What to do with all the toys!

So I wanted to show you how I have organized some of the boy's toys. We have a finished basement that I turned into a playroom. Most of the boy's toys are down there, but a few need to stay upstairs in the living room. Here is a picture of the book case in the living room.

First I sorted through all the toys and decided which ones I wanted upstairs and which ones needed to stay in the playroom. I also threw away anything that was broken or from a kids meal. I also donated some toys to Goodwill. I did this while J was asleep and got rid of the bags of things that were going away asap. No need for a fight, and he has not even missed a toy!
Then I sorted the living room toys into groups...all the cars together, blocks together, legos, you get the point. Then I went to the store in search of storage containers that I thought would hold up to my boys. I wanted something with a lid and was see-through.
Then I labeled each bin and also added a picture of what was stored inside. My three year old can't read yet so the labels are pointless, but he can see the pictures. It's important for him to learn organizing skills and how to take care of his things.

 

I was able to use stickers for some of the boxes and I drew the others. You could also cut out pictures from a toy magazine, and you can type your labels. My printer is not working right now so I just wrote the labels myself. Then I taped them to the front of each box using clear packing tape. This is nice because you can change the labels around as the toys change.

I organized the books too. My sons favorite ones are in a basket next to the book case. He kept pulling all of them off the shelf when he was searching for the one he wanted. So far having his favorite ones (car books) in a basket on the floor has made his search a lot easier. While I was organizing the books I also threw away any that were missing pages, and donated ones that we did not like or had an extra copy of.

The nice thing about the toys being sorted in their own boxes is that it's easier for J to play. He would dump everything out of a large toy bin in search of one car. Now he just grabs the car box and can see everything that he "needs".

It's also a lot easier for J to clean up. He knows where everything goes now, and I'm a happy Mama because the toys are picked up! :)
I'll show you the playroom later. :)