Interesting and unusual toy storage ideas

Toy storage ideas

If you have kids, you probably have more toys (read: mess) than you know what to do with. And certainly, more than you have enough storage space for; no matter how big your house. Not only can the froth of toys spilling over into every room of your house be an eyesore, it can be painful – just ask anyone who has ever stepped on a Lego brick.

If this sounds like a battle that you’re fighting (read: losing) at your house, then why not take a look at our favourite toy storage ideas?

Storage under the bed

There are myriad ways that this can be achieved, depending on the type of bed your kid has. Beds with a normal to low base can have boxes, or even custom made storage drawers added underneath them to give you extra space. Cabin beds are even better, as you can add a cacophony of shelving, drawers and cupboards underneath them.

Whatever type of bed you have, maximise the storage space under your kid’s bed and save valuable floor space.

Wall-mounted toy storage baskets

The type of basket that is perhaps more generally used as a paper bin, can be re-purposed brilliantly to provide wall mounted toy storage.

The fact that they’re a fairly malleable wire construct means it isn’t difficult to bend one side so it is straight enough to sit flush against the wall, once you’ve mounted it. Add a canvas cover to stop toys from falling out, and away you go.

Mounted simply on a couple of hooks, these can be easily removed when needed, and provide an excellent way of reclaiming your floor space and keeping your child’s toys from taking over the house.

Toy storage drawers

If you need a quick, easy and most importantly, inexpensive fix, then these might be for you. Available from most places like Argos (as well as other stores) these save you the time associated with some of the more off the wall toy storage ideas and still give you your house back.

Available in a range of colours and transparent, as well, you can even cater to your kid’s personality with them.

Personalised toy boxes

The idea is, that by making a feature of the toy box and adding your child’s favourite characters, their name, or whatever else they might fancy, you encourage them to tidy their toys away, because the storage becomes almost as interesting as the toys.

You can make these yourself if you have the carpentry skills, you can buy an unadorned one and decorate it at home, or you can find various places online that will do all the hard work for you. Whichever way you go about it, these are an excellent way of storing your kids toys and making your house safe to walk barefoot in again.

Milk crate storage

Probably the simplest and cheapest, yet still cool and quirky, methods of storing toys that I’ve come across is the milk crate storage area.

Excess milk crates (or something similar) can be acquired for pennies (sometimes even free) from most corner shops, and attached to the wall in your child’s bedroom they can make all sorts of interesting geometric patterns, whilst at the same time, providing a unique way to tidy up those toys.

Hanging baskets

Hanging baskets are more generally associated with flowers, that in my experience, die pretty quickly, anyway. Not so with this really cool toy storage idea. In fact, this is my personal favourite. As a kid, I would have loved this.

The idea is simple: pick your baskets. Make some wall pulleys so that you and your kid can access the toys as and when needed. You’re done. Some really cool looking toy storage that not only keeps your toys off the floor (not just off the floor, but hanging from the ceiling!), but also makes a game of getting them out and putting them away and a feature of them, as well. You can even label the bottom of the pulleys to show what’s in which basket.

At the risk of sounding a bit Alan Partridge: hattrick!

Toy jars

Building on the Lego theme (forgive the pun, I’m on fire, today), toy soldiers and other small, plastic toys – cars, marbles, dinosaurs, anything small and sharp – not only provide you with a unique and excruciating pain when trodden on, they also can get lost at the bottom of boxes of larger toys and lead to more mess when the entirety of said box’s contents are tipped out to get to the offending tiny, plastic articles.

To combat both the mess and the war wound (toy soldiers, see what I did there?) try toy jars. Perfect for keeping the more murderous of your kid’s toys off the floor, and enabling them to see which toys are where.

Store it

Whatever method you choose to store your kid’s toys, we hope that these tips help with the mission to take back your house. And if you still have more toys than space, why not give Store First a call?

We have self-storage centres in Barnsley, Blackburn, Burnley, Derby, Ellesmere Port, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Northampton, Nottingham, Preston, Rochdale, St Helens and Wakefield.

And, all of our stores offer a free pick-up service as well. What could be easier?