"We started with a smaller built-in {I wish I had a picture of what it used to look like}. It wasn’t the least bit functional for us. The bench area was too small to sit on and you couldn’t store anything underneath.
We built the bookcase when my son was only two-years old. My plan was that the storage would prove flexible and grow with him. It has served that purpose well!
The “vehicle bin” has always been just that. No matter his age, he has enjoyed playing with cars and trucks and such.
There is also an “animal bin” that houses all of the plastic animals or action figures.
The other bins have changed names over the years. We didn’t start out with Legos or play guns; these toys have entered into the picture over time. As a new theme of toys emerges it seems inevitable that another will start to fade into the background.
For instance, we used to have a bin for large wooden puzzles. When Legos became big on the scene he started to lose interest in puzzles. {I guess Legos are there own kind of puzzle anyway} The transition in interest meant that as one toy moved out it made room for the next.
I’ve never labeled any of the bins; just named them. Because they are open and see-through the items inside pretty much do the job of a label. The only time I thought that labels would be helpful was when my son had friends over to play and several bins were emptied completely. In these rare cases I usually pitched in on the clean up anyway to be sure that toys were arranged properly.
You’ll notice that the Legos are all combined in three separate bins. Legos were the “it” toy for my son for many years. Just about every gift – whether birthday, Christmas, visit from Papa – resulted in a new Lego. At first I tried to keep all of the sets together in smaller clear bins from the Container Store. That proved hopeless and full of frustration. When friends would come to play the boys could never keep all the pieces straight. At the end of a playdate I found myself trying to put them all back in their correct boxes. My son and I both found this to be an almost impossible and incredibly time-consuming task. Eventually I decided that large bins, all mixed together would just have to work. We do store all of the Lego building instructional manuals separately and when Carter does want to recreate a specific Lego he sifts through the bins to find the pieces he needs. This system has worked out just fine and the clean up is so much easier now.
You’ll see just about all children’s books in my house stored in bins or baskets. This system has proved to be very efficient and an easy way to keep books neat and tidy.
The top shelves are dedicated to a few books my son hasn’t yet grown into yet, some memorabilia, a few art projects and a couple of self-contained toys like his science kit. They stay relatively neat – about like this – as we do go through the items on a regular basis and keep things to a minimum.
About twice a year I go through all of the toys in each bin with my son. Together we decide what will stay and what will go. We clean out each bin and discard or put away anything that doesn’t belong and has wandered in. This is also the time that we evaluate the current storage situation and reassign bins, give away toys no longer used and decide on new categories of toys if necessary. Because we have been doing this since my son was a toddler he is quite used to the routine and discarding toys is almost never an issue."
The built in's are totally great right? Check out all that STORAGE! I love that this shows any room can be functional by making the decision to do something about it! And how great is the method for keeping it tidy? One toy in, one toy out. LOVE LOVE LOVE that! It's such a great rule to keeping a space organized as a child grows. In fact, it's a great rule for any space!
Thank you Alexis for sharing your story with us today! I am looking all over my home for a place to put a giant built in... where will it be?
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I can't wait to see what you share, seriously, I will be secretly stalking my own blog, hitting the refresh key over and over...
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