Stealing a toy organization trick from our OT...

[Domina]

Our OT always brings tons of toys with lots of small moving parts. I noticed she brings them in a big 31 tote, but each activity is sealed up in a ziplock bag. She has him put away the toy he is playing with before starting on a new kit.

I think this is BRILLIANT, and possibly the solution to our current problem, which is 9 million tiny toys everywhere, and Sumo never playing very deliberately with any of it, because the parts are scattered hither and yon.

I'm thinking it may also help him to communicate with us (asking) and develop his fine-motor skills (sliding the ziplock open).

I'm working on it right now while he naps. Pics coming soon!

[ReedleBeetle]

I have a box like this! They also make entertainment for trips easily grqb and go.

[Domina]

Ok, here's the bookshelf where we store all his toys except the slide, kitchen and dollhouse.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv33/otosmom/photo.jpg

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Bucket 1 - tools, cars, alphabet magnets

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv33/otosmom/photo-4.jpg

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Bucket 2 - balls, play silks, and a cooking pot from DH's camping equipment :giggle

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv33/otosmom/photo-3.jpg

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Bucket 3 - lacing beads, blocks, dinosaurs

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv33/otosmom/photo-2.jpg

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Bucket 4 has some Winnie the Pooh DVDs in it that I didn't bother bagging.

I'm really interested to see what Sumo thinks of it. :giggle

[Starfox]

You are a GENIUS! !!!

(In Oprah's "loooooove it!!!!" Voice)

[GraemesMomma]

:tu

[crunchymum]

I'm a little bit of a ziploc freak. :shifty I love them to an unhealthy degree.


Pssst: you can organize *anything* in ziplocs... I have small bins for first aid, vitamins, toiletries, etc, subdivided into baggies. :tu

[Singingmom]

Looks great! :tu

This has worked for us for years with Playmobil sets. We still have all the little pieces for all the sets together. :)

[SweetCaroline]

toy organization :twitcheswithdelight

:tu great job mom! ..kids get overwhealmed with toy chaos just like we do

[Lady Grey]

Nice! I heard a tip once (I think back when I was in MOPS) to store wooden puzzles in dollar store mesh lingerie bags to keep the pieces together. I never got around to doing it but I think it's brilliant!

[milkmommy]

I did ziplocks with my oldest for a while she jsut figured out how to tear the bag open.. :shifty However I found the solution with locking lid plastic bins which required her to put away before getting out another it REALLY helped... I should do this again honestly.

[ValiantJoy07]

:rockon

I do some thing similar with the $1 plastic shoe boxes ...I also have zippies in some of the shoe boxes. It has brought so much intention to our play...I have the "imaginative play" stuff out (kitchen and dress up" but all the rest are boxed or zipped into their catgories - and those are all interavtive play. :)

Edit: they are only allowed one box at a time)

[blondie]

:rockon

I wouldn't have thought of ziplocks for TOYS!! We use a lot of the plastic bins.

[Blue-EyedLady]

If you have any of those zippered bags that curtains and sheets come in, they make marvelous toy holders, too. :yes

[Dovenoir]

One dollar shoe boxes for toys? :jawdrop

Where are you buying these boxes!!

[Aisling]

One dollar shoe boxes for toys? :jawdrop

Where are you buying these boxes!!

yeah, THAT! :popcorn

[blondie]

THE BUCK STORE!! I just got three more yesterday. :dance

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They had chevron ones at the Dollar Tree. :melting I totally put my nail polish stuff in one. And my glitter in the other. :shifty That leaves one for my kids. :haha

[milkmommy]

One dollar shoe boxes for toys? :jawdrop

Where are you buying these boxes!!

I got most of mine from Target or Walmart they were between about 8o cent-$1.50 each for shoe box size depending on sales.

[Sparrow]

Looks great! :tu

This has worked for us for years with Playmobil sets. We still have all the little pieces for all the sets together. :)

I was totally coming on here specifically because I was wanting ideas for playmobil storage. We have 50 bajillion pieces of pirates, cops, dinosaurs and knights, like everywhere.

:heart looooooooooove it.

And I love that its cheap :shifty

[curlymopmom]

We use ziplocs for puzzles. We have SO MANY puzzles. If I kept them in boxes, we wouldn't have a place to put them. :giggle

I never thought to use them for toys. Great idea! :rockon

We have lots of bins and old jam containers and pill containers.

[Rabbit]

I used to organize my diaper bag with ziplocs.

All my sewing threads are in a single shoe box, with the different color groups in ziplocs.

[delightedmama]

We use the mesh lingerie bags for everything (mostly prefer them just cuz they're more washable and durable, and ziplocks ate pricey here). Works great!

[Domina]

Wow, so many great ideas! I think any cheap, transparent device would work for this kind of pod system. Labels on opaque containers would even work for older kids. :yes I like the ziplocks because they're not bulky, but we will see how long they survive.

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Sumo looked a little confused at first. :giggle His morning routine is to pull out all the buckets and scatter the pieces throughout the first floor, then ask to watch TV. :doh

This morning, he peered into the buckets, carefully selected the tools, brought them to me, and has been playing happily (and intentionally) with the hammer and drill.

Total. Flipping. Win.

---------- Post added at 09:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 AM ----------

I'm a little bit of a ziploc freak. :shifty I love them to an unhealthy degree.


Pssst: you can organize *anything* in ziplocs... I have small bins for first aid, vitamins, toiletries, etc, subdivided into baggies. :tu

ZIPLOC ALL THE THINGS!!!

Looks great! :tu

This has worked for us for years with Playmobil sets. We still have all the little pieces for all the sets together. :)

Cool! Glad it's been a workable long-term solution for you.

toy organization :twitcheswithdelight

:tu great job mom! ..kids get overwhealmed with toy chaos just like we do

Sumo definitely does, even though he creates it!!! :giggle

If you have any of those zippered bags that curtains and sheets come in, they make marvelous toy holders, too. :yes

Ooooooooohhhhh. :hearts

[ncsweetpea]

Looks great! :tu

This has worked for us for years with Playmobil sets. We still have all the little pieces for all the sets together. :)

We've tried it with Lego friends. And we keep a plastic jar type thing for leftover or unknown bits.

[Luciola]

:cup

[ValiantJoy07]

One dollar shoe boxes for toys? :jawdrop

Where are you buying these boxes!!

Target and walmart have them usually (target for sure) some times the dollar store has them.:)

[Singingmom]

I was totally coming on here specifically because I was wanting ideas for playmobil storage. We have 50 bajillion pieces of pirates, cops, dinosaurs and knights, like everywhere.

:heart looooooooooove it.

And I love that its cheap :shifty

:yes Most of the sets are in gallon sized ziplocs. My kids want the sets to stay together as much as I do (much more fun that way!) so they've always been really good about putting them away in the bags.

The bags live in a plastic under-the-bed box.

[Domina]

Okay, Day 1 of the pod system was a success. He did drag every single bag out and bring them all to me, like "open these!" But I didn't. I opened a set and got him engaged with it, then sneaked the rest back out.

Cleanup after he went to bed was super fast. 5 minutes instead of 20. :rockon

I'm happy that it's neater, but I'm even happier that he showed much better focus and interactivity today.

:jump2

[GraemesMomma]

Methinks a trip to the commissary (where ziplocs are a good 30-40% cheaper!) is a need this week. :rockon

I have this sneaky feeling that I'm about to become a Ziplocs Addict :haha

[chasingbutterflies]

I'll be the resident stick in the mud and say be careful with this if you have kids who still stick things in their mouth since ziplocs are a suffocation hazard :bag

otherwise, awesome idea!! and I am definitely getting those shoeboxes for playmobil.

[Heather R]

I'll be the resident stick in the mud and say be careful with this if you have kids who still stick things in their mouth since ziplocs are a suffocation hazard :bag

Our toy lending library uses the cheap lingerie bags (usually 2/$1) for this reason. I started doing the same at home, and found they last better than the ziplocs did over time. :)

[Rabbit]

I really like the mesh laundry bag idea better, when kids are handling them, and I use shoe boxes. Every toy has its own box. That way, too, they can be a bit rough with the boxes, and throw things into them while gathering from the four corners.

[SweetCaroline]

All my sewing threads are in a single shoe box, with the different color groups in ziplocs.

i was given an *enormous* lot of embroidery threads..thats how i have them organized :tu

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If you have any of those zippered bags that curtains and sheets come in, they make marvelous toy holders, too. :yes


and..does anybody remember these? i have 1 :cool all the megablocks are stored in it
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=2&gs_ri=hp&gs_mss=huge+ziplo&cp=12&gs_id=1a&xhr=t&q=huge+ziplock+bags&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41867550,d.dmg&biw=1278&bih=737&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=3LMPUaehN8rE0QGUkoDIBg#imgrc=HIVerskd1vxcyM%3A% 3B3que6SmpzQ-l5M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fecx.images-amazon.com%252Fimages%252FI%252F51VKdNbwZeL._SX300 _.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.amazon.com%252FZipl oc-Double-Zipper-X-Large-4-Count%252Fdp%252FB003U6A3EY%3B300%3B269

[Blue-EyedLady]

i was given an *enormous* lot of embroidery threads..thats how i have them organized :tu

---------- Post added at 05:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 AM ----------




and..does anybody remember these? i have 1 :cool all the megablocks are stored in it
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=2&gs_ri=hp&gs_mss=huge+ziplo&cp=12&gs_id=1a&xhr=t&q=huge+ziplock+bags&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41867550,d.dmg&biw=1278&bih=737&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=3LMPUaehN8rE0QGUkoDIBg#imgrc=HIVerskd1vxcyM%3A% 3B3que6SmpzQ-l5M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fecx.images-amazon.com%252Fimages%252FI%252F51VKdNbwZeL._SX300 _.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.amazon.com%252FZipl oc-Double-Zipper-X-Large-4-Count%252Fdp%252FB003U6A3EY%3B300%3B269

I have a couple of those big bags. :yes