Works For Me Wednesday ~ What DOESN'T Work For Me : Toy Storage

It's been a while since I participated in Kristen's Works For Me Wednesday blog carnival.  This week (and every first Wednesday of the month), WFMW has a theme.  The theme for this week is:  What DOESN'T Work For Me. 

It didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to share today:  Toy Storage.  I'm sure many of you can relate to my problem, especially after Christmas, but I'm hoping for some suggestions on how to solve my Toy Storage issues. 

For Grace's first Birthday, my parents bought Grace a KidKraft toy box from CSN Stores.  We love it, but since it's deep, Grace had a tough time reaching some smaller toys that would fall to the bottom of the toy box.  So, I started to look for something to organize and store her smaller toys. 

I thought that this 12-bin organizer from Target would be perfect.  We picked it up when it was on sale and I thought my toy storage problems would be solved! 

It sure looks cute filled with Grace's toys, doesn't it?  Well, it only looks like this for a couple minutes a day.  Usually, during naptime. 

This is how it looks like after our little monster discovers that someone had put her toys away! Notice how she doesn't settle for just the toys being removed from the bins?  She also insists on pulling the bins from the rack! 

I'm sure that the 12-bin organizer will work for us when she's a bit older.  Right now, she's all about emptying everything and having all of her toys OUT where she can see them!  She's only 20 months old, so I'm hoping that this is just a phase.  (Please tell me that this is just a phase!) 

We originally set her toys up in our small dining room since we didn't have a table in that room.  For Christmas, I decided to move our table into the dining room so I relocated Grace's toys to the hallway off of the kitchen.  We have 2 front entrances to our home, this hallway is the front entrance that we NEVER use, so I thought that un-used space would be a perfect spot for Grace's toy box and toy bins.  That last photo, you can see her toys spilling into the kitchen.  Good thing we have another doorway to the kitchen! 

I really like having a table in the dining room now.  The room is so small, though, that all that fits in there is the dining room table and chairs.  It won't work to keep her toys and the table in there. 

After Santa delivered a bunch of new toys, plus all of the wonderful presents given to Grace from her grandparents and her many aunts and uncles, the small hallway isn't going to work for much longer! 

I talked to Joe about turning our small spare bedroom into a playroom for Grace.  We live in a rancher and this small bedroom is the closest bedroom off of the living room.  I think it would be perfect for her toys and hopefully will be easier to keep the mess toys contained in that room and teach her to just bring out one toy at a time.  Currently, we end up with toys everywhere through the house.  Sometimes I find toys in the bathroom!  Not sure how that happens since we keep that door closed all the time for safety reasons! 

The first step in transforming that small room into Grace's playroom will be emptying that room of all the junk and clutter that ends up in there!  After that, Joe wants to insulate the walls before we paint.  I'm hoping that we can get the project done before Grace's birthday in four months.  But in reality, I'm not sure how much we'll get done due to time and money restraints. 

I saw a shelf on the Ikea website that I think I want for the room and I'm hoping to get to Ikea soon to "window shop" for some ideas. 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to read about them in the comments section!