I attacked the toys and Legos the second I started feeling better last week. I worked a little bit every day, and by Wednesday I finished anchoring the bookcase to the wall and installing the doors. The right door was still falling open when it was time to take pictures, but I’ve fixed it since then and everything is flush and even.
Ta-dah! Party on top, business on the bottom. It’s a toy mullet. IKEA doors now come with magnetic closures that I elected to ignore. I’ll install cute door knobs at a later date.
Here is the interior of the glass portion of the bookcase, which is an extra-deep Billy from IKEA. Dinosaurs on top, keepsakes in the middle, and the boys’ prized rock and fossil collection on the bottom shelf.
This is our favorite shelf. The rocks are all ones they collected on walks with my mom. The fossils are ones she bought for them at museums with the exception of three, which are from a student of hers who was studying paleontology. (A female student–huzzah!) When the student found out Mikey (then 5 years old) wanted to be a paleontologist and collected dinosaurs, she gave him some fossils from her collection. He was so excited he made her a card with pictures of dinosaurs. She wrote him again, and that letter has been in his room every since. It’s folded up under the plastic jar, which is where he keeps the fossils. You can read the letter here. (Wouldn’t it be something if years from now they meet and put two-and-two together?)
Lego storage! The bottom/hidden portion of the bookcase is where all the Legos, games, and miscellaneous toys go.
Here is a breakdown of the toys and how they are organized. It doesn’t look like a lot of toys for two boys–at least I don’t think so! First, I still have to go through the closet, so there is a lot more to add/purge/organize. Big stuff, like Hot Wheels tracks, that will have to stay in the closet. Second, we try to emphasize outdoor activities and creative play, and are lucky to have neighborhood kids–who go to school with the boys–with parents who share the same philosophy. Hey, it’s good for them and it’s cheap for the parents! The four of them run between the two houses and spend a lot of time riding bikes, playing wiffle ball, or acting out really complicated skits that involve handcuffs they make from paper. (Because it looks cool when the hero explodes! out of them.)
When that fails there are Legos and video games, although video games are a last result because they always end up fighting. Never fails.
Here is a close up of what I used to store the Legos. Can you guess what I used? Those are catering containers from Smart & Final. You know, the kind you see at salad bars? I wanted something clear, easy to open/close, stackable, and bigger than the standard organization boxes and cubes I found in stores and online since the bookcase is extra-deep. I also wanted unique sizes since I knew we’d have more of some colors. These met all my requirements and the price couldn’t be beat–I think they were between $6-$12 a piece, but don’t quote me. I spent far less than $100 for all of them, and I still have a shoe box size and a jumbo size that I haven’t used.
Note the absence of labels. That’s why I wanted clear boxes. I wanted no excuses from the boys at clean-up time and, while I know some people fan themselves at the opportunity to use their label maker or Cricut, I’m not one of them. I will never cut letters out of coordinating scrapbook paper and mod-podge them to containers. More power to those who do! No judgment, just an admission that my strengths/interests lay elsewhere.
We’ll see how this goes. We have never organized Legos by color before. Prior to this, we’ve always been of the “one big bucket” variety. Once the boys started getting more sets, that system failed. So far, Mikey loves this system. I mean loves it. He loves it so much he actually said to me, “Mom, I really like the Legos organized like this.” Nico agreed, and then they spent two hours watching movies and organizing Legos.
You could have knocked me over with one of their feathers. In the two years I have been cleaning up our home–their rooms especially–never have they proactively complimented one of my systems. Fingers crossed.
This post was part of The William Morris Project, a weekly series that details the steps I am taking to create an intentional home. You can see more of my goals and completed projects here. To learn more about this project, start here.
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Well done. Lego storage is the bane of my existence. Well, maybe not that bad, but pretty close. We also have clear containers and they are *supposed to be* organized by color. I have labels, but also not into the label maker – mine are masking tape + sharpie variety. Also, I’m cheering your outdoor and creative play philosophy. Keep it up, girl!
I think organizing the Legos by color is pretty genius. We always did the one big box system, and they never played with them as much as I hoped they would. And clear containers are the way to go. I have vowed never to buy any other kind ever again. I think your shelf looks great, and it looks like it will work great, too. Must feel good to have this part done!
Very nice.
Evan though my son is 18, he still has about 8 bins of Legos. Beware, they start multiplying at night.of course, now they’re stored in our barn….
I have a question, love the ikea cabinet, are the doors, the top glass? Or acrylic?
I couldn’t put them together, you’re very clever.
They are glass on top. Shatter proof, of course.
So thrilled to be the first commenter to express my joy at the phrase “toy mullet”! It made my heart dance, and I feel certain it will soon attain Jules classic status.
Our new bookcase is a reverse mullet, if you will. My books piled more-or-less neatly on the top three shelves, and M’s toys exploded all over the bottom two. At 18 months he’s not quite ready for clean up duty, at least not without extreme oversight, but when he is I love your salad container plan.
P.S. I just read the letter from Mikey’s fossil friend and it’s just about the sweetest thing ever. I’m glad he treasures it.
My boy is days away from high school graduation. Fossils, rocks, dinosaurs! I remember so well! Who would have thought this post would make someone cry!
I second the Toy Mullet phrase. Good one! So, I don’t want to sound like a finger-wagging ninny-head, but given the incident of last week with one of the young-ones, are you worried about the glass and/or height of the cabinet? I’ve got a similar size, (glass top, shelves bottom) in my living room and I hold my breath every time my kids stomp past it.
You mean because Nico is an accident prone klutz? ;) Great question. I anchored the bookcase to the wall–it can’t budge. I live in earthquake county (sorry, don’t know if you’re in so-Cal, too– this might be redundant!) so I take precautions with any tall cabinet with anchor systems and use my trusty QuakeHold on the contents inside. Not everything, of course. The rocks can move around, but the previous items–their hand/foot impressions–are affixed with QuakeHold.
Remember when it first became popular to rest pictures instead of hanging them? I did that once–and then we had an earthquake and it flew off the mantel and crashed to the ground, sending glass everywhere. Never again.
Hmm. You know, now that I think of it, I’m going to install those magnetic closures along with the cute knobs as an extra precaution. I’ve never had a door fly open during an earthquake, but better to be safe than sorry.
Oh yeah! I sort of forgot about the earthquake thing since I live in mostly earthquake-less Michigan. Excellent, I’m always on the lookout for Nico :-)
Oh, and lego storage in those containers? Brilliant!
Legos are the best and the worst. We have a 9 drawer IKEA trofast FILLED with Legos organized by color with one accordion file filled with instructions (sorted by theme) and a head box of mini figs and their bits and ends.
“It’s a toy mullet.” BEST. sentence I’ve read all day. I’m still laughing.
As for your organization – I LOVE it. And I love the simplicity of their toys. And if I had kids, I’d totally be copying this. In fact, I don’t have kids and I’m pinning it anyway (when Pinterest starts working for me again – arg!) because I want to remember it. If not for some non-existant small fry, for me. :)
First, I know I’m in the majority when I say that we need to Twitter the heck out of Toy Mullet and get that thing to trend. LOL. Best ever! I love these organizational posts. I read a million design blogs a day and when I read these William Morris posts I am always so pleasantly surprised (but I shouldn’t be, based on your other posts) that your solutions are always practical and non-judgmental (of yourself or anyone else who would have made different choices). You’re one of a kind, Jules! :)
YES! Heading to Twitter now.
This is great! I have a little boy who operates very much like this, so I’m actually pinning the boy museum for future reference.
And, can I say, we have a LEGO problem, but the collection actually belongs to my husband? It’s something we all enjoy, but storage is always a problem. Right now, it’s taking up half of the guest closet. One of these days, we’ll figure out a solution that’s a little less problematic, but for now, I’m not tripping on it.
My husband has the same toy mullet in his home office — but in birch. He’s been trying to convince me that we need a similar piece for our son’s room & hoarder collections, but I’ve been resistant (mostly because his room is so small). But now you’re seriously getting me to reconsider….
Toy Mullet!! hehe – love it!
I’m so in love with the clear, food storage containers for toy storage. My girls don’t have a lot of legos but they make up for it in Barbie, American Girl, Strawberry Shortcake and Hello Kitty. I think these are brilliant for keeping stuff sorts and easy to use.
Another GREAT job, Jules!
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