Joining Nicole’s KCCO this week with a project I finished before the holidays, but am just now getting around to photographing.
The toy baskets were getting out of control. One of the children would be rummaging through, looking for all the pieces of a playset, and end up dumping over the whole basket in frustration just to find a missing piece.
Christmas was coming, and I knew something had to change before the chaos in the living room got worse.
My solution: just before Thanksgiving, I retrieved a little coat rack from basement storage. A dear family friend had made me when I was a very small child, and it used to hold my dress-ups. I screwed in the rack at child-height next to the play kitchen.
Then, during George’s nap one afternoon, I made some drawstring bags of different thrifted prints and of varying sizes. Into each bag went a playset (wooden tools, Playmobils, finger puppets, flower fairies, cars…you get the picture.) The most frequently-used sets went up on the rack, and some others were tucked into my purse and into the car for “emergency” situations (church, doctor’s office, waiting in line at the post office…).
So far, the system is working well. The kids can find the toys they want to play with, and when they are finished, it is easy to scoop the pieces back into the bags.
Back tomorrow for the Yarn Along.
Such a great idea!! I might have to steal it 🙂
We do that, too! (Though not as prettily done as yours…) We also did that for our diaper bag. I got fed up with little pockets that weren’t designed for what I needed, and I got a different bag that had only a few small pockets with one LARGE, DEEP pocket…into which go all these little sorting-bags. Diaper stuff, snacks, “emergency” toys, spare pants/underwear for the older one, etc. Easy to pull out the unneeded bags for a shorter trip, keeps everything manageable for a bigger one. We love to compartmentalize!
neat idea–i love having their toys organized! 🙂
I love little bags like that, too, though I usually knit or crochet mine, my sewing skills leave a lot to be desired!
I LOVE your toy bag idea! I really need to try that! Both my kids (3 and 9) regularly get frustrated about finding all the parts of a toy set to play with. Then, by the time they find everything, they are so frustrated they are ready to move on…we have toys in bins but the bins are too big so perhaps I can make some bags to fit into the bins. Thanks again for the idea!
I totally need to do it for our diaper bag, which is essentially a big tote. Mittens, socks, ointment etc get lost in the abyss. Thanks for the idea, Leanne!
Thank you, Kris!
I wish I knew how to crochet, Anastacia. One of these days maybe I will learn. Drawstring bags are a good first sewing project. Some great tutorials out there. Thank you for visiting!
You’re welcome! Thank you for stopping by, Maria. 🙂