If you build it...they will fill it with Legos
Sometimes you have a space that does not fit off the shelf storage options, no matter how hard you try. We had hung out television on the wall in the corner years ago. No TV stand needed, it angled to the couch and the chair, it was perfect. But once our children came into the picture, and were not magically accompanied by a separate toy room, we had a storage issue- what shelf or toy storage could we get that would fit under the TV, fit in the dimensions of the corner, and deter little fingers from touching or hanging off of the television? Turns out that we should have considered this before hanging the TV…
Any storage option we tried did not work:
The toy box lid hit the TV (and created a mound of toys that needed to be individually taken out of the toy box multiple times a day)
Multiple storage cube shelving systems were too long, too tall, too rickety for kids.
Bookcases were either too short or too tall.
We were stuck. While we could move the TV, patch the holes, lift it up 5 inches, it seemed like a daunting and unattractive option. When my husband offered to build something, my first inclination was that was too much work for toy storage. We had more important things to do than build shelves. But the more days I spent without a storage system, the more I realized how it was impacting our lives:
I was constantly trying out new systems. I was buying baskets, returning baskets, trying a storage ottoman, moving a storage ottoman
The kids never knew how we were organizing toys, and therefore couldn’t pick up their toys and clean up at the end of the day
There wasn’t enough storage to house the toys and keep them neat, so tripping on Legos was a hazard
The more I considered these disruptions, the more I realized the impact this lack of adequate storage was having on us. So we measured, designed, pulled out the toys that we wished to store and decided on the best way to store them (lightweight fabric baskets in our case), and mocked up a solution that would fit the space and suit the storage need. Off my husband went to the basement to look for scrap wood and build a small bookcase.
While it is not everyone’s thing to build their own furniture (it is sure not mine!), but the message is more about not settling for a storage option that doesn’t meet your needs. If you find something that doesn’t do what you need it to, you will find yourself revisiting the storage or systems continuously and not resolving your core issue. If you figure out the right storage solution, you will have a place for everything, your items will be easier to find, and your chances of a toddler putting away their toys are much higher- though not 100% guaranteed!
