Playroom Ideas: Toy storage when space is tight

Everyone is looking for playroom storage hacks — having small spaces to store many toys is a big problem — but it can be easily fixed! Here’s how!

Once upon a time I was a mom with many small children and I wanted to have things that interested them and engaged their mind, but we had an 1,100 square foot house, with about 50 square feet to hold all of our toys/playing.  I needed LOTS of playroom storage and organization ideas and hacks!

Do not miss my 5 word organization challenge:

Here’s my top 5 tips to having toys in a small space.

Quick side note:

When my kids were small, it was important to me that toys not be in their room.  It made for a non-sleeping naptime once they could get out of their crib.  I had much happier children if they had a nap, so that prevented me from putting too many toys in their room (I still used the top shelf in their closet for toys in bins).

5 Playroom Hacks for your organization:

Use toy rotation

The idea isn’t brain surgery, it’s just about holding back a portion of toys and rotating them out as your kids get bored with what’s out.   This has a variety of benefits including:

• Fewer toys to clean up
• VERY happy days when new toys come out
• It allows you to REALLY clean/organize the toys every so often

You can use a variety of spots to put the toys you’re not using:

• Garage
• Top shelf in closets
• Attic

I always made sure to put them in bins that made it difficult to see what was inside.  I don’t need little climbers putting their skills to use.

Yes, toy rotation can be painful — but in the end the sweet freedom/quiet of when I brought out the “new” toys, it was totally worth it!

Related Post:  Busy Bags for Church

Use cabinet storage

We used a cabinet we had gotten at a local big box store.  You want to try to use as much vertical space as you can.

Be sure to put smaller items up top.  That way no little faces get smashed as they take out the bins.

Combine as much as you can

All the action figures go together, no need to separate super heroes and soldiers.

That allows for bins to take up less room and be fuller for kids to enjoy.

Use the corners

I had bins stacked in the corner.  My kids needed my help to get them out — but I also was able to control how many toys they had out at once.

Clean up those toys before you get out new toys — that is a valuable lesson to learn!

Pare Down

That’s right — the golden rule of organizing is to have less to organize.  If a toy is annoying or not getting played with…

Chuck it.

I don’t care of grandma gave it to you.  Until she gives you a larger house, you only have room for the 5 star toys!

Having organized toys helps your kids learn organization skills early on, and by having less toys you can all stress less.

If you liked this post — I have a whole course ALL about home organization

The Organized Home Course helps prove that families can be organized and enjoy their home and time together.

I just launched a whole section on Playroom organization.  Lots more ideas like what you see in this post to make toy storage easily doable!  You can see all that is included here.

In fact, I spend more time with my family because I spend less time taking care of my house.  I think you’ll love it!

Looking to get organized? Join my 5 word organization challenge, and check out all my other organizing post below that!

Organizing Games

Manage Paper Clutter

Organize the Bathroom: Create a Clean Sanctuary

Organizing Your Living Room and Keeping It That Way