How to Fit Big Toys Into Little Spaces

I received items for free in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

With the holidays coming that means there will be several new toys coming into the house. Being a family of 6 who has always lived in pretty small spaces we have definitely learned the art of managing large toys in small spaces. Another aspect to this dilemma is that my husband is kind of OCD and really does not like to “see” the toys EVER! And well as you can imagine with four kids hiding the toys when they aren’t playing with them from the main living spaces can be difficult. Here are a few tips I have come across through the years.

1. Storage: This can mean several things. First make sure you have appropriate storage containers for all of your toys. For instance, I have toys that I do keep in my living room, BUT they are in pretty bins that match the decor in my home so you cannot tell they are storing toys. That also means when my kids take those bins out to play they know EXACTLY what and where each toy goes in order to put it away properly. Secondly, we do a use, re-use and upcycle in our home. What this means is that I often times go through the house (about every 2-3 months) and box up the toys that are not being played with daily. Then I pull out a previously packaged box and put them out. The kids feel like they just got a bunch of brand new toys, when in reality it’s just toys they haven’t seen in a while. We also upcycle toys. For instance, once our kids out grew they LEGO Mega Bloks I added words and letters from the alphabet on them and turned them into the perfect reading, writing and site word game! See more about the LEGO Upcycle HERE
2. Less is More: I don’t know why as parents we feel like our kids need a TON of toys, but I feel like we are all guilty of it to some extent. I have learned that less is more. When I keep the toys to a minimum in the house, I find my kids find ways to be more creative with what they have. They turn old boxes into space crafts, old dolls into aliens an so forth. So not only am I keeping the clutter down to a minimum in my house, but my kids are actively engaging their brains more! I love it!
3. Compact Toys: This is definitely a newer concept I have come across and to be honest it’s one of my favorites! In the past few years several toy companies have discovered my very dilemma…of wanting to get certain toys for my kids but also needing to save space! One of the biggest items my kids have always wanted is a play kitchen, and we have NEVER had the space for one. Thankfully Little Tikes has come out with this amazing Cook ‘n Serve Kitchen! It is compact, stores easily and has everything the larger kitchens have but doesn’t take up near as much space!
   I love the new Little Tikes Cook ‘n Store Kitchen – it allows us to have a fun kitchen for the kids to make believe play with…without taking up a ton of space! It’s super cool, it folds down nice and small for easy storage. When the kids want to play with it we just have to pull it out and up and we are good to go! My son has literally played non stop with ours since we got it and loves when to watch it fold up for storage and then come back out for play!