On this wall we have, you name it IKEA storage! This shelf is the KALLAX shelf unit and we love them!! They hold a lot and they can be straight up (as shown) or on it's side and they are very sturdy pieces! (We actually need a few more of these around our house if you can believe that!) I love this piece for so many reasons one, it's tall so I can put things up out of reach and two, they have large shelves that can hold a lot of toys!! Some toys I choose to put into buckets (which you'll find that I love all kind of buckets!) and some are loose on the shelf. The green storage bins are from Target and the colored see through buckets are from Land of Nod (these are great since they stack and that they can see what's inside). On this shelf we have anything car related, lacing beads and cards, puzzles (up high so they can't dump them all and walk away) and some fine motor toys like k'nex elmo builder and mr. potato head. Next to this shelf is what we call our "baby area", although I need to work on this area or move it around but I'll slowly get around to that! So with it being for the babies I choose fabric buckets so they don't hit themselves with it and get hurt (which actually happens a lot). So it has all the baby toys and fun for them on a soft foam mat. We also store the kids tool bench over here and let me tell you, this is a very well loved toy!!
On this wall we have the play kitchen and all the food that goes with it!! All of our kids love the play kitchen and this is also a very well loved toy in my house!! All ages play with this and this is really where they have their imaginations come out. Whether they are playing restaurant or going shopping they all love this area!! I do need to vamp up this area though since they all love it so much!! I'm thinking more play food and kitchen things since I know they all will play with it, it's an area that I'm ok investing in knowing that the pay off will be great for them!!!
The next wall is like a mixture of toys but surprisingly it's organized! It is also IKEA and this unit is called the TROFAST system and they come in a variety of shelves. You can choose the size buckets and what colors you want. Or you can get shelves to add to them and then go that route. But for me the buckets were the best way to go and maybe that's just because I'm partial to loving any kind of bucket!! In this area we store more infant toys but they are toys all kids enjoy like stacking cups and a train that you can stack blocks onto. We also store any loose play items that can be added to the doll house or littlest pet shop house, doctor kits, pretend play wallets and make up and snap and style dolls. We love these dolls as they are easy snap on clothes and are way easier then polly pockets and they are jumbo size! Next to the shelf we store large card board blocks for building.
This unit is such an awesome one and also from IKEA, it's called the STUVA storage bench. This can double (well I should say triple) as it can be a bench (we don't use it for that because let's face it they don't need to climb on anything else!) desk when the drawer is pulled out and then for what we use it storage!!! This unit stores everyone's beloved toy and the most played with, Fisher Price Trio Blocks. Sadly they don't make these anymore which is such a bummer since like I said everyone plays with these!! All day everyday you can find someone building something with these toys. So needless to say when I find some I snatch them up as we can never have to many!! This works great for these since we had a large quantity of them and needed a large "bucket" to hold all of them. On top the bench we just store a few toys and as you can see of course I added a bucket (from Target) to hold all the computers!
So that's most of the toys but we do hide some in the "main living area" of the house. I say that as I'm still working on this area and it needs some new paint and new furniture to help make our house a home, but we do hide some toys in this area. So I decided to try and "camouflage" them and hide some under the coffee table in buckets (found at IKEA). In here we store sticky blocks and trains, and let's add as a side note, that this table is perfect for train building!!!
We also have one more hidden toy storage and that's hiding a lot more toys! It's again another KALLAX shelf unit (now you can see what it looks like on it's side!) For now it's holding our tv, until wall mounted and hiding more toys. The green and small gray buckets are from Target and the white and large gray ones are from IKEA. These hold anything block related as in mega blocks, waffle blocks, lego duplos, little people blocks and magnatiles. Magnatiles are also a toy that is played with on a daily basis and I think they are a must in every house!! The little gray buckets hold their books just to make it look more organized and well put together!!
Well that pretty much sums up the toy storage for the day care area. It's full and sometimes it does resemble a toy store but I think it's come together fairly well and I'm loving how it's turning out! I do reorganize a lot so I won't be surprised if I decide one day that things need some rearranging. Plus I think it's good for the kids too and it some how seems like a new space to them!! I love decorating and finding something that really works for us and this was a challenge and took me several tries until I felt it was just right!! As we have to live with the challenge of the day care right in the bulk of our living room we have had to try several different lay outs. But this works for us and flows really well with the rest of the house. So for now it fits and feels welcoming and homey and that's exactly what I wanted!
