Why Big Toy Boxes Don’t Work (and Everything I Know About Storage)

Making Space for Family Life (and Yourself)

Photo by Didssph on Unsplash

What toy rotation, trays and 149L storage boxes taught me about creativity, motherhood and making space for the life I want.

There is so much I do on a regular basis to make 2 children, 2 adults and 2 cats living in a 2-bed West London garden flat work, and being smart about toys is one of them.

On average I have to declutter and switch things around every three months. I never want to, and I often do it in a rage. Like last month, when our electrics went and they had to drill holes in the ceiling and everything in every room was thick with dust. To start with I was resentful of having to deep clean, and wash and wipe and sort so much stuff, but by the end of the week I had done a brilliant declutter and reorganisation, if I do say so myself.

Recognising when you need to make space

Sometimes, I’ll know it’s coming. I’ll start writing problems in my Morning Pages. Lists will appear of things to sort. I’ll be sketching solutions. Then I’ll wake up with an urge (usually in my spring phase after my period) and I’ll make it happen.

Just like clearing out a cupboard, writing clears space in my head. That’s why every Monday I host a free Morning Pages writing hour — it’s amazing what it can unlock. I’d love to see you there at 11am (UK time).

It’s needed, this mental and physical decluttering. They’re connected. It’s part of the creative process. An excavation into who we are and what we want. That’s probably why it happens once a quarter, with the turn of the seasons and the equinox. The need to make space, to see our truth and desires, to manifest what we want to invite into our lives.

Don’t buy a fancy big toy box

Unless you have loads of space don’t buy a big expensive wooden toy chest, unless Dragons of Walton Street have done your interiors. Why? Because every little thing gets thrown in and thrown out, and you will spend your life picking up hundreds of toys everyday that no-one is playing with. Because it’s overwhelming and boring for them and you.

Toy rotation

My mum, Sarah Beeson MBE was a health visitor of author of Happy Baby, Happy Family. She said you to have a few toys out that are the current favourite to play with. After a week so you’ll notice no-one is playing with the Farm House anymore, and the cows and sheep are gathering dust under the table and sofa cushions. Then you put it away and bring out something fresh to play with.

Old toys are like out of the box gifts from Hamley’s to children if they haven’t seen them for few months.

Sarah Beeson MBE and Amy Beeson, Buckingham Palace, 2006 xx

Trays = Sanity

An excellent tip my mum gave me is to have a few big trays. I’m not talking those expensive Montessori sensory play type things with legs. Just regular easy to wipe trays. I have three my mum bought me. Two are melamine probably from Dunelm, and other is a really big frosted plastic one that I think she got in IKEA.

Whether it’s play dough or Lego getting your kids to do an activity on the floor or table on a tray means it keeps it contained. So making space at dinner time is really easy and doesn’t create extra clearing up for you. You can move it to one-side without spoiling their fun.

N.B. These trays are also excellent for breakfast in bed and a cheeky dinner on the sofa watching telly. I store them upright down the side of the kitchen dresser.

Toy Library

We have wooden floor to ceiling bookcases that run the length of the flat. They were here when we bought it from a bachelor academic in 2008 (did you see us on Location, Location, Location?). They’re currently a third bags, shoes, coats, gloves and hats storage (I will come back to this in another post if you like,) a third childhood ornaments, board games and books. (This is a fraction of our books and again, if you’re a bookworm I have tips). The final third is a toy library.

Our toy library consists of seven shelves of clear plastic boxes with themed toys in them. Even the kids who come here on playdates know that you can choose one or two boxes to get down and play with, but, before you get another one down, you have to put all the toys back in the box. And generally they do.

Meaning I’m not spending 45 minutes picking up toys from every corner of the house. Things more or less stay in their sets and it works beautifully alongside toy rotation. And I can confidently say, both my girls’ friends love coming to play here. It’s the fun house but we have clear boundaries. It makes for lovely secure experiences, and gives them an element of control and responsibility.

As the kids age what is in the boxes changes but the system stays the same. Lids are essential to keep things tidy and dust free. In the early days I got those clear lidded boxes from IKEA but I prefer these bankers boxes. They’re sturdier and stack well. I buy the 4 packs of 10 L ones from Amazon. (I don’t like to use Amazon too much but that’s the truth, that’s where I got them).

Utilise Luggage

Tapping into the toy rotation idea, I have a Trunki suitcase and connecting Trunki storage boxes that are also on wheels. They also make excellent train carriages during imaginary play, and are extra seating in the house or garden when you have a lot of little people over for parties. I bought a branded London 2012 Olympics Trunki Suitcase and the Trunki Toy boxes a year later. I don’t think Trunki make them anymore but you can still get them online. I did a quick Google search and found them on eBay and Amazon.

Why I ditched the wicker hampers

I was keeping all their dressing up in F&M Hampers but I’ve given up on the fantasy of this. They never went back in very well and the kids found it cumbersome and it was always me that ended up doing the tidying. I’ve now got those clothes storage boxes you can slip under their beds for dressing up from IKEA. We’ve have the PÄRKLA storage case in very boring white with an orange trim. If you want to spend an extra £15 there are some nice striped ones at Dunlem. I like the Olive ones.

Whilst we’re on the subject of dressing up. There are a few favourite items that we dress the room with on fancy hangers, or have on coat hooks on the back of the kids bedroom door. Again depending on the season and their interests this changes. It’s rarely the beautiful ballerina tutu you spent a fortune on they want to dress up in, and usually the tiger onesie they made you buy them in a garden centre.

I’ve also taken all the stuffed animals and dolls off their beds and asked them to pick out their current favourites and stored the rest. I rotate these too.

149 Litre Big Lockable Storage Boxes

Two principles here, one is toy rotation, and the other is big items like dolls houses gather dust. I store these like I do the Christmas decorations in huge Form Skyda Heavy duty Black 149L Plastic Nesting Wheeled Storage trunks that I got in B&Q. They’re weather proof and stackable, and because they’re on wheels you can just push them.

If you have a cellar and a small garden these keep everything dry and dust free. I do also have a few of the smaller ones; you can stack two of on top of a big one. This works for less bulky toys; I don’t want to be rooting around to locate a Sylvannian Families baby mouse like it’s a pick n mix.

I should label them but it’s only me who gets them in and out and I roughly know what’s in what. We have two with Sylvannian houses and workplaces, many of which were gifts from Father Christmas when I was little. My Little Pony castles, all the beach and playground sand and water game type things, and a huge Play Mobil dolls house. Also Lego, but Lego is going to get it’s own headline.

What To Do With All The Lego

My husband is always telling me Lego is more valuable kept in it’s original box but I really don’t care.

We have at least 20 Lego sets, more than half of it is Harry Potter. It all fits into one 149L storage box. How? Because once they built it and it was gathering dust I took it, and it’s little book too, and popped it all in a drawstring bag (mine are plastic but cloth would be much nicer) and put them away in a storage box. You could equally get that plastic carrier bag that’s holding another thirty plastic bags and knot the top. If you were really canny you’d label them. I have the labels but not the willpower.

My eldest pointed out recently that when it’s time to dismantle and put away a Lego sets, it would be good to break them up into smaller bags of the sections so she can rebuild it more easily. We repurposed nappy bags and poo bags to do just that before returning them to the drawstring bag.

Really Big Stuff

We have a few play things that take up a lot of space. A Pikler triangle and two slides, a wobble board, a teepee and a garage.

Since we got a garden pod (would you like to know about that too?) these are finally out of the kitchen-sitting room and in the pod. My books are stored on the open shelves of the two BILLY / OXBERG bookcases with doors in black oak effect from IKEA. I can testify that the cupboard just fits a folded Sawdust and Rainbows Pikler Triangle. Each slide leans up against the side of the bookcase.

The teepee is folded and in the corner behind my office drawers, the wobble board and garage are under my desk. The Cannon printer fits snugly under the wobble board. One of my desk drawers is full of Duplo and another has a lot of colouring pens and craft paper. These are Stackable PP Storage Drawers of different sizes I bought in Muji a long time ago.

We have another couple of the 149 litre black boxes at the back of the pod and a garden bench that has deep storage. It’s not the prettiest but is very practical for our family’s current needs. We got the Keter Eden Bench 265L Outdoor Garden Storage Box in Grey from Argos but I saw Wayfairer have a fiver off it as well. You can put a padlock on the bench seat to keep items secure.

Flexible Seating

When my eldest was little I bought an Ottoman to be a Toy Box and a seat, but unfortunately it just resulted in her scattering the entire contents of the box everywhere, everyday. The Ottoman is now a window seat in our bedroom and we bring it out for guests when we have parties, but it mainly is filled with vacuum packed clothes that are out of season or waiting to be sold on Vinted.

My husband

Takbir

very cleverly made an L shaped dining bench which has four really big pull out drawers and a deep storage box. It doesn’t have kids toys in it, but it has a lot of stuff we only use for parties which doesn’t need to be taking up space in the kitchen cupboards. He also upholstered it himself in green velvet. I’m still waiting for him to build the back and get to work on a new floor to ceiling unit for the telly so if you could give him a nudge and tell him I do find it very attractive when he builds stuff, that would be great. My own Dad loved DIY but he couldn’t even put up a shelf straight.

Drop Box

Sort of for toys, also for the current favourite teddy, school bags, ballet kit etc and my yoga mat. I have a couple of cheap IKEA foldable cubes in the corner of each room. It’s an “I don’t want this just left out but I know you need to come back to it to get stuff” kinda box. It keeps items contained and discoverable when you’re heading out the door.

Why do we have to spend our time doing this?

All of this is done out of love. I want our children to have happy memories, and lovely experiences and pass down my toys and keep some for their children. But we don’t have a lot of space. I used to send things down to my Mum to keep for me. The 149 litre black boxes were purchased in a buying frenzy when we suddenly had to clear out all my mum’s things when she unexpectedly died.

All these things are part of our life, our evolving story of our family. Sometimes, I feel so hemmed in by all the things, but making decisions about what to keep and how to keep it helps give me some control and clarity on where we are right now.

You do have to go through everything and chuck all the broken stuff and accumulated crap every few weeks. Family life is brimming with detritus, from Happy Meals to party bags, but that’s just life.

It’s often frustrating, the organising of four people’s belongings. Sometimes, when I’m picking up all their crap, I feel annoyed that so much of my time, energy and money is spent on this. But then there are other times, like when I was pregnant and I created a ledger of all the baby things. I’d fold them and put them into drawers, so happy and looking forward to the times ahead.

That’s what I’m doing when I write or reorganise our home. I’m making space for the life we have now and the life approaching. I’m welcoming it in with hope and love and gratitude. It’s not perfect, it’s never going to be, but it’s ours and you make the best you can with the resources you have.

Now is the time of your life

My mum used to say to me, you have to think, “Now is the time of your life,” whatever phase you’re in. And she was so wise, so loving. Because after two and a half years I can finally say it is. Because when I lost her, it was the worst, I wanted my old life back so very badly. It’s been such a difficult path, but family and friends and the writing community I’m part of it got me through it. I had to make space to let all the new things in.

What do you do?

Making space isn’t only about shelves and boxes — it’s about carving out room for the life we want to create. If you’d like to explore that with me, you’re welcome to join my free Morning Pages writing hour every Monday at 11am in term-time, or come be part of my community on Substack — I Need To Finish This Before I Die.

Maybe I’ll see you on Monday?

Love

Amy x

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Amy Beeson is an author, brand creative and host of writing community events and storytelling workshops in London and online.