What catagories do you have your toys labeled

OK I really want to get my Family room and the Playroom organized. I was a great organizer of toys at my school but we had large quantities. Here I have a little of this and a little of that. I have so many larger containers that I feel like I am wasting space. KWIM? So my question is what catagories do you have in your toy area?Does this make sense. Sorry I am really tired.

Cari

 

We have 4 bins in the living room: Books, Wood (like puzzles, etc), Plastic, Stuffed/soft toys. It's not a perfect system, but it's something!

 

Since we have those multi-bin storage shelves, each bin is labeled (gotta love my P-touch labeler!). So we have anything from Meal Toys to Hot Wheels to Doll Accessories to Pirates. (And yes the labels are more for DH and me, than anything else). Then I have three larger tubs labeled Mega Blocks, Geotrax, and Building Sets (we have tinker toys, bristle blocks, and pop-onz in that container).

Is that what you mean?

 

I am an 'over-ganizer' myself. I actually drool when I come up with a reason to pull out my label maker. I actually bypassed my cherished little label maker when it came to toy organization and used Publisher to make picto-labels with clip art for the toys. I have a picture of each of their toys (if you can't pull one off Google images, just take a digital pic) along with the word so they can see where things go. I also use clear plastic bins for most of my storage so they can see what's in each bin. This is a GREAT way for your older son to learn where things go/vocab/word recognition too. I also like to print a second set of labels out and attach one set to the actual shelving itself and one to the container. That way, when it's time to put the container away they can match up the pictures to know where it goes.

To answer your question here's how we are organized:

[SIZE=14pt]In clear, shoe box-sized bins w/lids:[/SIZE] (you could probably find these, or even smaller ones at a dollar store)
Animals
Mega Blocks
"Wheel Palls" cars
Wooden cars/trains/planes/etc
Manipulatives (for sorting, stacking)
Train set
Foam blocks
Mr. Potato Head parts
Tractors (yes, we have an entire collection
Toy set accessories (Little People, etc.)
Hmmm....I know there's more....


[SIZE=14pt]In baskets:[/SIZE]
Books
Play food/plates
Musical instruments
Blocks
Stuffed animals

 

Thanks guy, it is exactly what I mean. For some reason I was having trouble catagorizing items. We just have SO much sh*t. It seems that when I get it organized Christmas or a birthday comes up and then there is more. I too am a label maker girl. My DS1 room and the playroom are labeled like crazy (door, closet, window, bed, floor, etc). I need to do the picture labeling for the twins. I just need a day where I have no one around so I can get organized.
What do you guys do with all the large trucks. You know my trash truck, aircraft carrier, fire chief car, ambulance, remote control 2 foot fire truck, dump truck, crane truck, police car, pickup truck, fire trucks, etc. Are you getting what I am talking about?

 

QUOTE(SweetpeaG @ Feb 7 2008, 02:07 AM) [snapback]610190[/snapback]
I am an 'over-ganizer' myself. I actually drool when I come up with a reason to pull out my label maker. I actually bypassed my cherished little label maker when it came to toy organization and used Publisher to make picto-labels with clip art for the toys. I have a picture of each of their toys (if you can't pull one off Google images, just take a digital pic) along with the word so they can see where things go. I also use clear plastic bins for most of my storage so they can see what's in each bin. This is a GREAT way for your older son to learn where things go/vocab/word recognition too. I also like to print a second set of labels out and attach one set to the actual shelving itself and one to the container. That way, when it's time to put the container away they can match up the pictures to know where it goes.

To answer your question here's how we are organized:

[SIZE=14pt]In clear, shoe box-sized bins w/lids:[/SIZE] (you could probably find these, or even smaller ones at a dollar store)
Animals
Mega Blocks
"Wheel Palls" cars
Wooden cars/trains/planes/etc
Manipulatives (for sorting, stacking)
Train set
Foam blocks
Mr. Potato Head parts
Tractors (yes, we have an entire collection
Toy set accessories (Little People, etc.)
Hmmm....I know there's more....


[SIZE=14pt]In baskets:[/SIZE]
Books
Play food/plates
Musical instruments
Blocks
Stuffed animals

Thank you so much for sharing the information! You have fantastic ideas for labeling! I am need to re-organize our toys too. We don't have a huge space for their toys in our multi-family room. We have a little corner for all of their toys. We hope to do our partial finish basement next year!

Diana w/Rianna and Justin

 

QUOTE(K*D*B @ Feb 6 2008, 10:22 PM) [snapback]610197[/snapback]
What do you guys do with all the large trucks. You know my trash truck, aircraft carrier, fire chief car, ambulance, remote control 2 foot fire truck, dump truck, crane truck, police car, pickup truck, fire trucks, etc. Are you getting what I am talking about?


I rotate bigger items out so there isn't an overwhelming number of them. I actually have 3 rotations of toys. There are a few standards that stay in rotation at all times, but other items (toy sets, large trucks, books, etc) are rotated every 3 weeks or so. I'll also do a rotation if we have a MISERABLE day and can't get outside to play b/c it's like putting out a whole new set of toys.

 

QUOTE(K*D*B @ Feb 6 2008, 10:22 PM) [snapback]610197[/snapback]
What do you guys do with all the large trucks. You know my trash truck, aircraft carrier, fire chief car, ambulance, remote control 2 foot fire truck, dump truck, crane truck, police car, pickup truck, fire trucks, etc. Are you getting what I am talking about?


This is where my problem is too Cari. These can't really go into anything so they end up staying out on the floor and they are driving me nuts!! I am thinking of getting a 2-shelve kind of wide versus tall book case to put the baskets and bigger trucks on.
Would love other's suggestions as well.

 

QUOTE(NicoleT @ Feb 7 2008, 12:29 PM) [snapback]611211[/snapback]
B)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(K*D*B @ Feb 6 2008, 10:22 PM) [snapback]610197[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->What do you guys do with all the large trucks. You know my trash truck, aircraft carrier, fire chief car, ambulance, remote control 2 foot fire truck, dump truck, crane truck, police car, pickup truck, fire trucks, etc. Are you getting what I am talking about?

This is where my problem is too Cari. These can't really go into anything so they end up staying out on the floor and they are driving me nuts!! I am thinking of getting a 2-shelve kind of wide versus tall book case to put the baskets and bigger trucks on.
Would love other's suggestions as well.



This is what we have. I bought it so I could close it up and have toys be out of sight. Unfortunately it was WAY deeper than I thought when it arrived. I just removed the side shelves and am using them as 3 independent units (one in the boys' bedroom, two smaller ones in the family room). It holds most of our trucks, bigger toys, but we do have a few items (little people toy sets, etc) that are too big, so they go on top.

Each of the open shelves will hold 4 of the shoe box-sized containers. A medium sized basket fits perfectly in the bottom shelf.

 

I don't label anything.

I am a huge fan of organization too, but it just stresses me out to have a good system and then have it totally ruined by two little hooligans every single day. So I've pretty much given up. The fewer categories there are, the easier is it to toss everything out of sight.

However, I do (roughly) sort toys into:
- Little People and similarly-sized people/animals
- small things
- medium things
- large wood and plastic things
- large soft things
- trains, assorted accessories, and other small vehicles
- play food
- blocks
- baby dolls and stuffed animals

The first category goes in a large tupperware. Small things go in a 3-drawer Rubbermaid storage unit. Medium-sized things, plus play food and train parts, go in the pull-out drawers under the train table. Larger wood and plastic things (including blocks and puzzles) go on the toy shelves. Large soft things go in a milk crate. Dolls and animals have their own deep bookshelf.

We don't have that many large trucks -- maybe 2 trucks and 3 riding toys that are about the same size, plus a play stroller -- and those get "parked" around the walls of the room at night. That's only for things that are too big to go in a container or on a shelf.

 

Blocks/Legos/Building type toys
Balls
Puzzles
Stuffed Animals/Dolls
Pretend (Doctor sets/tea sets/dress up)
Cars/Trucks
Figures (like blues clues, little people, backyardigans)
Electronics (laptops/remotes/cell phones)
Music

I will admit to being completely obsessed with having all toys put away at naps and bedtimes and my kids are understanding which basket things go into but nothing is labeled.

 

This is great info! I don't have anything labeled either because you get a few more toys, and boom the system is ruined!! Here is roughtly what we have in bins:

Baby Dolls and acessories

Musical instruments

animals/figures

blocks

legos

I then have about 5-7 conainers that have a variety of toys. I pull a new container out every three days or so to rotate. Each bin has a little people set, some sort of stuffed animals, some sort of car/truck, and a few random things like a cash register or other toy.

 

B)-->QUOTE(K*D*B @ Feb 7 2008, 02:22 AM) [snapback]610197[/snapback]
Thanks guy, it is exactly what I mean. For some reason I was having trouble catagorizing items. We just have SO much sh*t. It seems that when I get it organized Christmas or a birthday comes up and then there is more. I too am a label maker girl. My DS1 room and the playroom are labeled like crazy (door, closet, window, bed, floor, etc). I need to do the picture labeling for the twins. I just need a day where I have no one around so I can get organized.
What do you guys do with all the large trucks. You know my trash truck, aircraft carrier, fire chief car, ambulance, remote control 2 foot fire truck, dump truck, crane truck, police car, pickup truck, fire trucks, etc. Are you getting what I am talking about?[/quote]


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