When I find a product I love, I tend to buy more than one for myself and to recommend it to all my friends.  What meets my needs so well is not always perfect for a friend, of course, but every so often a product proves so useful and reasonably priced that a ripple effect occurs and I find out about friends of friends of friends running out to get their hands on one!

I found these ClosetMaid Cubeical Organizers at Target this summer just after we moved into a new home.   New spaces called for new systems of organizing books and toys and these cube shelves became my new obsession!

First up was our picture book library.  This shelf is a dark, espresso color.  It sits in our great room amidst pieces of non-Target furniture and blends in seamlessly.  Aside from being stylish (enough for me!) it makes it easy to categorize and store hundreds of books while providing easy access to the shelves and disaster free book removal and, this is key, book re-shelving that even little kids can manage independently.  Gone are the days of the book avalanches we used to deal with!

I have since learned that when I used to buy 5 of the same shirt at Old Navy, varying only in color, that I was committing some sort of wardrobe faux pas according to the experts and I’m sure similar rules apply to furniture.   Apparently I can’t help myself.  I bought a shelf for each of my boys’ bedrooms, in colors to match their dressers (one espresso, one alder) and I chose white for our basement playroom:

These were just too useful, durable and reasonably priced not to buy more!   I love that the kids and their friends can see the toys we have, access them without assistance and put them away themselves.

You can find these awesome shelves in a bevy of colors at Target – the ClosetMaid Cubeicals Cube.

Many thanks to Sarah, in her debut as Contributing Writer at The Good Stuff Guide!  How about a little comment love?

Oh and I’ll race you to Target for these!

But there were these things at my feet and I kept tripping over them.

And I realized I could organize all the live-long day, but if I didn’t tackle these toys  it would all be for nought.

So may I present tons of options for storing the adorable’s loot?  I hope you find some great ideas here at my friend Wendy’s house.  She’s brilliant at this…

Isn’t this unexpected?  It will be perfect for Legos someday.

Cubbies from Pottery Barn are a hit.  Labeled!

Dress Up Costumes hang well on this coat rack.  Hats are in the 3-tiered baskets directly behind.

These 3 drawers hold special toys that would get lost in the shuffle.

Bakugan, party favor toys, etc.

Drawing and workbooks.

Puzzles,

And games.

These storage bins from Target are perfect for keeping pieces together and providing easy access.  My adorables, however, love to upend these when we play here.  Oh, to have neat kids – now that would be something.

The motherload!  This is a hardware store unit repurposed for toy storage.  It’s 5 feet tall and these bins rotate.  I’m telling you, AWESOME.  Just in case you were wondering, it’s solid steel so each of these bins can hold 150 pounds.  This really means that adorables climbing on it cannot tip it over.

Just in case you were wondering: it really is this neat every time we come over to play.  It’s uncanny really.  But her adorables are neat and mine are not and there you have it.

(I think they take after me.)

Home Tour tomorrow!

Manufacture this…

It’s an old hardware store display bin that my friend found somewhere, had it painted and voila!  The world’s greatest toy storage.  In case you can’t tell, it’s about 5 feet tall and these bins rotate.  My jaw literally dropped when I saw it.  Vertical toy storage that doesn’t need a wall… now there’s something.  Hello Pottery Barn Kids people???