I need a closet organizer to help my organize my storage bins. Everyone knows that I have found religion with respect to storage bins. I firmly believe that the readily available and often discounted ubiquitous storage bin can play a role in all good storage solutions.
They can really be used in any room of the house (perhaps not the more formal rooms)and are very effective is organizing and storing groups of like items. The key to the success for use of bins is to avoid cross contamination. For example, don't store summer clothing with the odd Christmas decoration. Keep each bin true to the original storage idea and you can't lose.
I have tens of storage bins in use. I have storage bins for camping equipment. I have storage bins for sports equipment. Bins for summer clothes and bins for ski gear. I have plastic storage bins in every closet of my house. All I need now is a good closet organizer that can hold and help organize my assorted bins.
I am going to start with the basement as that is the easiest. In this case I don't really need a closet organizer or a closet organization system. I really just need some good sturdy shelves to hold my storage bins. I can stand the shelving unit at the far end of my basement, against the back wall. My ceilings are eight feet high so I think I want a 3 shelf unit with the final and highest shelf being approximately 5 feet off the ground. I want shelves that are at least 2.5 feet deep and 5 feet wide. In addition each shelf must be able to hold 50 pounds. My first inclination is to check the Ikea catalog. I will be back to finish this blog post once I have done so.
Ok, the Ikea website is useless. If you search for shelving you get 641 matches that include everything that has a shelf ie. cabinets, CD racks, headboards....If you search for a set of shelves you get everything that has a shelf plus every single thing that comes in a set like knifes and door handles and bowls. I know Ikea has some shelves that might be suitable so I will just arrange to get to the store myself this weekend.
As I said, I like organizing my storage bins is the easy part. I think the second easiest area to organize will be the children's play room. Organizing a playroom is always a challenge. I have 6-9 brightly coloured storage bins in there that need a more permanent home. I think open shelves might work there as well. However, before settling on open shelves for the storage bins in the playroom, I want to explore the option of cabinets. Although the open shelves will work, I think having the bins in cabinets might look neater.
I will post again after I do a little more research on storage cabinets for a play room.
Showing posts with label plastic bins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plastic bins. Show all posts
Friday, 18 September 2009
Friday, 10 July 2009
Storage Ideas For Play Rooms
Incorporating storage solutions into your children's play room is vital. Play rooms can go from neat and tidy to the ultimate disaster in the time it takes to wash your hands or answer the phone. The descent into play room bedlam is so rapid and so complete that it is almost otherworldly. Every time this transformation happens in the presence of my spouse I can hear the faint humming the the Twilight Zone theme song.
The fact is that play rooms need to be tidied 2 or 3 times more often than other rooms of the house because they become disaster zones 2 or 3 times more often. Some creative storage solutions for your play room can make this task easier. With a little thought you can make tidying the play room into a sort of game and the kids will even help put things back into their proper place.
As you may have noticed from some of my other posts and articles, I am a big fan of the plastic bin. Plastic bins help with closet organization and all sorts of other storage problems. Plastic bins are cheap and durable. The use of brightly coloured plastic bins in the play room is a fantastic idea.
The following are two ideas that I have seen used effectively:
1. Each child has their own plastic bin. It is helpful if the bins are different colours. Each child is taught that all their toys must be returned to their special plastic bin before a new toy is played with. This gives each child a sense of responsibility from a very young age. The plan does not always work but with some gentle encouragement it soon can become habit forming.
This idea also allows the child to take their toys and special bin to their bedroom or another quiet place in the house if they want some quiet time.
2. Make some built-in shelves that fit a series of plastic bins. On the ends of the plastic bins glue on pictures of specific toys or perhaps find some appropriate stickers. You can have a truck bin, a barbie bin, a stuffed animal bin, a train and train track bin, a princess bin, a Dora bin, etc. Clean uptime is fun and easy because the kids simply return their toys to the bin that has the correct picture on the end. Give your kids a reward like a kiss or a green grape for every truck that goes into the truck bin or every princess that goes into the princess bin. By giving the child a small reward you are re-enforcing good behaviour. Small rewards can make the clean up process quick, easy and infinitely more pleasant for the parent.
Play room storage ideas can be fun and easy. Check back to this blog for some other play room storage solutions
The fact is that play rooms need to be tidied 2 or 3 times more often than other rooms of the house because they become disaster zones 2 or 3 times more often. Some creative storage solutions for your play room can make this task easier. With a little thought you can make tidying the play room into a sort of game and the kids will even help put things back into their proper place.
As you may have noticed from some of my other posts and articles, I am a big fan of the plastic bin. Plastic bins help with closet organization and all sorts of other storage problems. Plastic bins are cheap and durable. The use of brightly coloured plastic bins in the play room is a fantastic idea.
The following are two ideas that I have seen used effectively:
1. Each child has their own plastic bin. It is helpful if the bins are different colours. Each child is taught that all their toys must be returned to their special plastic bin before a new toy is played with. This gives each child a sense of responsibility from a very young age. The plan does not always work but with some gentle encouragement it soon can become habit forming.
This idea also allows the child to take their toys and special bin to their bedroom or another quiet place in the house if they want some quiet time.
2. Make some built-in shelves that fit a series of plastic bins. On the ends of the plastic bins glue on pictures of specific toys or perhaps find some appropriate stickers. You can have a truck bin, a barbie bin, a stuffed animal bin, a train and train track bin, a princess bin, a Dora bin, etc. Clean uptime is fun and easy because the kids simply return their toys to the bin that has the correct picture on the end. Give your kids a reward like a kiss or a green grape for every truck that goes into the truck bin or every princess that goes into the princess bin. By giving the child a small reward you are re-enforcing good behaviour. Small rewards can make the clean up process quick, easy and infinitely more pleasant for the parent.
Play room storage ideas can be fun and easy. Check back to this blog for some other play room storage solutions
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