I find that, while little kids have some toys that are tall, many toys aren't THAT tall. And so w/ cubes (and the kindergarten cubbies), there are big gaps above the toys. That meant, less space, or stuff crammed into the gaps. So I used shelves--one a bookcase, and one wall-mounted w/ adjustable brackets. And I spaced them strategically. Some close together, some spaced farther apart. So that there was very little "headroom," and the stuff fit into the cubbies better. Also, I had an array of these Sterilite drawers, the 16-quart size. I liked them bcs the drawer became a "box" that could be carried around, or simply set on the floor for fast filling, and then the stuff could be carried to the frame and slid into place. Also, if a certain category of toy needed to be put int he basement (rotated out or back in for variety, or removed for punishment), I could simply wrap the thing once in tape to hold the drawer in place, and carry it to the basement. Another thing I liked is that the toys didn't get dusty or gritty. NYC has soot that settles (yes, we all breathe it), and sticks, and has to be scrubbed off--it's not just white dust. So I liked that stuff was kept clean, from both regular dust and our stuff. We had different drawers: -the airplane drawer; -the food drawer (w/ plastic food & dishes); -the Barbies drawer (and yes, we filled the drawer completely and then some; the secret it to lay them face down, they nest better for some reason); -the animals drawer -the horses drawer (bcs there were more horses, and they got played w/ at separate times) -the Lincoln Logs drawer you get the picture. One thing about these drawers, they hold a lot, but sometimes they hold a little TOO much; stuff on the bottom may not come out. But mostly, they worked great. Even my toddler son was able and willing to put things away there. Big trucks didn't go there, of course, but anything w/ multiple parts. Or small things (like the airplanes) that could be considered to be part of a larger, multipart collection. I stacked them too high, though (4 wide, 4 high); I wouldn't stack them more than 3 high, bcs the sides of the frames will start to bow from the weight. Were I to do it again, I'd build a support to go in the middle of the stack. I also put the shoebox-size of those drawers on the shelves themselves (sometimes as the supports) to hold other stuff: -cassette tapes in one -modeling clay in another. CRAYONS AND MARKERS I came up w/ a slightly counterintuitive way to store these. Especially markers. I keep them in shallow drawers. The secret is to NEVER let them slide off the end of the stack so that they tip, pointing up and getting caught. That means they have to just fit in their storage space, w/ no sliding lengthwise. I got those extra-small three-drawer plastic chests--smaller even than the 1791, I think--and found that the markers lay crossways in the drawers EXACTLY. Not...

Right now, we are using just about everything as a toy box. We have 4 of the generic plastic totes (30 gallon or more) these hold big things mostly, like the tonka trucks, etc. One is dedicated just for dress up clothes, purses, costumes, etc. We also have one of those 3 shelf dealies with all the bins. I don't really like it, becase it is hard to get to the thing in the lower bins and almost impossible to remove the lower bins with out first raising up the ones on top. We also have a doll sized cradle that is big enough to hold all my girls' baby dolls in an attractive way. However my favorite storage spaces are the book cases and dressers in my son's room. He has a small dresser inside his closet for clothes along with the bar, so all his clothing is there. He has one bookcase with all his stuffed animals on top, trophies and banks on top shelf and the other 3 shelves with books and puzzles. His desk drawers hold all his video games, play doh, and Leap Frog stuff (OUT OF SIGHT). A third shelf has 3 shelfs (holding all videos, flash cards, learning materials and it also has 3 drawers which hold hot wheels, action figues, and race tracks respectively (AGAIN out of sight!) I love walking into his room and not having toys everywhere, the drawers are my favorite! I would recommend a low dresser ( where your child can reach all) that is not top heavy with easy to open drawers...makes the bedroom or playroom look SO much neater when clean!

We live in a single wide mobile home and will until we have the second income and then we'll get a little bigger house (DH and I really just want a ranch with a basement so he and I can have our "hobby" rooms instead of my craft stuff being hidden all over the house! LOL) Our kid's stuff is ALL in their bedrooms. We have learned to only keep the toys that are played with. I have also become more careful about the toys we bring in the house so we're not just blowing money on junk nobody will touch and then I'll end up tossing. In DS's room, he has bins that fit under the bed with toys in them and also things across his top shelf in the closet and I had DH put three shelves in the corner of his closet. DD's room has bins under the bed, along with her Graco doll stroller and Barbie house (it folds up and is really skinny). In her closet, she has a small shelving unit on the one side with toys (clothesbasket on one holds her dolls and special stuffed animals, Dora house, smaller bins with her Littlest Pet Shop, Barbie and Polly Pocket things). We also bought her a 'pantry' cupboard that holds her books, all her art stuff, her jewelry and hair stuff and some other things. Everything is picked up and put away in it's place. When the kids were little and I did have like baby stuff in the living room, I "hid" stuff in other things that fit in with the room and nobody would really know there were toys in there. Also, when we had our old coffee table, I had one of those wicker laundry baskets that fit underneath the table and had the baby toys in it. It was out in the open but cleaned up :)

We did go with Ikea, the expedit. I LOVE them! I keep bugging DH to go back and get a couple more for our basement. I think they are great storage. I did think about using some of my DR furniture for storage and keeping it, but I just didn't think it would work for me. There are doors they make for the Expedits and some people paint them. There are amazing pics all over pinterest. I saved some to my playroom board and have it linked below, but there are so many good ideas. Here is a link that might be useful: Playroom pics