Toy Storage in an IKEA Expedit
First and foremost, thank you to everyone who sent along prayers and well wishes for my Mom; it’s really such a comfort to know that so many people are out there pulling for her. At this time, I have no news to report. She’s still very, very sick but is still fighting.
Whether it’s a New Year organizational “bug” or just an effort to stay busy and distracted while waiting news and updates on my Mom, I have been non-stop organizing and purging since coming back from our holiday travels. It got a little out of control as I had pretty much every room in the house pulled apart at one point today (simply because one organizational project often leads to another!). However, I made some huge headway in some neglected ares of our home – score! Another few days of chaos and hopefully everything will have found a proper home (I move fast, people!). The first space that really needed a bit of attention was our playroom. The last you saw it, it looked like this:
Now before you scream and say “Megan, this is the THIRD time you’ve made some big changes in the playroom in less than 2 years!!!” (one and two) let me tell you why we made this organizational change. While the blue bins were (and are!) working perfectly, we were finding that some (bigger) toys didn’t fit on this big brown shelf, causing them to leak into other areas of our combined play/living room. Second, after Santa visited our house this year with a bunch of new goodies, we just needed some more toy storage in general.
For a very, very, very long time I have been yearning for an Expedit somewhere in our home; I just love its sleek, simple and modern look…and for small-space living, you really can’t beat the storage or the price. When I realized we could double our toy storage (and provide some fun display space!) in essentially the same footprint, we made it a priority to stop at IKEA on our way out of town. After assembling, some toy-purging, and some styling, here is where we are now!
Huzzah! I.am.so.excited. I can’t get over how much lighter and brighter this space feels without the clunky brown shelf (which has found a much better home out in the garage!). And with some more storage space, I was able to let more of Henry’s toys double as decor. While I loved the streamlined look of the all blue/grey play space, this multicolored area has so much more life now!
A bunch of favorite accessories (the faux grass, the extra-large Kokeshi doll, Henry’s quilt, and the name train) that I was having a hard time finding a home for, now all come together to make this a styled-but-kid-friendly place to play and visit. My favorite part is that Henry can now get most of his toys down by himself!
A few months ago, when I showed you the shots on the left (below), I proclaimed the playroom “done;” and here I am now showing you another change. I think I’m going to stop calling things “done,” because I am always tweaking and changing and adjusting. So for now…here is where we were before, and where we are now!
I am knee-deep in organizing Henry’s outgrown clothes. Anyone have any storage solutions for that one? I hope you all have a great weekend. I hope to be back next week with some more organizational progress!
Megan
12 Comments on “Toy Storage in an IKEA Expedit”
I love the way this looks!!
So awesome!! We have a smaller expedit but I find that alot of my sons larger toys still don't fit! 🙁
The After looks so much better than the Before! The colour scheme of the expedit actually matches. This is very impressive! Great work!
http://littlestsparrow.blogspot.com
Gosh I love this! Now I have to find out whether Ikea will ship to an APO box…
If you are going to store Henry's clothes, then the best way to do that is to sort it by size and put it in different boxes by size or something like that. My daughter is 16 and we have baby blankets every where. Some of them are large enough to cover us a a throw,but what about the small blankets. Today I was folding some and trying to think of special I could do with them.
I love what you did with the space and how organized it is. I would love it if you joined and contribute your awesome posts at my link party at City of Creative Dreams on Fridays 😀 Hope to see you there at City of Creative Dreams Link Party
Fantastic solution to a problem I am really struggling with in a small house – all of the ideas I've seen so far on your blog look amazing and relatively simple. Thank you for posting.
The Expedit is a wonderful piece of furniture for storage and particularly those blue boxes you have there! They seem like they were made to be put into the shelving units! It’s wonderful that you managed to get your hands on a set though, the room looks amazing with it in!
Thank you so much! Those blue baskets are made to fit perfectly into those shelves, so not an inch of space is wasted!
Thanks for commenting!
Megan
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Love it! We have several IKEA kallax (previously expedit) and they work beautifully in several rooms.
As for the clothes he’s outgrown….we use totes labeled with sizes/seasons on the outside. As a mom of four boys, I go through the clothes and keep what’s in great shape and I loved seeing on one son and stow it away for the next when he’s ready. As for what’s left I give away or drop off at a local charity that could use them.
Thanks for sharing this great tip, Jenn! I would imagine with 4 boys, you have a lot of clothes to go through. I’m getting ready to go through all of Henry’s this Spring and selling/donating most of it I think. The pile just keeps on growing in the garage, lol!
Hope you had a great weekend!
Megan