Is a Toy Box Worth the Space and Money?

My son has a toy box and I have a love/hate relationship with it! It's wonderful to be able to just toss everthing in and walk away but he can never get to the toys on the bottom so he ends up with things that never get played with or he cries b/c he can't get to them and I have to search for them! Ugh... I want to put a couple of small shelves down low in his room and put some canvas bins on them so he can pull them down and get to all of his stuff!

Cubbies or shelves with baskets are great! The only toy box we have now is the deck box for outside toys. When we had a toy box inside it was primarily used for the stuffed animals and any large toys. My son would mostly dig everything out to hide in the box:) I took some lessons from the preschool and everything now (mostly) has its own labeled basket or clear box, or just sits on the book shelf. I used the primary lined paper to write what the contents were as my son was beginning to read.

I don't recommend the huge Little Tykes plastic toy box. The problem with those is that the stuff on the bottom either gets ignored, or if your child wants something that's on the bottom, the WHOLE, ENTIRE toy box WILL get emptied out for that one little toy. Not to mention, it's bulky & ugly. If you do end up buying one, people sell them all the time on Craigslist 1/2 the price (at least in my area). You can sanitize & clean them to almost brand new-ness.

Get the Ikea-esque cube storage. You won't regret that. Easier to manage the mess & if you want organized bins, you can label them. If one cube gets dumped out, it's easier to clean that up than an entire toy box.

Trust me - been there, done that.

Yes it is. We actually bought wooden toy boxes so they kids could use them for other things as they grow older as well. They are truly pieces of furniture and in the future could be used for extra blankets, clothes or even to store lots of other things. I too would shop the second hand stores or consignment shops first. I think my husband spent way too much money on my daughter's toy box/trunk but the furniture store was going out of business so we couldn't return it. All the best in finding what you need. I say to go with something practical so you could use it for some other purpose if needed...

I got the same toy box (Little Tykes Giant toy chest) at the local thrift store for a fraction of the original cost (something like $10) and it's like new. Check out Salvation Army, etc. first and see what you can find. We've gotten a ton of things there (like outdoor toddler toys - slides, playhouse, etc.) that are still in good condition for very little money, and then we end up donating them back when DD has outgrown them.

no, get the 12 box/shelf system at target. it goes on sale for 39 and the kids can actually find things.

First, I say check Craigslist, or your local Goodwill before dropping all that money. You might find something there that is less expensive. Sure it will be used but if you can't tell that it is then no one else will either. Second, we have toy boxes and they are only good for holding "like items". My kids use the toy box to hold all the stuffed animals. All the other toys are in the organizational boxes. That way they can find what they are looking for quickly and other things that may be used with it are there too. The toy box full of toys becomes a big jumbled mess unless all the toys are the same (ex. all cars,trucks & motorcycles. All blocks)

I prefer shelves and baskets for small spaces.

Toy boxes become "the Pit of Despair". They throw their toys in there and cannot find the toy they are looking for later because it is always at the bottom of the chest, so they are constantly unloading the whole thing.

With a shelf and smaller baskets.. it is easier to keep things separate.

Let THEM decide," this basket is for cars and trucks", "this basket is for Barbie stuff", "in, this basket is for balls".. etc. then they will keep up with it. If mom labels it it means nothing to them.

Also I always had plenty of ziploc bags for game pieces. that went back in the game box it came out of. Deck of cards.. In the ziploc if the box got torn. Puzzles, all of the pieces in a ziploc and back in the puzzles box it came out of. EVERY TIME. It becomes natural to them that this is how it is done. We never (knock on wood) ever lost a game piece or puzzle pieces in all of these years.

I think we have the same one you have. My kid has a playroom so there are no toys in our living room BUT it does take up alot of space no matter how much it helps. Plus, you have to think about where to put the lid while the kids play b/c our lid isn't attached. I can't tell you how many times I've had to stop kids from using the lid as a sled down the stairs or worse - hiding underneath it, thus risking suffocation.

But it is worth it when you can you just throw the toys in it, close it up and never see toys for the next hour or so.

When our kids were little we had a nice wooden one in the living room. It helped with clean up. The living room was no longer a toy room when i wanted to relax :)

My biggest gripe with a "toy box" is that the kids, when putting things away, just toss everything in....

then, to get something they want, they pull everything out, making a mess! Also, they can't find all the parts to the toys.

We have a large Little Tikes one with a bookshelf, and are trying to get rid of it.... too bad you aren't in my area! I'd sell it cheap!

We have ottomans that serve as storage. I don't have little ones but this is the best functional and beautiful storage I have seen. I love that if I had little ones they would be able to clean up easily and could get to their treasures easily as well and coupled with the fact that this kind of storage doubles for seating and leg rests too. Love, love, love the ottomans. I found some at a close out place for $20 or less for the cube kind and $40 for the long ones.

The kids never used them but I felt a lot better throwing toys in them. They make a very loud noise as you throw toys in it, for some reason knowing that everyone in the house knew I was cleaning up their stuff made me feel better. They could care less but I felt better. :p

my son has 1 giant rubbermaid "trunk", and 1 big plastic bucket-shaped laundry basket. they work great. and both of them together were probably half of what you're talking about spending. i have looked at toy chests/boxes too, but he was given those for different birthdays so we stuck with that.

honestly, if space is already an issue, a toy box type container would hold a lot more in a lot less space, than a cubby style box container. my son's room is small too. but he can put his two toy "boxes" under his captains bed and they don't take up ANY additional space. the shelf unit would take up as much room as his dresser, and hold 1/2 as much. defeating the purpose imo.

IMO, the only reason for a big toy box is for big toys. We have a small laundry-basket-sized tub in the living room for toys. Once every couple weeks I sit down with my 3.5 yr old to clean it out b/c all the itty bitty toys go down to the bottom of the tub when he cleans up real quick-like and just tosses it all in there. He's been looking for that marble or that magnet or that small gi-joe gun for the past week, unable to find it b/c his big toys are on top. The only way to get the small ones out is to take ALL the toys out of the tub. NOT FUN for me! It just makes a bigger mess. I try to keep the kid organized within the tub (keeping gijoes in a small bag, magnetic letters in a different clear bag, etc) and keep a tub full of organized bags in there, with some of his toys organized in shoe-box sized tubs in his room.

This is an interesting question though, because one thing I did want to get for my son's room was a "toy" chest, but one that has a flat table-top so that he could have a 'child-sized' tabletop to play on with his blocks, cars, and little people type of toys. I was hoping to find a shallow box, with legs, to put it at his level so he can stand and play. Know what I'm saying? Basically- if you get a toybox, the shallower the better so that they can find stuff, and a flat-top would be better because you could actually play and use the top of it. I have not yet found my 'dream toy box' but my carpenter friend may make me one like this (cedar chest, but take out some of the depth and add legs instead) http://www.johnsonsantiques.com/product_images/4537989894...

We had tons of toy boxes when we lived in a smaller house and didn't have too much space for the mass of toys that comes with 3 small kids. I hated them.

The toys seemed to get lost and never used in there. I highly recommend the ones that have 12 smaller bins or so and nealty lining up the bigger toys (which can be a lot with boys and their trucks).

We also had NO money and we bought huge storage tubs from Big Lots. They were under $10 and did the job we needed at the time :).

R.:

My dad made the boys a toy box - it is HUGE - it held a ton of toys. As my kids have grown, their selection in toys have changed...so when my dad was out 2 summers ago - he made them a shelving unit. We purchased plastic bins for them to put the toys in...

The toy box is now used as a blanket box AND a coffee table in our family room.

Maybe I can coax my dad out next summer and he'll make you one too?!? LOL!! P.S. should be getting the cross in the next week or two!

We did find a Winnie the Pooh toy box for Nicky - it sits under his window and houses his stuffed animals.

If your kids are in to LEGOs and things that should go into boxes or containers - I would rethink the toy box....think of a shelving unit instead...since I've not been to your house, it's hard for me to "judge"....

We just got a Little Tykes giant toy chest for my son's room right before Christmas. It was a bit costly, I believe it was on sale for $50 or so. It is worth it because now he has a place to store all of his toys plus beneath the two chest is two bins in which he keeps his puzzle pieces and hot wheels/trains.

I had a wooden footlocker. It was big enough to hold a lot of toys but low enough that he could the toys out. Just make sure you have a spring on it that lowers the lid slowly. In fact that box still has my son's toys in it and he is 38 years old. I asked him once if he wanted the toys for his son and he told me to hold on to it.

Should he have any more kids, it will be going to his house. I am cleaning out my "stuff" and it will go to the appropriate kid.

It was great for cleanup at night before bed, he would just get them and put them in the box for the next day.

Happy New Year!

The other S.

I agree with the PP who said not to get a big box. We have one, but the toys get lost in the bottom. 90 % of the toys never get played with. Go with a different organizational strategy.

My daughter just turned 2 on Dec 24th so I know all too well what a Toys R Us looks like within your own house - LOL. For Christmas from her Grandma and Grandpa she received a Step 2 toy box with a book shelf and top shelf that we put in her room and it is the BEST. Last year for Christmas her Nana bought her one of those colapsable toy boxes and the piece of you know what just crumpled and fell apart into itself. We also had a section in our living room where there was just a bunch of random buckets and baskets for toys but it always looked so cluttered and now that we havve this huge toy bin with shelves it is a drastic change in how this place is organized. I would say that it might be best to look into getting a large tupperware bin to store the toys in and then like you said you can eventually use it for outdoor storeage or something else other than toys
Good Luck

I wouldn't get a plastic toy box that LOOKS like a toybox--eventually the kid(s) will outgrow it and you'll be stuck with it. We got one of those 9-cube shelves for books, board games, and favorite toys. Gramma also got one of the metal racks with the little plastic bins which are good for organizing (this bin for doll clothes, this bin for cars, this bin for noisemakers, etc). AND we have a few larger bins for the "collections" (one just for Little People stuff). I have a lovely wooden toybox that my grandfather made for me when I was a little girl, but we just store stuffed animals and blankets in there because toys get "lost" at the bottom and I worry about my girl smashing her fingers in it! Of course, we do have large bedrooms, so there's room for all these "containers." I do think a 2-year-old can start learning how to clean & organize his toys (like in the cube shelves with bins).
Good Luck!