I remember as AG’s baby toys first started piling up trying to figure out a way to contain them all. I asked for advice, I looked for articles… I needed a solution.

I know I’m picky.

First of all, I like toys to be put away. I like the feeling of cleaning up the chaos and looking around a house that looks like a place where grown-ups live rather than romper room. I hosted a baby shower a couple of years ago, and one of the guests overheard me talking about my daughter and said, “you have a kid? It doesn’t even look like it!” Music to my ears! :)

Secondly, I want my storage solutions to be ultra cheap, if not free. I like free. There are lots of organization companies that would be happy to give you a solution, but it has a hefty price tag attached! I repeat: I like free. Here are my favorite tips to mastering the toy avalanche.

1. Recycle large containers for free, uniform storage!

Don’t get sucked into feeling like you have to invest a mint in matching storage containers. You can collect quite a nice array of matching storage from using food containers; I have found that large animal cracker tubs, plastic pretzel containers with pop-off lids, wipes boxes, coffee cans (the plastic ones with pop-off tops and no sharp edges are great!), etc. all make wonderful storage. I have also heard that if you ask at your grocery store’s bakery, that they will often give away the large tubs they get for frosting, etc! I like using clear or translucent containers with lids that AG can get off by herself.

I personally don’t like the labels on there, and they can be tricky to get off. The best solution I have found to this is to fill the container with very hot tap water, let it sit for a couple of minutes (seems to loosen the adhesive), and peel off as much of the label as you can. Usually this gets the majority off for me. Then I take a paper towel with some vegetable oil on it and rub the rest of the adhesive off – the oil works great and it’s obviously nontoxic! Voila – perfect storage!

2. Contain the containers

Once everything is in containers, I want the containers contained. Put away. Neatly stowed. Accessable, and yet not in the way.

It is a lot to ask, I realize.

We are blessed to live in an old house built in 1914 that has those nifty built-in shelves with glass doors next to our fireplace. Frankly, I would love to only have decoration-worthy books of uniform color and size back there… but that would mean I would lose some amazing child-accessable toy storage.

Perhaps part 2 of this post will be how I contain the toys in their bedrooms!

3. If it doesn’t fit in the designated storage areas, it might not stay.

I try to steer clear of large non-storable toys. If it can’t be put away, it needs to be in their bedrooms. If there’s no space up there, it’s not the toy for us. Fact is, our house is just not that big!

I also have large rubbermaid bins in the attic full of toys that we rotate through. This is a great solution for limited space – on about a quarterly basis, I put away toys that haven’t been played with much and pull out some forgotten toys from the attic. It’s like Christmas! The kids get so excited to see toys they had forgotten about! :)

This is also a great time to reevaluate why we’re keeping certain things. Rather than unwanted toys getting buried in a pile of unloved rejects, I’d rather donate them or sell them… or throw them away!

I have found that my kids only play with a select number of toys. Keeping them orderly and visible helps them see what they have, find something that interests them, and learn how to put it away when they’re done!

For more Works for me Wednesday tips, head over to wearethatfamily.com!