If you ask us, one of the best parts of being crafty is the ability to make things that actually make your life or home better. Making something organizational, functional, or practical just adds a little extra satisfaction to the process! That’s why, when we took a look around recently and realized that our home is practically overrun with kids’ toys, we decided that it was time to put our DIY skills to good use making some kind of toy storage. Knowing our kids the way we do, we felt convinced that making it ourselves would give us the opportunity to create storage that’s unique and fun enough to make our kids actually want to put their toys away (at least sometimes). If we’re being honest, we were actually pretty pleased with how many cool DIY toy storage ideas we found online!
Are you on the hunt for awesome homemade toy storage options for your home as well, just to get and keep things a little more organized? Check out this list of 15 of the very best ideas, designs, and tutorials that we came across in our search.
1. Stripped and upcycled wicker toy box on wheels
In the whole wide world of DIY, upcycling might be one of our very favourite elements of making things ourselves. There’s a lot of satisfaction in altering something old to give it a new lease on life! We’re sure you can imagine our excitement, then, when we came across this tutorial from While They Snooze that shows you how to strip down an old fashioned wicker toy box, transform it, and make yourself a new and renewed toy box with wheels on the bottom.
2. Wooden crate and cardboard pipe toy car parking garage
If the number one kind of toy lying around your floor and getting under your feet is toy cars then we’re pretty sure this next suggestion from Frugal Fun 4 Boys might just be the one for you! They show you how to cut lengths of cardboard tubing (like the kind you get at the end of a roll of toilet paper) and affix it inside a wooden crate turned on its end in order to make a funny little toy car parking garage. It’ll keep the cards organized and out of the way but also probably end up getting used in play too, so it’s really dual function!
3. Angled toy cubby shelf
Do your kids have a rather eclectic collection of toys that they often leave lying around, so you’re looking for something that will fit all kinds of things, be easy to work with, and hold quite a lot without taking up too much space? In that case, you just might be the perfect person to give this angled cubby shelf outlined step by step on Remodelaholic a try. Thy show you how to make it happen by altering the way you’d put together a regular pre-made bookshelf.
4. Kid-friendly coffee table with car tracks inside
Just in case we really caught your attention when we started talking about toy cars but you’re just not sure that the little parking garage is quite the idea for you, here’s another awesome storage solution for little wheeled toys that can also be incorporated into play! Check out how The Kim Six Fix pulled off the surprisingly simple process of turning a hollowed coffee table into one that has a play set of car tracks inside if you list the top off.
5. DIY easy-to-build stuffed toy wall swing
Rather than having toy cars scattered all over the floor, are your kids the kind who collect soft, cuddly stuffed toy and leave them all over the bed so they practically have to crawl into them just to sleep? Well, we’d be willing to bet that your little one won’t want to be too far away from their cuddly friends, so maybe you can compromise by making this adorable wooden stuffed toy wall swing! You’ll find the full steps for making one of your own on It’s Always Autumn.
6. Pocketed Barbie door organizer
If you’ve ever seen those pocketed plastic shoe organizers that hang on the backs of closet doors then you’ll already be familiar with the basic concept here! Instead of organizing shoes, however, A Girl and A Glue Gun shows you how to make one that’s perfectly sized for organizing dolls like Barbies. Learning how to make one from scratch rather than just re-purposing a store bought shoe organizer will help you create it in colours your kids actually like, so they’ll be a little more likely to use it.
7. Closet box for toy dresses
Did we actually really catch your attention with the idea of making something that will help with the storage of dolls specifically, but it’s really the dolls’ clothes that your kids have trouble remembering to put away or store nicely? Then here’s another fun DIY concept that will help you get things organized and give your kids something new to play with. Take a better look at the tutorial featured on Ana White to learn how this cute toy dress closet box was made.
8. DIY crate toy box with wheels and a cushion
Maybe it really appealed to you when we talked about transforming simple wooden crates into toy storage because you have some of those on hand, but your kids don’t tend to play with cars enough to warrant the parking garage we showed you? In that case, we think you might get a better kick out of the way This Little Street shows you how to turn your crates into cute painted toy boxes with wheels on the bottom for easy maneuvering and even cute upholstered cushions on top.
9. Wire rack and bucket outdoor toy organizer
Of course, kids’ toys don’t only make a mess inside the house; our kids have plenty of fun things that are often left scattered across the garage floor and all over the lawn too! That’s why we thought this outdoor toy storage shelf featured in detail on Domestic Charm was such a good idea. They even show you how to add the custom vinyl labels to the metal storage buckets with whatever organizational words you want on them.
10. Decorative painted and stacked wood crate toy cubbies
Are you feeling torn somewhere between using the wooden crates you’ve been seeking a craft for and creating some simple shelving that your kids might actually want to use? Then maybe this awesome cubby crates project from Smart Schoolhouse will be the perfect blend of concepts for you. Their tutorial shows you how to paint, stack, and affix the crates into a shelf in a way that can easily be customized beyond the six-cubby design you see here.
11. Custom but simple wooden board and moulding toy cubbies
If you’ve actually got a little more experience with simple furniture building and woodworking than the things we’ve shown you so far have called for and you’re not afraid of a small challenge, then maybe you’d prefer to make your own cubby shelf from scratch instead! The Handmade Home shows you how to make it happen using wooden boards and crown moulding pieces.
12. PVC pipe and basket bath toy organizer
So we’ve covered the kids’ rooms and the outside of the house in terms of toy clutter, but what about the bathroom? Our kids are notoriously huge tub time lovers but they’re also always leaving the toys scattered cross the bottom of the tub or the floor. That’s why, when we saw this awesome PVC pipe and plastic basket bath toy storage idea from The Inspired Home, we simply we knew we had to give it a try.
13. Under-the-bed faux drawer storage
Are you convinced that you’ll have to get a little bit creative with whatever kind of DIY toy storage you decided to make because you really don’t have that much space in your kids’ rooms to work with? Then maybe it’s time to take advantage of the space available under the bed! Rather than just stuffing things under there willy-nilly, keep them organized but accessible by using a small pre-made shelving kit and some unique assembly to make this faux drawer under-the-bed storage outlined in awesome detail on IKEA Hackers.
14. Bucket and zip tie tower
If you’re going to put in the time and effort it takes to make some kind of awesome homemade toy storage solution rather than just buying something pre-made, would you rather make it really unique looking and fun in order to encourage your kids to actually use it? In that case, you just might be the perfect person to give this awesome toy tower from Grosgrain Fab a try! Their tutorial shows you how to make it happen in clear detail using plastic buckets and zip ties, all strategically placed.
15. Wall mounted wire trash can toy baskets
Are your kids a little bit taller or primarily playing and putting things away when you’re around to help them? Well, if you’re really looking to get toy clutter up off the floor but in a way that’s budget friendly, then you might really appreciate the way Dcoracao turned simple wire trash cans from the dollar store into wall-mounted toy storage quite quickly and easily. This tutorial is actually written in Portuguese, but a browser like Google Chrome will have extensions to automatically translate it for you, and it’s very easy to follow regardless of what language you read it in!
Have you created other handy DIY toy storage solutions in your own home that you were very happy with indeed and still use today but that you don’t see here on our list? Tell us all about what you created and how you did it or link us to photos of your crafty storage solution in action!
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