Playroom Storage

Of all the areas within the home, the playroom presents the greatest organizational challenge. New toys frequently accumulate, children’s preferences often shift, and maintaining order can be difficult. Through experience, I have identified several strategies that effectively facilitate the organization of toys.
Surprisingly, my kids enjoy and use the playroom more when there are fewer toys.  By keeping only the items they truly love and regularly play with, everything becomes easier to find, and the space feels less cluttered. This also simplifies tidying up since there’s enough room for storage.
Having fewer toys is often better, so we declutter before Christmas and in late spring, or more often if needed.   I start by clearing out broken or unneeded items alone to speed up the process and avoid lengthy discussions with my kids.   I never discard anything meaningful to them without asking, but doing the first-round solo makes things much easier.
Labels in playrooms help children know where items belong. Readers can use word labels, and younger kids will need pictures to identify locations.   Labels can be printed or bought as adhesive options and placed inside an adhesive bookplate. Though children may not always follow them perfectly, starting early increases their use over time.
We’ve kept our playroom tidy by organizing similar items into “zones.”   The zones have changed over time, from arts and crafts, Lego, trains, games, and costumes, based on the kids’ interests.   Grouping items by activity makes toys easy to find and put away.  In every space we’ve lived in, but particularly when we lived in our tiny townhouse, I’ve learned the importance of maximizing the vertical space! We can only put so much on the floor, but making the most of the walls helps us add storage that’s often much needed.
With limited space for an art station at home, we maximized storage by installing wall files for paper and coloring books, a magnetic strip with small containers for items like chalk, and a shelf with cups for crayons and markers.   A bulletin board for displaying artwork.  A ladder shelf or tall bookcase offers extra vertical storage.  Just be sure to secure it to the wall.  Use colorful bins with labels for small toys such as Hot Wheels, blocks, and dolls.
Rolling carts keep supplies organized and are portable.   They come in useful in small spaces.   We dedicated one cart to art materials and another to school supplies.   Cube storage is always a space saver; you can have open shelves or add bins.  Plastic clear bins with lids are useful when you have a set of something like a train track set, magnetic construction set tiles, or building blocks.