Sunday, June 24, 2012

No-Effort Toddler Toy Shelving


My Handsome Hubby decided that his home office was too hot to work in.  It is a small room with western-facing windows, which in the desert, equates to a homemade sauna.  We recently sold the table in chairs in our game room, so, being empty, he moved his home office there.  And as with anytime he moves the contents of his computer room, he re-arranges stuff.  When the dust settled, a lonely computer desk hutch was left.  Rather than let it toil away in the garage collecting dust and not adding to our lives, I decided to use it to solve a rather growing problem in my living room.

You see that blue laundry basket toy box in the photo above?  Baby Boy's toys are housed there and it really was just an over-flowing pile in the corner of our family room that migrated through the rest of the downstairs.  It was time for a toybox intervention.  *Lightbulb*  The discarded computer desk hutch would make a great shelving unit to help organize Baby Boy's toys.  I took a moment to bask in my genius and moved the hutch to toy mountain. 


Hard work, I know.  No cutting, no measuring, no nailing, no painting; this was my kind of busy-weekend project.  The height of the hutch was just lower than chest level on Baby Boy, so I put puzzles and other manipulative (not sure that's the right word) toys on the top of the shelf so he could access them easily and not drag them to the floor.  This has been great because he plays with those toys more now that they're not buried in a toy box or scattered on the floor somewhere.  I used the shelves for his books and blocks and put his toy box in the middle so he can easily get to it, but it doesn't become the base of a toy mountain.  Now, this isn't the prettiest or most organized toy shelf, but it is a HUGE improvement from what it was and it was totally free to me.  Better yet, my garage doesn't have more clutter in it and it's not taking up space in a landfill.  So I feel pretty good about my next-to-nothing effort toddler toy shelving. 



What steps have you taken to tame the toy mountain in your kids' play area?




Shared at: Make a Move Mondays, Creative Corner, Makin' You Crave Mondays, I Gotta Try That, Frugal Tuesday, Anti-Procrastination Tuesday, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Teach Me Tuesdays, Tip Me Tuesdays, Show Me What Ya Got, Tiny Tip Tuesdays, Healthy 2Day Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, Earning My Cape, Penny Pinching Party, Raising Homemakers, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Homemaker's Challenge, Thriving on Thursdays, Tastetastic Thursday

8 comments:

  1. The desk works brilliantly for the toys!

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  2. I love it!!! And it looks nice, too.
    We bought some of those plastic Sterilite drawers to contain our kids' messes... uh... er.. toys! They work well, but I really like how you have the desk surface for your little guy! Perfect for puzzles!
    Thanks for sharing with my Super Link Party! :-)
    ~Susie~

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    1. Those drawers are a great thing! I use them in my craft space. :)

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    2. Conratulations! Your shelving idea is one of my Favorite Features from my Super Link Party! Come check it out & grab a featured button!
      If you have a blog button, let me know and I will put it on my sidebar for the week under Featured Guests! :-)
      ~Susie~

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  3. I finally went through my kids toy box and put all toys that go together (like blocks, mrs. potato head) and put them in ice cream buckets. The rest of the toys I put in 3 large rubber tubs with lids. I only have 1 open and rotate them every week. The buckets I've told them (my 2 and 4 year old) that they can each have 1 bucket out at a time and them they have to put it away before they get a new one out. surprisingly even my 2 year old will follow by bucket rule. Yeah for cleaner house!

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    1. Way to implement a system! :) When my older daughters were in Jr. High, I ipmlemented the "Penalty Locker" If they left something (shoes, toys, whatever) "out" and not where it belonged or in their bedroom after they'd gone to bed, I'd lock it in a footlocker I had for a couple of days. They stopped leaving their stuff all over my house! :)

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  4. Do you just love it when you can reuse and redo for no cost! Looks great! Since everyone is getting rid of TV armoirs to make room for their flat screens we found tons on Craigslist. We bought one and put it in the playroom/homeschool room for books, puzzles and games. It is so nice to be able to shut the door on all of that kind of stuff!

    Thanks for sharing at Make a Move Monday. Hope to see you again soon!

    Tara @ Simply Made Home

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  5. What a great idea! Thanks so much for linking up at Tiny Tip Tuesday!

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