If you DON"T have a separate playroom...

[Tuesdayschild]

Please tell me about what you do with your toys.

And in case you need inspiration... some questions / thoughts to get you started...
Do you still have a 'grown-up' space in the house?
Where is your tv (if you have one)?
How do you store the toys?
how do you manage the toy tidy? (daily? weekly? when you can't find the floor?)

Please feel free to post inspirational pictures if you feel so led :mrgreen

:ty3

[Mother of Sons]

We have a cabinet in the living room and most of the toys go in that.

[Tuesdayschild]

If I remember right your dc are a bit older than mine (oldest = 9). Was it that was when they were younger too? Did that mean a living room strewn with toys every day? 'cos right now that fact is driving me :crazy

[Mother of Sons]

Yeah we live in a pretty small house so toys and crafts do take over the living room and it drives me nuts. When we had a bigger house there was a play room but it was always a disaster. At that time we kept the toys in the play room closet where we had built floor to ceiling shelves.

It does big me not to have a space that is always clear of kid stuff.

[Tuesdayschild]

ITU :there

eta: I have playroom envy :shifty :bag

[filmgirl2911]

I tend to ebb and flow on this. There are times that I wish I could get us better organized, but then my husband and I shrug and remind each other that this is just the stage we're in right now. My girls are 4.75 and 2.75, so there are a lot of little kid toys around.

They include open-ended things: several different types of blocks, pegs, pretend play food and lots of little things like jars of beads, marbles and things like that.

So, in my living room these days, we have a nine-cube structure that has several baskets for the blocks & pegs and we have a small book shelf that has a lot of the beads and the like (we have a light panel that we use for a lot of the things on the book shelf, but we also just get them out to sort and explore and do sensory play).

Our living room is both an adult space and a kid space. We're a family, so that doesn't bother me; the kids live here, too :shifty

We do tend to follow the rule of putting one thing away before getting something else out, but there are times that the living room floor is strewn with several sets of toys.

Of course, at the end of the day, it's all picked up and ready for the next day's adventure and exploration :giggle

I figure that one day they will spend more time in their rooms doing their own thing, so for now, I'm okay with sharing my space. I putter about on my computer in the office space we've created and they putter about in the play space we've created.

oh, and we have a mix on our book shelves that house books. The upper shelves our all mine and my husband's things and the lower shelves are lots of kid books and a few other baskets with small sensory things (like bean bags and feeling dolls). The same is true for our DVD collections; they share a space.

To me, we still have a space where I feel comfortable having folks in to visit and hang out, but I've had to choose not to worry about the fact that it's not my ideal space. After all, I chose to have little people in my life and they come with a lot of little things :giggle

I'll try and come back and post some picture :)

[knitlove]

oh I need to come back to this - I had a great system and now I really really need help. But I must go wash dishes I will be back.

[filmgirl2911]

here are some living room pictures (as it looks right now :shifty) putting in spoilers due to size

also, I will also point out that we moved into this space in the middle of September, so we still have unpacked boxes around, too :shifty

overview of living room area
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt132/jcheaney/living%20space/DSC08994.jpg

my work space
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt132/jcheaney/living%20space/DSC08995.jpg

another over view of living room area from where my work space is
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt132/jcheaney/living%20space/DSC08996.jpg

one bookshelf with our stuff on top shelves and girls' stuff on lower ones
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt132/jcheaney/living%20space/DSC08997.jpg

another bookshelf with our stuff and the girls' stuff
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt132/jcheaney/living%20space/DSC08998.jpg

nine cube shelving space with girls' toys (I try to keep the top cleared off so that it has some photos and a lamp and isn't cluttered; that is sometimes not the case :shifty)
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt132/jcheaney/living%20space/DSC09000.jpg

small bookshelf with the jars of sensory and light panel things (buttons, beads, etc.)
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt132/jcheaney/living%20space/DSC08999.jpg

[illinoismommy]

Please tell me about what you do with your toys.

And in case you need inspiration... some questions / thoughts to get you started...
Do you still have a 'grown-up' space in the house?
Where is your tv (if you have one)?
How do you store the toys?
how do you manage the toy tidy? (daily? weekly? when you can't find the floor?)

Please feel free to post inspirational pictures if you feel so led :mrgreen

:ty3

The grown up space is my bedroom :heart

We have TVs in the same rooms as toys and kids :shrug3 We have both a small living room attached and open to the dining and kitchen, and a family room with a fireplace. It sounds spacious but its not, I think the house is around 1300 square feet, 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom.

The toys are mainly stored in the two bedrooms but the kids books are in the family rom and toys get dragged everywhere.

I manage the toys (and they get out of hand) by keeping many of them in storage and only a few floating about. And I have the kids clean up their own rooms, we're talking about once every other week on a Saturday morning. But we are gone a lot during the week too.

[Tuesdayschild]

Ah yes, the toys get dragged everywhere issue :sigh

So right now it's like this at ours, outside-the-box ideas (preferably for in-box storage though ;) ) gratefully received. Thanksgiving :turkey for the best answers.

DS1 + 2 share a bedroom, in it they have books, small lego, dressing up clothes, kapla (this is a very european toy - basically jenga-like pieces of wood) and a handful of other items. It is pretty much always a mess, because it is hard to find the time to clean it. One afternoon playing and it's totaled,kwim?

DS3 + DD share the other room. They have the Duplo in there, books for their age group, the play kitchen, musical 'instruments', some doll things. It can get messy, but it's really easy to clean up for some reason. maybe because Duplo is bigger? Also I have a unit with deep baskets in it, and it goes in there. So that's working for now, even though they have by far the smallest space. Go figure.

Then there's our bedroom, and a study w/ sofa bed for guests.

The living room - diner - kitchen is completely open plan, in an L-shape.. well three quarters of a square really. The living room has a wooden train track, and the tv and kids' dvds. And a small table for crafts, with some colors and paper. Yet somehow it still ends up looking like a bomb site.

Thoughts?

[MaybeGracie]

We have one of those 4x4 Ikea Expedit bookshelves. The top 4 cubes are reserved for our books and CDs. The other cubes are for their toys, some just on the shelves and some in baskets. We also keep some of their toys on top of the shelf. The bookshelf is in our living room. We also have a couple other baskets on the living room floor, one for their cars and another for their wooden train/road set. Baskets make for easy quick cleaning and they look nice in the room. We also use drawstring bags (for things like Fisher Price sets, Mr. Potato Head, etc), fabric baskets (for things like their Schleich animal collection, a construction set, etc), and buckets (for Lego and Duplo). Basically, everything has a home and that home looks generally tidy.

Extra toys, as well as all puzzles and games, or stored in our hallway out of reach.

The only adult-only space in the house is our bedroom, and even that we share with the baby. :giggle They have very very few toys in their own bedroom, basically just books and stuffed animals.

We clean up toys every night before bed. I need a toy-free floor for my sanity in the evenings. If they don't clean it, it gets put away for the entirety of the following day. Sometimes we do a pre-dinner tidy as well, to make the bedtime tidy easier.

I get a little twitchy if the Lego have made their way from one end of the room to the other, so I will occasionally ask them in the middle of the day to gather their Lego back into its bucket.

[MegMarch]

Mine is 2 years old. We have a very small house. In the living room we have a toy kitchen where toy food and prep stuff is kept, and a 6 cube storage shelf thing. The top has 3 open cubbies, the bottom has 3 bins. There's a bigger bin out of the shelf for babies and their stuff. We keep books in one open cubby, stuff rotates out of the other areas and we keep a few big toys (push/ride, baby stroller, etc) out too.

Duplos are kept in DH's office because I don't want them all over. Puzzles and a small stash of wooden blocks are kept in a doored cupboard under the tv.

Stuff that's out of rotation goes in either DD's closet or mine. If it's spending too much time out of rotation and not missed I put it in the donation box or storage shed for another LO.

Art supplies are in the kitchen but I need to get a cupboard.

Most nights we are able to help DD tidy up easily. If we are busy or tired we just kick it to the side.

[HuggaBuggaMommy]

We have a play room now, but before lived in a home without one. I did several things. We are not a "play in the bedroom" type family, so games and toys not played with on a daily basis - such as board games - were stored in bedroom closets. Books were on ds's bedroom bookshelf. Educational toys (microscopes, science experiments, manipulatives, etc) were stored in the homeschool cabinet in the family room, or in several larger canvas baskets behind the sofa. This is also where the TV was. Larger toys (like the race car set or nok hockey board) were kept in the (finished) basement, and brought upstairs on occasion. Art supplies were kept in the kitchen pantry.


[QUOTE=MegMarch;4981784]
Stuff that's out of rotation goes in either DD's closet or mine. If it's spending too much time out of rotation and not missed I put it in the donation box or storage shed for another LO.
[QUOTE]

We did/do the rotation-donation cycle, too.

[backtobasicsmum]

Do you still have a 'grown-up' space in the house?
My bedroom stays fairly "kid free" and the living room gets a complete pick up every evening before the kids go to bed.

Where is your tv (if you have one)?
It lives in the basement and is only brought up for random VHS movie viewing on Friday nights.
How do you store the toys?
Toys are all sorted into big rubbermaid bins. They are stored in the basement and one at a time is brought up to play with. We have a bin with: Duplo, wooden train tracks, cars, big K'nex, plastic animals, marble run, magnetos...and probably something else I'm forgetting.

There some other toys that live in the bedrooms and can be accessed at any time.
Boy's room: stuffed animals, play kitchen/food, small Lego (stored in 3 under the bed bins)
Dd's room: Girly stuf :wink either on a small shelf in her room or in drawers under her bed....stuff like Littlest Pet Shop, ponies, dolls/clothes

how do you manage the toy tidy? (daily? weekly? when you can't find the floor?)
The kids are pretty well trained :wink now to pick things up several times a day. I try to not let them get too many different things out at once, though there are times when they want their Lego men to ride on the train tracks, and I hate to squash creativity, you know? Generally my living room floor is strewn with things, but at the end of the day, with everyone working together, we can have the whole house picked up in 10 minutes or so. But everything gets all picked up every.single day. :yes

[mamacat]

I would rather make a bunkroom and have kids share than have toys in bedrooms or scattered all over.I have used one end of a dining room before agree with other poster that having cupboards with doors you can close would be great.

[Tuesdayschild]

Lots more thoughts and questions, but it's 10 to midnight here and :yawn

Thank you all so much - you've really got me thinking!
:gcm

[Codi]

Kids toys mostly stay in their bedroom. We have two of the bottom shelves in our library corner for toys and kids books and there is a rocking horse and dd's stroller and babies there too. Then we have a crate of blocks by the tv dresser. Our house is not big enough ATM for an adult only space. Some day maybe.

[JoEllen]

Each kid has a trunk in their room where their toys are kept, and shelves on the wall where they keep special toys that they don't want anyone else to touch. We require that toys be cleared out of the living room every night before bedtime, and bedrooms are to be tidied once a week.

[gerberadaisy]

My living room constantly looks like Toys R US threw up.

We bought this (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50103086/) shelving unit. It has 8 baskets full of toys. Most of the toys go in there. We have a basket in his room with toys and there are a few in his closet that he has yet to actually play with. Once I clean out my childhood toy box, we will be moving it to the living room and putting the toys that don't fit in the current compartments in there. He has a musical table and a push toy that won't fit in either so get pushed in a corner. His ball bit is blow up and right now is in our LR, it'll soon go down in the basement or be relieved of it's air for a while.

I try to clean up his toys nightly but sometimes I don't even bother. I'm a messy by nature so it really doesn't bother me all the time but we have a new, beautiful area rug in the LR so occasionally I really want to see it. We'll soon be working with him to pick up his own toys. He's only 1 year and by 18 months I figure he'll "get" cleaning up even though it'll still be mostly me & hubby. Around 18 months or so, I'll start working with him {& hubby - who, btw, is the WORST at bombarding the kid with toys!} to get out 1 thing at a time and clean up before the next thing. By "1 thing" I mean he can get out his blocks or a couple puzzles, etc not just 1 block, 1 puzzle.

[sweetpeas]

For point of reference we have 3 girls, 9 yr old twins and a 3 yr old. We homeschool.

Please tell me about what you do with your toys:

We have some in the living room, some in the kids' bedroom (all 3 girls share one large bedroom), and some in an upstairs hall closet

Do you still have a 'grown-up' space in the house?
Not sure what you mean by "grown-up space" but probably not, not sure when we'd use it if we did LOL

Where is your tv (if you have one)?
Living room

How do you store the toys?
We have glass door cabinet in the living room that we keep games in, it also has a large drawer at the bottom that has become a catch-all "toy box" for Lina's toys. Also in the living room is a thing that's got 3 plastic drawers that holds her various building toys, and then the make-shift TV stand has crates to hold some more toys, and there's a book basket. The upstairs hall closet has plastic bins of toys. The girls' room, my dad built them a loft that covers most of the room, originally they slept on the top & played underneath but when we started talking about Lina joining them (we coslept when she was a baby) we moved their mattresses to the floor under the loft & moved their toys up on the loft. About half of the loft space is their American Girl dolls/accessories, set up into "rooms" and such. Lina has a Dora doll about the same size so her accessories for it are in that area too. Along the other wall of the loft is their wood dollhouse with a basket or bin, I don't remember which, to hold whatever furniture isn't in the dollhouse, and a couple more bins that hold their Schleich animals. On the "floor" of their room there's a wicker "trunk" full of dress-up clothes, a small bookcase (3 or 4 shelves) against each end wall under the loft, those hold a combination of books and smaller toys in small baskets. A large hamper of Lina's stuffed animals, plus a beanbag that's stuffed with stuffed animals (though some of those are "mine" that I use for the programs I lead for the little kids at church) . . . . ummm . . . oh and in one corner under the loft is a doll crib with their dolls in it and doll close in a basket under it. I think that's it (other than outside toys that live on the porch or in the basement)

how do you manage the toy tidy? (daily? weekly? when you can't find the floor?)

When we have a good routine going, we do daily picking up, when life goes nuts (like it is now), I clean, or tell them to, when we can't walk

[hey mommy]

i'll be back when i'm not eating

[LadybugSam]

we have a big kids room and a little kids room. All the big kid toys go in the big kids room, and all the baby and toddler toys go in the little kids room.

The babies' room is mostly toys with a bed in there (that usually doesn't get slept in, LOL)

the kids usually drag all their toys out into the livingroom when they play with them :shrug We have a large wicker basket where we throw the toys when we want to clean up. Before bed (we try nightly, but honestly it usually happens once a week :shifty) we take the wicker basket and throw them into the the appropriate kids room.

no toys are allowed in my bedroom. the kids aren't allowed to play in there at all, its just for sleeping

almost all of our toys are accessible at all times (the exception being the marble run and the play food)

as far as cleaning bedrooms. I clean up the babies' room when i have trouble getting to the dresser to get clothes for them :shifty a couple quick cleans every other day and a big clean every other week or so. My big kid's room gets cleaned much less often. I clean it for him, or a i help him clean it about once a month. I ask him to pick up before bed, but if he doesn't do a very good job i just let it go. its HIS room afterall and i try not to stress over it.

[hey mommy]

We have Sammy's train table in the living room and it has storage bins on the side. We have some toys in there. A med. plastic box sits on top of it for books. Another small pllastic box has various legos in it.

Then we have a pop-up bin with toys in it in the living room/kitchen area(living room and kitchen are one big room).

The rest of gazillion toys are upstairs in their room. They share a room, so all the toys are in the same room. It's always a mess, despite my organizing it. I just make sure there is a path to the dresser, closet and bed.

[JellyBean]

The majority of our toys are in our living room and dining room. We have the couch at an angle so that there is a space behind it and in the corner that the toys are stored. Then it doesn't feel so much like the toys have taken over the living room when they are put away. And in the dining room we have the kids play kitchen and dress up chest. Very few toys are kept in their room. Mostly b/c our home is two stories and we spend our day downstairs and their rooms are upstairs. As for grown up space...my kitchen is as close to grown up space as I get. ;) Our 1 year old still shares a room with us.

Here's a few pics of our living room.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/hink4687/20121123_212421.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/hink4687/20121123_212432.jpg

And their toy corner

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/hink4687/20121123_212448.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/hink4687/20121123_212453.jpg

I will say the ones behind the couch are almost completely hidden when they are put away properly and not spilling out of the baskets. :lol

I throw toys back in baskets throughout the day and in theory they pick up all their toys every night before bed.

Oh...and actually we have about twice as many toys as that...the rest are stored in cabinets in the garage and they get rotated out every now and then when they get bored of whats there.

[Beth1231]

We have a 1060 sq ft 2br apartment. The kids bedroom has a toy box with several bins (ikea) and a 9 cube storage piece that we use for their books (target). Toys with small pieces are up high in their large closet along with an art bin,games and puzzles stacks and seasonal stuff like pool toys. The majority of stuffed animals are in a rubbermaid bin because I got so tired of picking them up.
There is a tall,built-in bookshelf in our living room with some toys on the bottom shelf,but the round,fabric bins contain it all nicely. Also, a train table in the living room with block bins under it, but it stays within control as well.

A is trained at this point to clean up after herself with a reminder or two. Too much out at once means a pause on playtime until its more manageable. But I only have two kids,spaced four yrs apart. Less mess.

I also throw out or give away/sell what is not being used or just tossed aside to get to something else.

[Autumn]

I've loved our Trofast shelves from Ikea - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49819508/

We have a playroom now, but we've had the shelves in multiple houses and they're wonderful. Everything has a labeled bin that it goes into, and the things that don't fit into one of the different sized bins go in the bedroom or into a closet. Most of the toys belong in a bin and it keeps all the like pieces together so they're ready to play with when DDs want them (Mr Potato head stuff, blocks, playsilks, beanbags, cars, train stuff, play kitchen stuff, doll clothes, musical instruments, etc). Cleanup is awesomely easy too :rockon

[illinoismommy]

We have IKEA Trofast too, with the colored bins.

[chasingbutterflies]

I can come back tomorrow with pictures. Posting so I don't lose the thread ;)

(In a nutshell we have a 1500 square foot home with 3 kids and no playroom)

[Tuesdayschild]

OK, so little legos went to the big boys' room for safety reasons - basically all the not-baby-friendly stuff went there. before we remodeled the dining room, which was next to the kitchen but only connected by a door, was a kind of dinging-cum-playroom. We had the duplo in a couple of big drawers there, as well as wooden toys and a play kitchen. Cleaning it up off the floor drove me nuts in what was a relatively large space, so i moved it to the littles' room because frankly I don't care if it's messy in there - I close the door and voila! the problem's solved :giggle

They do play in their rooms - and seem to realy enjoy it - we have a high proportion of introverts here. But they also drag a ton of toys down to play with in the new open plan living area... so by the end of the day it's covered with their artsy stuff and loads of different toys that need sorting ie not sweep up and dump in a bin (but like PP, I don't like to stifle creativity, so the one thing at a time thing has never really worked here - plus, there;s the one thing each issue = 4 things anyway :doh)

(as a side note, we use a dustpan and brush for the little lego - highly recommended)

I think my options are:
study into playroom, study into living room
big bins for toys in living room
all kids into one room, other room for toys (ok with a girl in the mix? different bedtimes also a possible issue)
other thoughts...?

Thanks again everyone :grouphug

---------- Post added at 10:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 AM ----------

ETA: we use trofast for the lego - awesome!

[solatido]

We live with family, so all our toys are in the living room too. Toy soup at the end of the day makes me :crazy We don't really have a great bedtime routine down but I am thinking we could add in a pickup time for the 3yo. But a lot of times we are dragging him away from the toys so :shrug

I use containers to store the smaller pieces. We have old fashioned little people so the parts all go in a box and the buildings go on the hearth. Cars and trucks park out of the way.

:popcorn for more ideas.

[illinoismommy]

I threw a bunch of toys on the floor into a giant plastic bin and put them away. Then I got out the kitchen set and play food/dishes they haven't had out in a long time. They've been playing nicely for hours. Rotating toys is amazing.

[Johns_Gal]

I have a bin of trains, a box of Trio, and a bin of favorite toy cars/plastic animals in the living room, along with the old Little People Barn. I rotate them out, in theory, but have discovered these are what he loves to play with out of what he has. I need to purge his room again: I've boxed everything but just need to get it out.

I try to have three cleanup times/day. Once before or right after lunch, once before DH wakes up (he works nights) and once before bed.

[chasingbutterflies]

Okay so I said I'd come back tomorrow and it is now a week later... :shifty

We live in a 1960's 1500 square foot brick ranch house. We don't keep any toys in our living room except for Wii related things and the toys that wander out of bedrooms during the day. We keep board games and school supplies/coloring supplies in the dining room in a built in cabinet (that I didn't take pictures of) The rest of the toys are pictured below, we keep them in the kids' bedrooms and the hallway.

(please excuse a. the sick kid :( and b. the lack of sheets on the beds. we are fighting lice :sick so they are all in the washing machine right now.)

this is the 6 and 4 year old's room.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8068/8238271695_609303d213_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238271695/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238271695/) by andnowsarah (http://www.flickr.com/people/ksera05/), on Flickr

There's a bookcase (that needs to be replaced) between the bed and the wall, then those blue shelves. The pink rolly bin on the left holds My Little Ponies and a MLP barn. The green bins on the right - one holds Duplos, the smaller top one holds random Playmobil figures.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8337/8239336294_4e76306abf_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8239336294/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8239336294/) by andnowsarah (http://www.flickr.com/people/ksera05/), on Flickr

Bookcase that needs to be replaced - picture books on top, lincoln logs and board books on the bottom. We don't really NEED the board books anymore...that's just one of my few "but what if we do ever have another one" things that I'm keeping :rolleyes :giggle


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8201/8238267649_e515a35a01_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238267649/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238267649/) by andnowsarah (http://www.flickr.com/people/ksera05/), on Flickr

Corner of 3 year old's room - the very top holds random picture books, then that top little shelf holds magnetic dress up dolls. next bin down is puzzles and some American Girl books (:scratch) and then the bottom polka dotted bin is Legos. The racecar track usually just stays there or to the left side of the white shelves, folded up.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8477/8238266581_9ffe793b0c_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238266581/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238266581/) by andnowsarah (http://www.flickr.com/people/ksera05/), on Flickr

Horrible picture of the other corner in his room - bin is trains, both wooden and Geotrax.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8238265569_96bf23a3f1_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238265569/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksera05/8238265569/) by andnowsarah (http://www.flickr.com/people/ksera05/), on Flickr

Then this is our hallway, that door there leads to the 3 year old's room. The bottom right bin is Playmobil, the bottom left bin is Duplos. The top right bin is kitchen stuff and the top left bin is dolls and doll clothing. That piece of a castle on top is the piece that doesn't fit in the bin. Eventually I'll have to find a better solution for Playmobil, but we don't have any plans to buy any new Playmobil right now so I can put that off :shifty

We do need more bookshelf space, we're running out. Not sure where we'll add that.

anyway, don't know if that will help anyone, but just in case it does, well, here, you go...:lol

[illinoismommy]

We have that same bunk bed and wood floors like that :)

[chasingbutterflies]

I LOVE the wood floors. I will probably cry when I have to go back to carpet. :shifty

---------- Post added at 09:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------

Oh and I forgot to say - the blue bookcase in the bedroom is from Target, and so are the animal bins. We love them but they are only so good at keeping up with abuse - we've probably had that shelf set for a year and the bins are starting to get a bit worn out from kids dumping them and sitting in them...

The black bookcase is the Ektorp from Ikea and I'd like to marry it and have its little laminated wood babies :shifty That thing is really, really sturdy for the price. The bins are also from Ikea. The bins also only last about a year, year and a half before they start looking worn but they're only $5 each so whatever.

The plastic white shelving system next to the black chair is Itso from Target. It's cheap. Does the job. :shrug3 The polka dotted bin in the bottom is really good quality though...at least, it's kept up with my kids for 2 years without having to be replaced.

[VeganIma]

I keep my son's toys in a basket and then store it out of the way in a corner next to our couch. It works to keep things nice and neat!