Sam's birthday is fast approaching, and looking at the stash of gifts has been bought, I fear his toys may take over the house completely! I want to get him a toy box and was thinking of something bright for his room, where we can keep some toys and then just some big baskets / wicker chests for downstairs where most of his toys will be. Then I can rotate as and when. Just wondered though what worked well in terms of keeping toys where and by what means for you with your LO(s)? As they grow, are more toys stored upstairs than downstairs? Should I get child friendly storage for downstairs too so he can (hopefully) start tidying things himself when a bit older? By child friendly I mean non slam lids and stuff, but should I buy something for downstairs that would look ok if / when we transfer it to his bedroom? I'm a bit lost!

I've gradually started storing more and more in F's bedroom because I wanted my living room back! We have a tv cabinet which has four little drawers in so I keep a number of toys like cars, trains, etc in there so that he can get them out and play with. His toot toy garage and music keyboard are also kept in the living room and his car mat it rolled up and kept behind the sofa. In his bedroom, he's got some of the Ikea Expedit furniture together with some canvas storage boxes. He can generally drag them off the shelves himself so I make sure they're not filled too heavy or anything. He'll often tell me which you'd he wants to bring downstairs/upstairs.

Ours is all downstairs at the moment, although I think some of the smaller things like Lego will have to go upstairs soon to keep them out of Naomi's way. We have two of the stepped Ikea Trofast units, one in the lounge and one in the conservatory, with a few other things stored on or under the sideboard and a pink bucket for Naomi's toys and a huge bookshelf for books, games and puzzles.

Great, thanks both, I'll check out your Ikea storage stuff too, some nice looking but kid friendly bits would be useful.

WG - I know what you mean, it isn't too bad atm, but as he grows, so do his toys - both in size and number!

I am currently looking at our huge book shelf, currently full of our books and DVDs, and wondering if we will get shifted out by Sam's books and games over time!

We have an expedit unit from ikea in our living room. Its got 8 boxes in it full of toys.  The kids have one each in their rooms too - can't beat them for storage imo

We have one of these: www.notonthehighstreet.com/.../dinosaur-toy-box-and-desk it lives downstairs at the moment but when we move and sort stuff out, hopefully it'll be going into his room. We also have those £3 folding black and grey crates that you can find everywhere... like these: www.amazon.co.uk/.../ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2 but I'm pretty sure we got ours from either Homebase or Wilkos. Also downstairs! Upstairs is just bed, nappy stuff and clothes at the moment.

A has two of the lower shelves in our Billy bookcases for his books as well x

I've got these old cube bookcases and found that the Kusiner boxes from IKEA fitted into them perfectly. I've organised it to one Kusiner drawer to one type of toy and then rotate them between downstairs and the playroom. I've still got loads of toys under my feet so I will have to get more of those Kusiner boxes at some point!

We have one of these www.argos.co.uk/.../9120400.htm and 2 small square ones in the conservatory, really handy for extra seating, and loads of storage space, upstairs they have plastic stacking boxes in our old wardrobes.

This is something we have had to think about. Adopted children come with toys etc and we'll obviously get some gifts and buy some toys ourselves. We have bought an ikea shelving unit with 4 storage boxes and 4 shelves for books and DVD's which is in the dining room. We have bought a massive wicker chest for the lounge and the rest will have to go upstairs! I'll rotate everything as best I can but we have relatives who's whole lounge is full of toys, a lot of which arent age appropriate (baby toys etc), and there's no where to put things away.

How us S nearly 1?! Where did that time go?!!

We've just moved house and a friend gifted us their son's old storage unit. It's similar in concept to the ikea expedit stuff but with 6 big wooden cube drawers instead. They're painted different shapes of blue and it looks fab in O's room. He also has a rack with O fabric baskets in primary colours that we got from Argos. Downstairs we have his toy kitchen, happy land rocket, car transporter and then a pop up bin style toy box with a few of his smaller bits and pieces. It was all under control until this Xmas just gone...The toys really do get bigger and more plentiful as they get older *weep*

We also have expedit. I had managed to remove all toys from living room until no3 came along!

Just checked and its the expedite we bought too. Four empty shelves and four with boxes.

I know this is obviously just a plan, but I can't stand clutter, so am planning to use the bottom row of boxes on the expedit in the nursery for toy storage.  Then there will be a single box for toys in the living room on the lowest shelf on the bookshelf and they can be switched out with upstairs toys.  And any toys that don't fit into this space will be packed away in the loft, or give a way to charity.  Kids have sooooo many toys these days.  The only exception I could see me making would be if there's one toy that's too big to fit into a box it could live somewhere else, but we don't have a big house and I don't want it getting overrun.

Ah well, I guess this is probably just the naive plans of a first time mother to be!

my eldest is 4 years old and I'm still looking for the perfect solution to toy storage!!!  The toys just get bigger and more plentiful every year!  Both girls have toys in their bedrooms in flexi tubs and plastic stacking boxes, but everywhere I turn there are prams, dolls, dolls houses, train sets .... I could go on.

If anybody has any images of their storgae solutions I'd love to see them, for inspiration :)

Thank you all very much, this has been really useful, and it sounds like Ikea do well out of us families!! I think I might get one of those for his room, and some baskets for downstairs that he can access easily. It sounds like the toy situation gets bigger and badder by the year!

Coco - I know, I can't believe he is on the cusp of being a one year old!! Hope you, O and bump are all well x