed for another kid to touch them.  Take the “discard” toys and put them in the trash (or recycle) immediately! Consider those toys a hazard to your child and be done with them.

If you don’t have ANY discards, have a friend come over and help. Nothing helps you let go of the truly trashy bits like a fresh perspective!

Sort Pile #2: Bless Someone Else (Donate/Sell)

These toys are in good condition, but your child has outgrown them or no longer plays with them (and no future siblings will either). Take the “donate/sell” toys and put them in bags or boxes.

If you’re donating them, take them straight to the garage or car to drop off on your next trip to town. If you’re going to sell them, snap some pictures to put up on Facebook Marketplace or eBay later in the week.

The danger with this pile is that it can just sit there. Putting the donates in your car will help you remember to drop them off. Snapping the pictures right away will make it most likely you’ll get them up to sell sooner. Otherwise they can sit in the corner (in the black trash bag) for WEEKS. #ExperienceTalking

Sort Pile #3: Still Used (Keep)

These toys are in good condition AND your children play with them on a regular basis (or you’re saving them for a younger sibling).

If this category is on the large size, consider rotating your toys to get more use out of them. Make an old toy feel new by pulling in out next quarter, when your child forgot how much they loved it!

Now that we’ve sorted them, how can we keep them from taking over the entire house? I thought we’d never get here! Time for some clever toy storage ideas.

7 Toy Storage Ideas for the Living Room

This is your entertaining room. It’s the room where you collapse on the couch to watch TV at the end of a long day. It’s the room where you chat with your friends over coffee.

I’ve found that my stress level goes up significantly when the living room is trashed. If you’re going to de-clutter anything, the living room is a great place to start!

Here are some of my favorite ideas to keep my living room just a few minutes away from clean throughout the week.

How to Hide Toy Junk in the Family Room

1. I love this clever idea to hide art supplies in craft and photo boxes, tucked in a lower kitchen cabinet. The kids always know exactly where they go when it’s time to clean up.
2. Hide the toys, coloring books, and other busy activities in plain sight behind an attractive cabinet like this one.
3. This toy storage solution uses decorative baskets to tuck the trinkets away. You can recreate this look with open shelves and these sturdy rope baskets.
4. Lined wire baskets are the trendy thing right now. Steal that modern farmhouse look with this rustic burlap basket or these avant-garde oval ones.
5. This wooden chest is gorgeous to look at and will hold a LOT of newborn, baby, and toddler STEM toys inside.
6. A sneaky ottoman will secretly contain the chaos and is easily filled by small hands at the end the day!
7. I’m in love with this LEGO bag. You spread it out and let the kids built to their heart’s content, then pull up the string and carry it back from Grandma’s house. No problem.

8 Toy Storage Ideas for the Bedroom

Have you tackled the chaos in the living room? If so, it’s ready to turn to the next area needing a little zen in your life…the bedroom.

Imagine walking into child’s bedroom in the morning, without stepping on something and seeing everything neatly arranged! Instant emotion boost!

Besides, I’ve noticed that my kids play more in their room when there is actually room for them to play in their room. This means keeping the toys off the floor and organized.

How to Manage the Toy Chaos in the Bedroom

• Isn’t this idea smart! Use a magnetic knife strip (sans the knives) to hang those toy cars up on the wall! Your obsessed son will love looking at them as he falls asleep. Bonus: Having them in line of sight may even pull him away from the screens.
• Stuffed animals are the bane of my existence, which is why I love this toy storage idea to turn them into wall art! You can recreate that with these adorable chicken wire baskets or these traditional ones. (Just remove the liner.)
• These opaque storage cubes are perfect for hiding clutter, while still reminding your child about all the fun waiting inside.
• Have some toys that are too nostalgic to donate or toss? Slide them into these glass jars and work them into the room’s design.
• Follow this lead on Pinterest and create a DIY rack with a hanging rod, hooks, and colored buckets.
• When in doubt, shove it under the bed. Just make sure the containers have wheels so growing arms can pull them out and put them away without your help.
• If you’re on the crafty side, use this tutorial to turn a diaper box into a toy storage solution with Mod Podge, a roller, and your favorite wrapping paper.
• Finally, create a choir of barbies (or action figures!) on the back of the door with a clear shoe rack.

4 Toy Storage Ideas for the Bathroom

Well, if we’re going to organize the toys in the living room and bedroom, we might as well take a peek at those toys in the bathroom as well.

If you haven’t discovered the awesomeness and bathing your baby and toddler at the same time, let this article introduce you.

How to Stylishly Tuck Away the Bath Toys

1. Use your wicked DIY skills to create this tower of baskets using these wire baskets and a few 3-inch rings.
2. Let this baby shark (doo doo doo doo doo doo!) gobble up the toys when your little one is playing. Also comes in a penguin, polar bear, and walrus.
3. Ditch the fruit and use the baskets for toys instead.
4. Want to keep the toys a little closer to the play area? This tutorial shows how to take small plastic baskets, a curtain rod, and zip ties into a practical toy storage solution for the bath.

3 Toy Storage Ideas for the Garage

The problem with trying to organize things in the garage is that you are very rarely right there when the kids are supposed to put things away.

This means you need a system that will actually motivate your kids to put their toys away without you standing there telling him to. This will require making cleaning up…*brace yourself* FUN.

How to Convince Your Kids to Put Garage Toys Away

• He shoots! He scores! (And so do you, because he’s actually put the balls away!) Learn how to make this using a board, PVC pipe, and a cheap soccer goal.
• Help your children’s future driving efforts by teaching them how to “park” their bikes and scooters with painter’s tape. (This way it’s easily removed when you need to upgrade spaces.)
• Use a peg board to mount all those nerf guns in the garage. Here’s exactly how to do it.

Reclaim Your Sanity from the Toy Monster

The time has come to take back your cozy cottage and win your floor and chairs back from the Terrible Toy Monster. 

The easier it is for your children to identify where toys go, the easier it will be for you to teach them to put them there.

You have enough on your plate. Don’t try to organize and clean your home on your own. Get your kids to help you!

Use these toy storage ideas and consistently teach your children how to use them. Your stress level will sink and your sense of contentment will rise. PLUS, your children will learn some valuable skills about home hygiene.

It’s a win-win!

We ♥  honesty!  This post contains affiliate links that provide extra money for our mutual coffee habits addictions. Click here to learn more. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.