Toy Storage & Re-Organizing

Now that my little tyke is getting bigger, the Hubby and I have been debating on reorganizing his plethora of toys. We have had the bins in our Living Room for a while and they're a catch-all. We have king of separated them into balls, action figures, cars/trucks, and randoms, but the important toys get "misplaced" often, and I think Hubby & I are both tired of hunting through every bin for the tiny little Iron Man that is in the bottom corner. Thankfully, Will is getting the hang of putting his toys in the "correct" baskets with these bins.

So what better way to act on our little bit of an idea, than after going out for breakfast on Father's Day! After wandering around Home Depot while Hubby got his hair cut, we brought home this lovely Martha Stewart cubby cabinet.

Happy Father's Day! Now get to work!

Here's a peek of the Before. Will got these Fathead vinyl wall decals for his birthday from his Poppa & Nana. They're SO cool, and nice & thick so we can take them down & re-stick them.

Will's tent (and bed... he won't sleep in his bed at night anymore. He only sleeps in his tent. But hey, he doesn't fight us when it's bedtime anymore (you can read more about our trials & tribulations with sleep here and here). Whatever you want kid. As long as you sleep & it doesn't take 2 hours to put you to bed, I'm all about it.

Buzz & Woody manning their station.

It's nice to have the larger toys out of the living room and in this corner of his room. Surprisingly, he still plays with all of his toys, new and old, so it's hard to get rid of stuff since he'll ask for it the next day. 

Falcon, Captain America, & Iron Man protecting my fabulous picture collage from the evil Dr. Doom!

Will's just hanging out watching Scooby Doo while Hubby puts together the cabinet and I start to move things around. While I was in his room, Will looked at Hubby and said "Hey, Daddy. Tank Ewe". Aw... I guess he knew it was for him.

After a quick rearrange, here's what we came up with. Some of the Fatheads got moved around... Hubby preferred them to be together in their "groups".

The storage ottoman got moved from under his window to over here. His tent/bed got moved under the window. This will actually work out well since summer is here, it's warming up, and being by the window will keep him cool on those hot summer nights ahead of us. Ta-Da! New shelf is in the corner with Wolverine fighting Magneto above it.

 A quick look as his closet doors & 4th wall, since it's completely closet. And the Silver Surfer (another one of Will's faves), Human Torch, fighting Dr. Doom now. They "go" together...so they are now positioned together.

You can tell that the Hubbs & I have a bit of a merchandising background. This was all Hubby though...He did a great job with the display. 

A peek at what's inside each bin. Sorry, Will would not get out of the frame. He helped me put what he wanted in each bin, which was amazing and so fun! He found an extra block in the living room, went into his room, and dropped it into the action figures bin. He barely turned around to leave the room before he shook his head at himself, & took the rogue block out of the action figure bin to put it into the block bin. Hubby & I didn't say a word. Too funny!

The revised Living Room shelf situation. It's just a little thinner. The bins aren't overflowing like they were, and the one that was under the end table is gone. Yay!

Close up of the lightened load. I feel like Will has a lot of stuff, but I can't get rid of it. He legitimately plays with all of his stuff. Obviously some more than others, but he cycles through most of it throughout the week. Crazy. I'll probably snag a few of the things to put in the closet just to cycle out, but not much!

 Before we knew it, this was going on. Reading ever so quietly on his own, in his room. It's amazing how fast they grow...

Not bad for a little $65 makeover.

We also used the little L-bracket that it came with to secure the shelf to the wall. It's mostly because our little monkey likes to climb, and bonus that it's earthquake safe. Although I think he's too excited that he's got his own little area that's just his stuff to climb all over it like a crazy person. I fully intend to make little silhouetted pictures of the items that go in each cubby so he can easily remember what goes in what.