Remember the mom you were before you had kids? The one who would never do all the things you do now that you are a mom? The mom that was an expert on being a mom? I remember that version of myself, too. She was hilarious. She often told people that there was no absolutely no way her living room, or any other room of her home for that matter, would ever be cluttered with children’s toys. This is one point on which actual-mom me and pre-mom me agree on. In fact, we don’t even have a playroom in our home. We have a toy closet. It’s one of my very favorite aspects of our house so it makes sense I’d blog about it first.
We fell In love with our home, which is a smaller home built in 1954, and knew when we bought it that a whole home remodel would be needed. The toy closet you see here was an intentional part of that remodel design process. What is now a toy closet started out as a mechanical room housing our heating and air conditioning unit. It was an unusually large mechanical closet and as our small home was short on closet space it became sort of a catch all for items waiting to be taken to donation centers or gifts hidden for future holidays and birthdays. Basically, it was a mess!
One of my biggest priorities when designing our extensive remodel was to maximize every available inch of storage in our home. Our architect, Lindsey Brigati Boren, was such a huge help in identifying spaces that could be turned into additional storage and quickly earmarked this space. Our friends at JMS Mechanical then moved all of the mechanical items up to the attic for us creating a large walk-in closet space where the heating and air conditioning unit had been. When deciding what would go in this space I knew it would be the perfect location for toys. Like many parents, toys have long been both our biggest source of clutter and frustration. Despite my best efforts to keep them neatly stowed away in baskets and bins I’d inadvertently created a scattered debris field of cute yet impossible to maintain toy baskets in almost every room of our home. This newly created closet was centrally located in our home and the perfect opportunity to create a space that prioritized play, fostered creativity, and gave our daughter the tools to keep up with it all so I no longer had to.
Given the huge amount of work needed here I knew cost could add up quickly. I had a complete blank slate and needed everything: shelving, containers, labels, and whimsical touches to make the space inviting. I didn’t want to skimp on quality and knew staying on budget would be a challenge so I took advantage of every sale and coupon I could find as well as the wonderful customer loyalty program at The Container Store to make it happen.
Open-ended, unplugged, and Independent play has been a big part of our family culture since our daughter was born. Since we do not have a play room I wanted our daughter’s toy closet to be an inviting place where creativity thrived. My first goal was to ensure the way her toys were grouped made sense to her. We’ve thoughtfully added to collections of things like blocks and wooden animals across all of the birthdays and special occasions of her childhood. I wanted to create a space for her that grouped these items in ways that mirrored her use of them while inviting her to play. My next goal was to honor her creativity by allowing room for her artwork to be displayed. Following that I wanted it to be a space where she could make memories even if it was a closet! Most importantly, I wanted a system of organization she would be proud of and fully capable of maintaining herself.
I’d like to say I’m surprised I knocked this entire project out in a weekend but I’m not; when I set my mind to something I don’t really stop until it’s finished. I knew I would need a block of uninterrupted time so I packed up my husband and daughter for a long weekend of camping with some of her best friends and their dad. I had our whole house to myself to organize while I blasted my favorite music playlists and ordered take out. It was a dream weekend!
First things first, I needed shelving! I booked an appointment with my local Container Store’s Elfa design expert, Brandi Williams. Brandi helped me think of ways to maximize the space available in the toy closet, sent me some digital design choices, and helped me tweak them to perfection. She also lined up an installer to set up my elfa system. We used a combination of Elfa shelving, Elfa storage tracks with accessory hooks, and an Elfa over the door rack mounted to the wall. Once these were installed I began going through all of our toys. Since we’d just moved back into our newly remodeled home all of the toys were packed in boxes. This made my preliminary work a lot easier I think! As I unpacked each box I immediately set aside any toys which no longer served us. I divided these into two categories: heirloom toys to store and toys to be donated. I then sorted all of the toys which we’d be keeping into categories such as blocks, marble runs, play dough, wooden animals, etc. When all of the toys had been sorted I placed each toy type in its own labeled container. It was important to me that the containers I chose be both durable (capable of withstanding being moved around by a child) and visually appealing – no bright primary plastic colored bins here! It was also important to me that toy storage complimented the aesthetic of our home while pulled out for play; the wooden home edit all-purpose bins and hyacinth baskets from The Container Store fulfilled both needs and were available in multiple sizes to accommodate all of my daughter’s toys. Smaller items such as beads and puzzles stored easily in the behind the door organizer while larger items such as her marble runs and bigger block sets were able to be stored on the floor of the toy closet.
Surprisingly sorting all of the toys was the easiest part! Since we’ve built our toy collection over the years by thoughtfully adding to categories of toys she loved and played with frequently organizing them into like-groups felt shockingly simple. The hardest part for me was seeing the space from my daughter’s height and capabilities. I had to imagine the space as she’d see it and think of the toys she’d most want to reach for. While I absolutely needed to utilize all of the floor to ceiling shelving I knew toys on higher shelves would require adult help to get down. Far from being a hindrance this provided an additional way to create a system of organization. I immediately placed toys that could only be used with adult supervision such as slime kits on higher shelves. I also decided I’d place toys she played with less frequently on higher shelves and pay attention to how often she asked for help getting them down. If she asked for them often it would let me know they needed to be rotated down so she could get them herself.
Alternatively, if she never asked for them I’d know when I cleaned out toys before her birthday or Christmas those could be donated to make room for new items.
I am not exaggerating when I say this toy closet is the biggest sanity saver in our home. It’s remarkably easy for our daughter to maintain on her own and has eliminated the single greatest cause of clutter in every room of the home. The finished project checks all the boxes for my initial goals. Her toys are grouped according to how she plays with them and how frequently she uses them. There’s space on multiple walls for her artwork to be displayed gallery style. She even has a little bulletin board to pin special notes from friends, photos, and other treasures. Best of all, each toy container is clearly labeled so it’s easy for her to know what items are in each and no basket is too heavy for her to lift by herself. She loves this space; in fact it’s the first place she brings her friends to see – before her room even!
My favorite parts of her toy closet are her gallery spaces and bulletin boards. The little dry erase marker board brings us both such joy. When I was a little girl my dad hung a similar board in our garage for me to sit and draw on while he worked at his tool bench so seeing my own daughter do the same while I’m engaged in household chores brings back a flood of happy memories. We also use her magnet letters to leave each other little notes. It’s so sweet to see her lost in her own little world here making memories.
Many of the baskets and bins have internal organization elements as well. While I used a variety of smaller containers such as home edit pantry containers, home edit bin organizers, container store shoe boxes, and container store accessory boxes to store smaller components within larger categories (separating Barbie clothes from Barbie dolls for example) I refrained from alphabetizing and sorting items by color. This was hard for me because I typically organize things by color. One of my best friends, and the owner of The Happy Lark where we purchase all of our toys, suggested toys would be played with more if I let go of this need to color sort. She explained that children actually enjoy digging for a certain color of bead or block and it impedes the process for them if the work is made harder by ten separate categories. She was absolutely right. In fact, when my daughter saw her wooden grapat mandala pieces, plus plus blocks, and jixelz all grouped together instead of separated by color she thanked me and gave me a big hug!
It’s been a little over a year and a half since I organized this space and in addition to being overjoyed that my child can keep up with her own toys I’m thankful I have a built in system to clean out her toys seasonally. I’m also happy it’s a project I won’t have to do-over; because Elfa shelving is completely modular and fully adjustable the entire toy closet is a system that can grow with her. In fact, when she’s off to college one day I have daydreams of this becoming my own space for organizing quilting fabrics, embroidery projects, and yarn for crocheting!
I’d encourage anyone frustrated by the clutter toys create to find a space in their home where toys can be stored and to commit to not accumulating more toys than will fit in that space. Though many children have more toys than our daughter and enjoy whole play rooms but for us a closet where her collection of thoughtfully purchased toys reside is perfect. She has just enough for her imagination and creativity to truly thrive. Before starting your project realize you’ll need to commit to investing both time and financial resources but the dividends on both of those investments pay off substantially.
Forever Grateful for:
all photography: Bree Perez; Bree Linne Photography
our favorite toy store: The Happy Lark
architect: Lindsey Brigati Boren, AIA; Brigati PLLC
heating and air conditioning: JMS Heating & Air Conditioning
toy closet Design: Brandi Williams, In Home Design Expert, Container Store Fort Worth Texas
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