15 Toy Storage Ideas That Make Cleanup a Breeze (and Cost as Little as $7)
Kids’ toys can seem like Gremlins, only you don’t have to douse them in water to see them magically multiply and take over every surface of your home. Keeping them corralled can feel like a Sisyphean task, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right toy storage, you’ll be tripping over L.O.L. Dolls and LEGO blocks less and enjoying clutter-free areas of your home (at least a little) more. Sound too good to be true? Hear us out, as we show you the perfect toy organizer to suit your kids’ needs.
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1. Storage Bean Bag
Best for Stowing Stuffed Animals
So your in-laws send a teddy for every holiday, National Static Electricity Day included (which is January 9, BTW). This is the fix. It’s essentially a bean bag cover without the bean filling. You can stuff up to 90 stuffed animals inside of it, then zip it up and use it as a chair. When your kids want to swap out toys, they can unzip it and grab the ones they want.
2. Stuffed Animal Hammock
Best for Making Use of Vertical Space
OK, so a bean bag chair made out of stuffed animals isn’t your kid’s vibe. How about a hammock? This $7 wonder expands to five-and-a-half feet long, and it makes use of the upper corner of a room, which—let’s be honest—otherwise goes untouched. Plus, kids can make a game out of trying to throw stuffed animals into it. Win-win.
3. Rainbow Bookshelf
Best for Books
If there’s one place where everything in a room should spark creativity, it’s a kid’s room. That’s what makes the bookshelves in Drew Barrymore’s Flower Home line so much fun: Why agonize over organizing your books in rainbow order (which requires constant upkeep) when you can organize them in a rainbow? Or in a lion’s mouth? Tidying up might just become—gasp—fun.
4. Battle Spinners Toy Organizer
Best for Beyblades Fanatics
Beyblades are the Gen-Z Pogs: round, highly collectible, battle-able…and seem to get lost everywhere. This carrying case keeps every piece in place, and it’s just small enough to tuck under the bed or tote it to a friend’s house, the next time your child needs to fight for the family honor at ye olde Beystadium.
5. Combs Toy Organizer
Best for Easy Organizing
These tilted shelves make it easy for little kids to see what’s inside each box—and put things back easily. Plus, with 16 bins in varying sizes, you can organize a wide range of toys: a bin for action figures, one for dolls, a couple for outdoor toys (like baseballs, footballs and soccer balls), and so on. Whether you take the extra step to label what each bin is used for is your call.
6. Dress-Up Armoire
Best for Kids Who Love Costumes
OK, you can’t spring for a Carrie Underwood-caliber closet for your kid (or yourself…yet), but this house-shaped armoire is a great stand-in. With storage shelves on one side and a clothing rack on the other, all of your son or daughter’s dress-up clothes can be kept in order. Bonus: It comes with a built-in vanity and step stool for getting ready.
7. LEGO Storage Brick Drawer
Best for Organizing LEGO Pieces
These LEGO-shaped storage bins are stackable, just like their beloved toys. And, beyond looking Honey-I-Shrunk-the-Kids-caliber awesome in any room, there’s no confusion about what should go in them, making it easy for kids to tackle cleanup. (More so than those plastic bins that just get filled with anything and everything that will fit in them.)
8. Kid Toy Storage Bench
Best Storage Bench
This organizer is really a three-for-one deal: It combines a coat rack, storage cubbies and a bench seat in one compact piece of furniture. If you don’t like the visual clutter of cram-packed shelves, you can always stick woven or cloth bins in the cubbies.
9. Rolling Toy Chest
Best Toy Chest
For big, bulky toys, you can’t beat a classic toy chest. This modern style fits with almost any kind of décor, and kids will love the fact that they can wheel it wherever they want to play. The one downside of this style? It can become an abyss where toys disappear, only to be drudged up when you can’t fit another thing inside.
10. Garage Storage Display Case
Best for Storing Cars and Trucks
If your kid’s got a serious car collection, this is the ultimate way to show it off. Etsy seller toyboxaddicted customizes the multi-tier organizer with your child’s name across the top, and the whole thing can store up to 50 toy cars of varying sizes. It also features two ramps that kids can drive their cars up and down on, making the organizer double as a toy itself.
11. Hanging Storage Organizer
Best Behind-the-Door Organizer
Finally keep all of those tiny collectibles—and can’t-part-with-‘em Happy Meal toys—in one place with this 40-pocket organizer. The best part? It makes use of that often-overlooked spot behind the door…and gives you 40 less plastic landmines to step on in the middle of the night.
12. Delta Children Easel with Storage
Best for Storing Art Supplies
Art easels can often take up a ton of precious square footage, but this one stands out for its two storage bins underneath, which can hold all kinds of craft supplies. Plus, the easel itself features a paper roll on top and a dry erase board underneath, making it useful for a variety of creative projects.
13. Toy Storage Basket and Play Mat
Best for Fast Cleanup
This may not be the chicest basket you’ve ever seen, but you’ve got to admit, it’s pretty ingenious. Unfurl the play mat from the basket and spread it out, then pour all of the toys right onto the mat. When playtime’s over, you simply tighten the drawstrings on the play mat and everything is tucked back into the basket. Easy as that.
14. Winter Bohemian Wool Basket
Chicest Storage Baskets
At some point, kids’ toys often encroach into the living room, den and just about every other communal space. If you want to keep some toys close at hand—without turning the room into a primary-colored playland—these boho baskets are the way to go. The texture and pattern are luxe, and they’re just sturdy enough to hold all kinds of toys without flopping over. Oh, and when your kids outgrow their toys, you can use them to hold throw blankets and pillows.
15. RiverRidge Kids Three-Shelf Corner Cabinet
Best Corner Storage
Behold, another oft-underutilized spot in kids’ rooms: the corners. This three-shelf cubby system puts that neglected nook to good use. It features six cubbies, which you can fill with bins to keep small toys contained, and three angled shelves for displaying prized possessions (like that third-place karate trophy…or algae-covered rock unearthed during your last family vacation).
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