Key points
- Sort toys by size first, then pick a bin that fits each pile.
- Open tubs and drawers suit the toys children put away themselves.
- The CPSC warns that lids on storage chests and trunks can latch shut and trap a child inside.
- Sets with small parts belong in a lidded bin on a shelf above a toddler's reach.
Sort by size before you buy a single bin
Start on the floor, not in the store. Tip the toys out and make piles by size: pieces smaller than your palm, sets with many flat parts, big soft toys and balls, and art supplies. The piles tell you how many bins of each size you need. They also show why one giant box fails, because the toy a child wants always ends up at the bottom and everything above it lands on the rug.
Match each pile to a bin by shape. Small pieces go in low boxes, flat sets in shallow ones, balls in open tubs, and supplies that get used every day in drawers. Measure the shelf or the closet floor first, then compare it with the outside sizes of the bins you have in mind.
| Bin | Capacity | Outside size | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snaplock 6 Qt Small Clear Bin | 6 qt (1.5 gal) | 13.62 x 8.25 x 4.75 in | Small figures, toy cars, puzzle pieces |
| 6 Qt Clear Storage Tote | 6 qt (1.5 gal) | 13.6 x 8.2 x 4.7 in | One small set, sold singly |
| Snaplock 12 Qt Small Clear Bin | 12 qt (3 gal) | 16.25 x 11 x 5.62 in with the lid on | Board games, craft paints, building sets |
| Snaplock 28 Qt Clear Bin | 28 qt (7 gal) | 23.5 x 16.125 x 6 in | Toys laid out in one layer, dress-up clothes |
| 18 Gallon Rope-Handle Utility Tub | 72 qt (18 gal) | 21.5 x 21.5 x 16.25 in | Balls, plush toys, big trucks |
| 4-Drawer Rolling Storage Tower | 4 drawers | 12.5 x 14.25 x 25.5 in | Crayons, stickers, card games |
Small pieces in low clear bins
Figures, toy cars, doll shoes and puzzle pieces disappear in a tall bin. A low one keeps them in a single layer where a child can see them. Our Snaplock 12-quart bin stands about 5.62 inches tall on a 16.25 by 11 inch footprint, and its smooth inside walls let a board game sit square against the sides.
For even smaller sets, the Snaplock 6-quart bin measures about 13.62 by 8.25 by 4.75 inches and comes in sets of 10, 20 or 40. Lids come in blue, gray, white and clear, so each child or each kind of toy can have a color of its own. If one or two boxes are all a shelf needs, the 6-quart clear tote is sold singly and stacks with others added later.
Snaplock lids press onto the base and lift off without latches, so anyone in the room can open one in a single move, a school-age child included. That same ease means a lid is not a lock. Sets with small parts still go on a shelf that a younger child cannot reach.
Shallow bins for sets and dress-up clothes
Some toys are flat by nature: train track, play mats, a dress-up pile of capes and hats. The Snaplock 28-quart bin is shaped for them. At about 23.5 by 16.125 inches and only 6 inches deep, it lets a set spread out in one layer, and you see all of it through the clear walls.
Built-in handles let you pull it off a shelf with both hands, and deep recesses in the lid seat the next bin on a stack. Black, blue, gray and white lids let you code the bins by child. Our underbed storage shelf carries a 28-quart Snaplock bin of the same size for the space under a bed, a good home for the sets that come out once a week.
Balls and big toys in open tubs
Balls roll out of every bin with a lid, because the lid rarely goes back on. An open tub suits them better. Our rope-handle tubs have no lid to manage, so a child drops a ball in and lifts it out in one move.
The 18-gallon tub is about 21.5 by 21.5 by 16.25 inches, with nylon rope handles that let two people carry it when it is full. It comes in navy, black, blue, pink and purple, which gives each child a tub of their own color. Empty tubs nest, so spares take little room on a garage shelf.
Plush toys, big trucks and outdoor toys fit the same open shape. Set the tub on the floor where the toys get used, not on a shelf above a child's head. A tub at floor level is the one a child will actually fill at cleanup time.
Drawers a child can open
Drawers sort without stacking. A child pulls one out, takes what is needed and pushes it back, and nothing above has to move first. Our drawer carts and towers come in medium and wide bodies with clear drawers, so the contents show from across the room.
The 4-drawer rolling tower stands about 25.5 inches tall on a 12.5 by 14.25 inch base and rolls on casters that turn 360 degrees. Give each drawer one kind of thing: crayons, stickers, play dough tools, card games. For a single shelf, the 2-drawer cart is lower at 9 inches tall and comes two to a pack, so a pair can sit side by side.
A playroom with more to sort can take the large multi-drawer set, two towers in one box with five or six drawers each. Each drawer lifts out with everything in it, which turns a drawer of markers into a tray for the table. That set comes without casters, so the towers stand on their bases.
| Drawer | Inside size |
|---|---|
| Large drawer | 12.31 x 9.92 x 6.85 in |
| Small drawer | 12.31 x 9.92 x 3 in |
Labels a child can read before reading
A bin system lasts only if the toys go back where they came from. Clear walls help, and a picture label on the front end helps more: a drawing of a car, a ball or a crayon tells a four-year-old where things go without a word. Tape a photo of the contents to the drawer front for a child who reads pictures better than letters.
Keep the routine short. Floor tub first, then the low bins, then the drawers. The shelf of small-part sets stays an adult's job. When a pile outgrows its bin, move it up one size instead of squeezing the lid on. Our guide to storage bin sizes explains how quarts on a label compare from one bin to the next.
Lids that latch and the CPSC warning on chests
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned that lids on millions of storage chests and trunks can automatically latch shut, locking children inside and suffocating them. In that warning the agency said it had received reports of 34 deaths since 1996 involving children younger than 18.
For older toy chests, the CPSC advises replacing the lid support with a spring-loaded lid support that keeps the lid open in any position. It also says all toy chests should have ventilation holes that are not blocked by the floor or a wall. The agency calls these key safety provisions of the federal toy standard, ASTM F963-07.
Our catalog has bins, tubs and drawers rather than toy chests, and our larger totes close with latching lids. Treat a big latching tote as storage that adults open, kept in a closet or on a high garage shelf. Give children open tubs and drawers for the toys they put away themselves.
Small parts and children under three
Children's products intended for children under 3 that present a choking, aspiration or ingestion hazard because of small parts are banned, the CPSC says. A small part is any object that fits entirely into the agency's small parts cylinder, without compressing and in any orientation. That cylinder approximates the size of the fully expanded throat of a child under three, and the ban is codified at 16 C.F.R. part 1501.
Trouble starts at home, where an older sibling's set shares a floor with a toddler. In its holiday advice the CPSC says to keep balls and toys with small parts away from children younger than three, and deflated balloons away from children younger than eight. It also advises looking for choking-hazard warnings on the packaging of toys with small parts, balls, marbles or balloons.
- Read the age label and the choking-hazard warning on the box before a toy goes into a shared bin.
- Give the older child's small-part sets a lidded bin of their own, with one lid color that means up high.
- Keep that bin on a shelf above the toddler's reach, never in the floor tub.
- Sweep the floor tub now and then for strays, since a marble or a loose wheel sinks to the bottom.
Every bin named here is part of HOMZ storage.
