Let's Organize It! - Labeling Kids Toys (and other everyday items)

One area of the home I like to think I keep pretty organized is Bubba's play area. Almost every group of toys has it's own bin and "home" in the room.

 I say almost, because we do have a couple random items (like his new Hulk gloves) that don't really have a designated spot. {I like to call these toys floaters. They wind up in the play room on the top of the cube (storage shelf), in his bedroom in toy box, or in the family room in the miscellaneous bin.}

Anyway, when it comes to his toys, I'm kind of anal about how they are organized. Really. And it's started to rub off on him...for example, if you were to put a dinosaur in the bin with his cars, he would say, "No! No dinosaur there. It go here." 

So last year I tried labeling his toy bins with cards that had pictures and words on them. It was a great idea, but they didn't last long. Between Bubba, and his little buddies, most of the cards were torn to pieces. 

Now that Bubba is a bit older (and I'm all about organizing this year), I decided to give these cards another try. 

I printed out pictures of the items in his bins and for his larger toys - I wanted to label where everything belongs, so when it's time to clean up he knows where to put it back. I pasted the pictures to 3x5 index cards and wrote the name of the toy, or the group of toys (i.e. Dress Up). 

I let Little Man help me pick out the pictures we used. Some of them are exact matches to the things we have, while others are just random - like the shopping cart with the world inside of it. 

Here is what I did different this time:

I used my new handy dandy laminator! {An awesome Christmas gift from Hubby...he sure knows the way to this girls heart}

If you don't have one, I suggest you invest in it! I am obsessed already! 

I used 5 Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, to laminate 25 cards. {I admit I may have gone a little too far, I went walking around the house to find other things I could make cards for, just so I could use the laminator.}

Then cut them out, let Bubba punch a whole in the top, and I tied them onto the handles of the bins.

Or used painters tape, and taped them on the wall above the toy's home.

I also made a few labels for other household items like, recycling, toothbrush/toothpaste, shoes, and.....

his dresser drawers. 

  

Complete with a nice picture of the inside of each drawer. So helpful, I know.

Happy Organizing!