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 with some easy playroom storage ideas — many perfect for small spaces!
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 a 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:
Toy Storage Ideas for Small Spaces
Here’s my top 5 tips to having toys in a small space.
Quick side note about playroom storage:
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).
I also have a podcast on organizing your playroom for kids under 3:
5 Playroom Ideas for your organization:
Use toy rotation to cut down toys in small spaces
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 for toy organization in small spaces
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 for family room toy storage
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!
Paring down toys is important for small spaces
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.
Toddler Playroom Organization
I swear toddlers have the BIGGEST TOYS!!!! Make sure that you only have a few (and frankly, I think my parents bought the biggest ones — so I finally had a word about how we’d still like to have beds in our house, instead of giant (loud) toys).
Toddlers are a GREAT one to use toy rotation with because they aren’t great at putting things away.
Playroom Organization on a Budget
There are easy ways to organize on a budget — ideas include:
- Using boxes from Amazon, etc to put toys in
- Finding storage items at Goodwill
- The dollar store also has a lot of good organization items!
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!
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Alexis says
I could never throw away my kids’ toys without their consent. I had it done to me as a child and it was quite traumatic. Not to mention, parents aren’t “cool”, so they don’t know the true value of some things. My Pikachu Nintendo 64 was sold for like $25 at a tag sale, and they are worth a fortune now. My mother actually bought me one last year for Christmas to make it up to me because I’ve never let it go because I played with it RELIGIOUSLY but being an older adult, they didn’t understand that just because we had other consoles doesn’t mean we didn’t play the Nintendo 64 anymore. Along with my Gameboy color, which now go for at least $60 a pop at retro gaming stores and super rare video games I had, and toys I still played with on a regular basis especially on say a rainy day.
You aren’t up your kids’ butt 24/7 (or at least, I hope not) so you have no way of knowing everything they play with and love. My mother and fiance tell me to get rid of some of my twins’ toys because they never see them playing with them, when they have been playing with these toys nonstop during the week and they’d never know because he works a lot and she comes around once a week tops as an example, meanwhile I’m home with them.
She’s actually pressuring me to throw some of their stuff out and seeing as how throwing out my toys created a complex in which I get much anxiety when anyone touches any of my things, especially if they are cleaning, I won’t do the same to my sons. I’d rather trip over toys. The rest of the article was great, but I highly oppose culling out toys.
Hilary Erickson says
I am sorry about your experience. I 100% agree that having kids help is important. I think setting boundaries about what CAN and can NOT stay in your house (mostly basing it off of amounts) is a fine boundary for parents. Kids can pick which stays and goes.
Karolline Silva says
Hi, I came across your blog, while searching on pinterest for “ playroom ideas” . I have a quick question, how do you rotate the toys? And how often?
Like , do you pug away all the action figures and then bring them back ?
Thank you for your help
Hilary Erickson says
I mostly have them in bins and rotate through the bins. I detail it more in my class Family Routines: https://www.pullingcurls.com/family-routines/