As any parent knows, coming up with creative ways to store kids’ toys takes great skill and organization. After all, it’s not long before the toys are back on the floor, strewn throughout the house with no place to call home. Worse yet, finding perfect storage units is a hard chore, with many being too gaudy to place in a family room, while others are simply too expensive to serve as a toy center. Fortunately, plastic bins are the perfect alternative for storing toys when other storage units and baskets do not do the trick.
When sorting toys in plastic bins, make sure the bins are heavy duty and will hold the weight of the toys you are looking to store. Also look for those that have easy carry handles for little hands. Another factor to look for is whether you want clear bins or colored bins. Clear plastic bins are great for storing toys and art supplies that are kept in closets or up high so that kids can see what is stored in them. Colored bins are great for color coding or adding a personalized touch to your kids’ toys. You can also separate your kids’ toys, with one child having red bins and the other having blue bins.

Once you have chosen the perfect bins for the job, you will also need to choose a place to store the bins. For toys that are always being played with, make sure you store the bins in accessible areas. Good places include under coffee or end tables, on low shelves or on a bookcase. For art supplies, puzzles or Play-Doh, consider placing the bins up high, such as in a designated art cabinet or in a locked cabinet, where tiny hands can’t get to them as easily.

To help kids become more independent, also consider labeling the plastic bins. You can take pictures of the toys and place the photos on the outside of the bins so kids known which toys belong in which bin. Indeed, plastic bins need cleaning every so often, so dump out the toys and give them a quick clean with soap and water. Best of all, plastic bins can be reused again and again, so you can swap out kids’ toys with DVDs and video games as they get older.