The Adventure Starts Here: An Organized House | Noah's Toys

Thursday, January 8, 2015

An Organized House | Noah's Toys

We have lived in our "new" house for 6 months.  We have done a lot of decorating so far, and now I feel like it's time to get things more organized.  As with most areas, finding the optimal way to stay organized takes time and trial and error.  There have been systems I put in place that while they were okay, were not the best.  I am learning as I go and I want to spend this year making the house stay organized.  Each month I plan to share a space in our house that I've recently organized.  

Today I will be sharing how we keep Noah's toys organized, if that's even possible.  I don't know about you, but I feel like it's a constant battle keeping a room neat and tidy when you have kids and toys.  While we have a finished basement, I prefer Noah to play on our main level where I can watch him while I get other things done. We don't have a separate play room on our main floor, so he has toys in our living room and in the random space between our kitchen and dining room.   While many wouldn't like all the toys on display when guests come over, our life right now is all about Noah, so it works for us.  The key for me is to have a place for every toy to go at the end of the day.  If you came over in the middle of the day, there would be toys out on the floor.  That's because we live here and I want Noah to actually play.  But at the end of the day (or when having visitors over), there's a place to put everything away so it looks neat and tidy.

The need for this project came about because of Christmas.  I feel like whenever Noah gets a bunch of new gifts (like at his birthday and Christmas), I always feel like I need to do a better job organizing his toys.  Let me preface this by saying that, yes we have a lot of toys.  However, I feel that kids learn by playing and the majority of Noah's toys are educational.  I actually don't think imaginative play "toys" should be considered toys.  I also don't consider books or puzzles toys, because they encourage so much learning.  I find that most of the things Noah plays with on a daily basis are helping Noah learn and talk more.  One of his favorite things to play with is his toy kitchen and everything that goes along with it.  Recently this area had been getting a little messy.  While Chris was home, we picked up another Kallax unit at Ikea to house all his toy food, pots and pans, Melissa and Doug cutting sets, and his appliances.  I also ordered some bins from Land of Nod to hide it all and make it look pretty.

^^^ Noah loves to sit at his table.  Whether it's to do an art project, do play-doh, or serve us some pretend food.  

In the Kallax, I put three bins from Land of Nod.  One bin holds all his toy food, another holds his "baking" supplies, and the third holds his pots and pans.  I left the 4th cube open to put his Melissa and Doug cutting food sets.  I like having the top of the shelf for his cash register and other appliances.  Inside the kitchen cabinets are some baskets and bags that came with some of the food as well as a box filled with his utensils and other mixing spoons.  What I like most about this system so far, is that he can take the bins out of the shelves and play with it in the living room.  But when we are done, it's easy to clean up and put them back where they belong.

^^^ I have yet to find a great place for his larger toys.  So right now we just line them up against the wall.  

In the living room, we use our entertainment unit and sofa table to hold all of Noah's toys.  In order to make clean up easier, we have multiple bins that house toys by category.  We have his trains, some small windup cars, Mega Bloks,  music toys, and his tools.  He has a lot of larger trucks that we line up on a shelf and are on display.  I found it was easier for him to pick the one he wanted from the shelf rather than having them all piled up in a basket.

^^^ We keep puzzles in the shallow shelves under the TV and his legos are stored in the drawers.  

^^^ I love the bins because it means the toys can just be thrown in at the end of the night and I don't have to worry about being too neat about it :)

^^^ I've shared our reading nook in the past.  It's still working out great for us and we've even added some new gifts to the top of it.  

^^^ We store some of the toys that Noah doesn't use as much in the sofa table.  Also stored there are Noah's sneakers, boots, and slippers, so that he's able to get them and put them away when done.  The two wicker baskets hold both mine and Noah's winter hats and gloves.  Noah loves getting them for both of us before we leave the house!  

^^^ Noah has recently become obsessed with stuffed animals.  This basket has quickly filled up with all of his friends :)

We've also made an effort to use our basement more for certain toys.  We try to put some of the toys he doesn't play with as often down there, so that when he does go down he might be more inclined to play with them.  We also keep his train table, some Thomas train sets, his work bench, and the basketball hoop down there.  Right now Noah loves to go play in the basement whenever Daddy is home.

How do you organize and store your kids' toys?

Saturday Spotlight


  1. I love this!!! You home looks so cozy! But the best part about it is that you look around and it's so obvious that you have a little boy living there, but it's organized and incorporated through the house!

  2. Whoa - you are so organized!!! I love that everything has a home! I cannot wait to get settled and figure out where everything goes...we will definitely have to incorporate a place for all of his kitchen toys, too..I love your idea! Thanks for sharing!

  3. I love how organized that all looks! I have a bunch of projects I want to accomplish over the next few weekends, getting things more organized myself! Also, I love the new blog design! I typically read blogs on my phone, so I'm not sure if you've had the new design for awhile or not, but I love it nonetheless!

  4. Great job! I love how you found a spot for everything right where he plays during the day. It looks really nice, and I love all the bins and baskets you used. We're working on organizing our house right now as well. It's such a big job! Stopping by from the Saturday Spotlight link up! - Jess

  5. I feel you on the whole keeping the toys where they belong!! So frustrating!! I too did a re-organization after Christmas when all the new toys emerged. I'm sure I'll be doing another at the end of the month after her birthday!!

    Thanks for linking up with us! :)

  6. Oh my gosh, my biggest battle haha! I am praying we get into this new house we're looking at because we are running our of space for toys!!

  7. I love the organization!!!! We use some similar ways to organize because we don't have a lot of room so we have an expedit from ikea that we have our tv on and then bins under neath for Mason's toys. It looks pretty organized when we have everything put away but more often than not, I just push the toys to the side because Mason just rips them off the shelf again! lol


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