If you have kids, you know. There’s no way around the chaos of toy organization. Every toy is a different shape and size, and no single storage solution makes sense for everything. For years, I have shuffled my son’s things around into an assortment of bins and shelving units, never quite reaching a point of satisfaction with the whole thing. And just when you think you’ve figured it out (much like nap times and eating schedules), they outgrow the toy that perfectly fit into that one great spot, and it’s replaced with some other horrendous device that doesn’t make sense in that spot at all.
My greatest nemesis of all the toys: Nerf guns. With these gems you have the joy of trying to find something large enough to house these awkwardly shaped contraptions, while also coming up with a way to corral the pellets and bullets in a wide array of shapes and sizes (particularly if you also own other brands of toy guns).
My son’s collection wasn’t vast. Maybe 4 or 5 in total with a small collection of foam and rubber bullets. This felt manageable to me. They were stuffed in a toy chest, the bullets left to tumble their way to the bottom of the bin and, thus, were rarely played with. But, if you’ve ever purchased one of these atrocities, you know how expensive they are, so them not getting played with didn’t feel like a win either.
That all changed 3 years ago when my brother’s family decided their boys had outgrown their old toys and that it was time to pass them down to their younger cousins. Many toys were up for grabs, but I knew exactly which ones my kid would gravitate toward. In all their obnoxious glory, we inherited a massive collection of these noisy, lopsided, absolutely un-storable toys. The toy chest was no longer an option and, for several months, I had the pleasure of stepping over piles of Nerf guns in our basement. I knew there was a solution out there, but it took a while to find it.
To my dismay, no one else seemed bothered by the utter chaos of it all. Our basement had become a Nerf war zone and my son didn’t care one way or the other about how these toys were stored. He never once expressed his displeasure about the fact that his Nerf guns didn’t have a reasonable storage solution. But I knew this was a problem for him (or me… maybe mostly me… okay, completely, totally me) and I was bound and determined to solve it.
After lots of research, I found these metal grid racks that are designed for merchandise. The brand is Only Garment Racks. They were sold in sets of three and included the wall mount brackets. The brackets are now sold separately. We also purchased some additional gridwall peg hooks in various sizes to meet our needs.
The racks were heavy, so hanging them was definitely a two-person job and required measuring, marking the walls and utilizing wall anchors. Thankfully, my hubby was thrilled(-ish) to help hang them and my son, who was now convinced this massive undertaking was all about him, was eager to assist with arranging his collection of useless weaponry.
While it wasn’t the cheapest organization project I’ve ever done, it was definitely one that made my heart happy. We probably spent about $200 on supplies (not including the Nerf guns). And I’m proud to say that my son regularly puts these back where they belong and even rearranges them from time to time to better fit his collection. As a mom obsessed with organizing, this feels like a parenting win (almost as exciting as the fact that he does his own laundry).
The truth is, there will always be toys that aren’t easy to organize. What this photo doesn’t show you is the shelves on the other side of the room where we’ve stacked all his other un-storable gadgets and toys. But since I’m all about celebrating the little things, I choose to turn around, face this wall, and pat myself on the back for a job well done. After all, we can only wrangle one disaster at a time.
What genius toy storage solutions have you come up with in your home? And do you find those organizing solutions are just for you or do your kiddos pitch in with tidying up because it’s easier for them too?
No matter what kind of toy chaos you need to wrangle, there’s always a creative solution out there! And if there’s not, remind yourself that your kids will eventually outgrow those toys and you’ll have your space back again someday… in 18 years or so…
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