Looking for Organizing Ideas

If you have the budget for it, have an organizer come help you. The cost of a consultation can save you money on the products that you may have bought but didn't need cause they didn't work out. I've used Lorraine Brock of Get Organized - www.getorganized.ws. Tell her Trish at Kid Express referred you :)

Hi J.,
If you don't mind "reusing". If you use the huggies babywipes containers, use that as little toy storages for cars, action figures, little toys etc...I slowly bought see through containers for large items and "sets" or "themed" toys. Walmart usually has the better prices...but I like rubbermaid better so I wait until Target goes on sale. I also purchased the drawer style that is see through so my kids can see and learn to put away toys themselves. Again wait for it to go on sale. Another option is to go to the dollar store and get buckets or laundry baskets. So you can carry it around and use it as a game to pick up toys. Counterpoint to the dollar store not durable but cheap.

Mother of Four, 17, 7, 5, and 4.

Whatever system you use, take a photo of the thing that goes in that box, then tape the photo to the box. So, matchbox cars gets a photo of matchbox cars on the box. That way your son will understand where to put the toys. Same thing with coloring books, blocks, trains, little people, etc.

I've done it and it worked great! Plus you don't have to use a high-quality print setting for just that.

I'm not a good organizer, but I did just buy a whole bunch of cute fabric boxes from Babies R Us in Arlington. They are regularly $12, but on sale for $4. I went yesterday and there aren't many left. There is a place on the outside for you to label them.

For books, we've used a basket to hold about 20 books downstairs, then a small bookshelf in my daughter's room. I rotate books every month or so, so there's something fresh downstairs.

For the kids arts & crafts, we use the small, clear, rectangular, plastic boxes with lids (the kind you can get at a dollar store). We sort crafty items by box (markers, playdoh, playdoh tools, crayons, stickers & stamps, bead packages & string, etc). We also use old shoe boxes (I cover them in contact paper, and put a label on them so we know what's inside, and they look nicer than plain shoe boxes). We also use other small containers for various supplies - like old baby-wipe containers for all of the glue bottles and sticks. Use what you have... the kids don't care, and it teaches them to reuse and recycle. All of these containers are kept on shelves in a cabinet, so they're not cluttering up visual space. This also limits their random use (we don't care for ALL the crafts coming out at the same time. Our rule is, if you want to play with one thing, you put the last thing away. In other words, if the girls want to bead, they have to put the playdoh away first). Obviously, this rule doesn't always work, but it helps.

As for toys, we've had different systems over the years (my kids are now 8 & 10). Their bedrooms are upstairs, so we used to keep a lot more toys downstairs for them to play with, so they wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs all the time. Now that they're older, they keep most of their indoor toys in their bedrooms. That being said, we try to give them plenty of storage (shelves, bookcases, cabinets, etc), along with plastic containers that range from the small $1 kind, to the larger $6-8 kind (for stuffed animals, dolls, horses, etc).

Finally, the real trick it to purge. Some parents do that with their kids. I personally prefer to do it when they're not around (what they don't know won't hurt them, right !?!). Anyway, I try to go through their stuff twice a year and get rid of anything that's broken, missing parts, or they simply don't play with anymore. On the occasions when I've done it with them, I've explained that we need to make room for their new bday or xmas gifts.

Good luck!
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I know that I'm really "old school," but what we used when our girls were little was whatever I had on hand:
1. old shoe boxes -- Daddy's were especially good because they were bigger, but you need all sizes.
2. coffee came in cans with plastic lids back in the old days -- I'd make sure there were no sharp spots where I'd opened the can and then covered the can with contact paper in a cute design. The plastic containers coffee & other things come in now would work too.
3. Ziploc bags also worked for tiny pieces.
4. toy shelves instead of a toy box -- they could see what they had and where to put things when it was time to clean up.
I spent almost no money -- and they had an organized toy closet.

I have a great shelf system from ikea. It wasn't expensive and you can get baskets that fit in the squares. It has saved me!

Personally we just keep a very large wooden toy box for all the toys and then keep all the books on a shelf in our son's room since that is where we do most of the reading before naps and bedtime. Works for us for now but I am sure once we get more toys for our new little girl we will have to find a new solution.

I keep some toys in the living room for when the other kids are asleep ( I do childcare). Other than that, we have a very large toy box, as well as a toy organizer. At this age (mine is 21 months), it is very, very hard to keep them from just dumping things everywhere, but having the bins helps me alot. At least I know where to put it back each time.
They're also old enough now to help clean up. I sing the Barney song, "clean up, clean up" song and it helps to motivate.