When we designed our upstairs playroom 6 or 7 years ago, I begged BigD to make a half-wall of built-ins on the other side of the stairs. I thought we would use them for toys while the kids were younger and for books when the kids got older. (I didn't know we would have both younger and older kids at the same time.) I found these baskets at Hobby Lobby that fit the space just perfectly. We have 8 large baskets and 6 small baskets for toys.
After finding pictures online of the different kinds of toys we have, I had them laminated and fixed onto the baskets using velcro adhesive. (See pics from the process.) I also wrote the name of the toy underneath the picture.
My hope is that our 5 and 3 year olds will be better able to put their toys away where they belong now. It should also be helpful for when friends are over and want to help pick-up, but don't know what goes where.
There's one large miscellaneous basket for toys that don't fit nicely into any of the other categories.
You know what's even more awesome than having everything look nice and clean? Our kids now realize what great toys they have. Prince had forgotten about all our blocks! He had so much fun building and then when it was time to move onto something else he loaded up his basket with blocks and slid the basket back into its slot. That made me very happy.
Lucie had fun playing dollhouse. The basket of toys she's playing with goes in another built-in that's exclusively devoted to dollhouse stuff.
This may be Calvin's first time upstairs. He had fun hangin' out with his big bubba.
We have our toys the same, except I used a different shelving system and baskets. I made tags for ours, and tied them. Our no grouping toys are called "Odds". ;)
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