Expert toy storage ideas to organise your home

Kids have a lot of stuff. You don’t need us to tell you that: if you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re already surrounded by mountains of plastic figures, building blocks, old stuffed rabbits and videogames.

Toy storage is a very real issue in a home, especially if you’re not quite ready to sacrifice beautifully decorated interiors in lieu of toy shop chic. But no matter how much stuff you need to hide away, there are clever solutions for every part of the house to keep all of the toys, crafts and gadgets tidied away.

‘Practical, stylish storage is a must for a family home,’ says Charlotte Green, home organisation consultant and founder of Green Edit. ‘Editing and organising is time well spent and investing in a few key pieces to store and display items enables you to live in a space that works for you as a family, as well as being pleasing to the eye.’

Read on to discover the secrets of practical and stylish storage.

Let’s begin with the hardest part: your children’s bedrooms. At least here you don’t have to worry about disguising their toys as they’re actually supposed to be there. For younger children new storage can be a great opportunity to add lots of colour, print and whimsy with playful ideas that let you display their toys while still keeping them organised. ‘A fancy dress area can be created in a bedroom using low-level peg hooks on the wall with mini hangers,’ Green recommends. ‘It makes a fun feature of their favourite dress-up costumes.’

In a child’s bedroom, you can utilise every nook and cranny for versatile, eye-catching storage that they’ll enjoy using. Their bedroom should be a space that they can take pride in and responsibility for keeping tidy and organised, so make sure they know what should go where with labels or colour-coding (the latter is useful if kids are sharing a bedroom). Use wall-mounted shelves and carts on wheels for their books; under-bed storage boxes; bedside tables with cupboards or drawers underneath; and end-of-bed benches with nooks for baskets. The latter are a godsend – use baskets on shelves and under tables, with labels tied to them to help separate their colouring books from their tubs of slime. Large novelty baskets in fun shapes are also great for hiding larger play things and stuffed toys.

Green swears by the humble toolbox for her own children’s small, easy-to-lose toys and accessories. ‘Their Playmobil soldiers and related paraphernalia are all stored in a traditional tool kit,’ she says. ‘We have several dotted around the house – cars kept in one, animals in another and of course, glitter and paint – they can be stored out of reach. The toolboxes keep smaller items looking stylish and ordered and when tots become teens, the boxes can be used on desks for stationery or on dressing tables for make-up. Multi-purpose storage that grows with your kids is always a plus.’ 

The living room can work hard as a space, sometimes needing to be both a relaxing, grown-up room as well as a playroom for your kids. Giving it the freedom to be both is all about secret storage solutions so you can hide away half a toy shop if you want to without anyone ever noticing.

‘Ottomans are perfect for kids storage and are really functional,’ says Molly Leese, Partner and Utility Assistant Buyer. ‘They’re stylish enough to work in your living room as they come in lots of colours and fabrics, but they’re also large enough to fit plenty of your children’s toys in. Because they have lids, you can chuck everything in there when you’ve tidied away at the end of the day. They can also double up as an extra seat, so they’re versatile pieces for smaller-space living.’

As well as ottomans and side or coffee tables with drawers, you could fill a sideboard with children’s arts and crafts materials, small toys and gadgets – organise it in separate boxes and baskets and no-one need ever know that your smart Mid-Century sideboard is hiding a world of potential mess inside.

Lastly, have a selection of lidded baskets or wicker trunks ready by the sofa or stashed under a console table for quick toy-tidying. If not used for toys and books, they can easily be repurposed for blankets or your own books and gadgets.

A trolley on wheels is the portable play-stuff storage solution you didn’t realise you needed. Leese says, ‘I’d recommend The Home Edit range for kids craft organisation and a trolley, too. You can pile all their arts and crafts bits and bobs up on a trolley, tuck it away into a corner or up against a wall and then easily wheel it over to a desk or table when the kids need to use it. If you’re super organised, you can even colour coordinate and label their pencils and art materials. A trolley is also great for Lego and for keeping their bath toys and kitchen play things neatly organised.’

Green swears by ‘canvas tote bags or small baskets, personalised or named for each child and hung on low level wooden pegs that they can reach. They can be used for storing dolls, tractors or scalextric – this method can also be applied to a hallway for storing hats, gloves and waterproofs. A vintage or vintage-style locker in the hall or by the back door with shelves and hooks inside is a brilliant and stylish solution for storing small balls, football boots, racquets, fold-up micro scooters and children’s gardening accessories.’

If you’re thinking of creative ways to store paintbrushes, pencils and crayons, Green suggests repurposing ‘old terracotta pots of varying sizes that you no longer use for planting for crayons, felt tips and paint brushes, and can all be labelled easily with chalk.’ Coloured crates or patterned lidded boxes can store paper, coloured card and pipe cleaners and they can be stacked to save space. Children’s art can be cherry picked and put on display on one particular wall to make an impact, or stored in labelled boxes so as not to overload the fridge door. Alternatively, Doodlenest can create a coffeetable book of your children’s artwork.